The wedding preparations were in full swing, the groom was ready to fly home to Pakistan, but then disaster struck, and Noor Muhammad found his nuptials replaced by 24 funerals.
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Two days before his wedding, he had a long phone call with his mother, hours before devastating floods in Pakistan wiped out a huge portion of the family.
"I cannot explain how happy she was," he said standing by the rubble of his family's large 36-room house, perched on the bank of a floodwater channel in Qadir Nagar village.
The village in mountainous Buner district has been the worst hit by recent massive rain in the country, accounting for over 200 deaths out of nearly 400 in floods in the northwest since August 15.
"Everything was finished," sobbed Muhammad, 25, as mourners sat at his damaged house to offer condolences.
There was nothing left when he got home except for rubble and heavy rocks, which swept down from the mountains along with mud and raging flood waters.
"A huge flood came, it swept away everything, home, mother, sister, brother, my uncle, my grandfather and children," he said.
Muhammad works as a labourer in Malaysia. He arrived at the Islamabad airport on August 15 to drive home, where his wedding preparations were underway for two days later. Instead, he attended 24 funerals.
His father and another brother survived because they had gone to pick him up at the airport.
His fiancée survived. Her home was away from the worst of the damage.
The flash floods, triggered by the worst of this year's monsoon and cloudbursts, started in the mountainous northwest.
Authorities have said the longer spell of heavy rain and rare cloudbursts was rooted in climate change.
An unknown number of people remain missing, with dead bodies still being recovered, officials said.
The overall death toll from monsoon rains stood at 776, according to the National Disaster Management Authority, which said more than 25,000 people had been rescued in the northwest.
Officials have warned of more storms ahead, with another two spells of monsoon rain expected until September 10.
Buner received more than 150 mm of rain within an hour, triggered by a cloudburst in the single most destructive event in this monsoon season.
A cloudburst is a rare phenomenon where more than 100mm of rainfall occurs within an hour in a small area.
Australian Associated Press
