Torrential rains and flooding have submerged a third of Pakistan and killed over 1,100 people, including 380 children as the United Nations (UN) appealed for aid for what it described as an "unprecedented climate catastrophe."
On Wednesday, army helicopters flew sorties over cut-off areas in Pakistan's mountainous north and rescue parties fanned out across waterlogged plains in the south as misery mounted for millions trapped by the worst floods in the country's history.
Monsoon rains have submerged a third of Pakistan, claiming at least 1,160 lives since June and unleashing powerful floods that have washed away swathes of vital crops and damaged or destroyed more than a million homes.
UN chief Antonio Guterres called it "a monsoon on steroids" as he launched an international appeal on Tuesday for $160 million in emergency funding.
Officials say more than 33 million people are affected -- one in every seven Pakistanis -- and it will cost more than $10 billion to rebuild.
The focus for now, however, is reaching tens of thousands still stranded on hills and in valleys in the north, as well as remote villages in the south and west.
Climate Change Minister Sherry Rehman described the country as "like a fully soaked sponge," incapable of absorbing any more rain.
Finance Minister Miftah Ismail said the government was considering loosening restrictions on the largely closed border with India to let in supplies of vegetables and other food.
"More than one international agency has approached the government to allow them to bring food items from India through the land border," Ismail said on Twitter.
He said the government will decide whether to allow that based on supply conditions and after consulting its coalition partners and key stakeholders.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said that hundreds of thousands acres of crops have been washed away.
"We have lost rice crop. Fruits and vegetables have been destroyed," he told reporters after his trip to the flooded areas in the north.
General Akhtar Nawaz, chief of the national disaster agency, has said more than two million acres of agricultural land were flooded.