| Translate This News In |
|---|
According to officials, monsoon storms in Bangladesh have killed nearly 25 people and caused devastating floods that have stranded more than four million others. Floods are a constant threat to millions of people in Bangladesh’s low-lying areas, but experts say climate change is growing their frequency, ferocity, and unpredictability. Over the last week, torrential rains have inundated vast swaths of the country’s northeast, with forces stationed to evacuate households cut off from neighboring cities.
Schools have been converted into relief shelters, housing entire villages inundated in a matter of a few hours by rivers that burst their banks unexpectedly.
“By early Friday, the entire village was under water, and we were all stranded,” said Lokman, whose family still lives in Companyganj village.
“After a day of waiting on our roof, a neighbour came to our rescue with a makeshift boat. My mother stated that she has never seen so much floods in her life “The 23-year-old continued.
Another woman saved from the rising waters, Asma Akter, said her family had gone two days without eating.
“The water rose so quickly that we couldn’t bring anything,” she explained. “How do you cook anything when everything is submerged?”
Storm-related lightning strikes have killed at least 21 people in South Asia since Friday afternoon, according to police officials.
Three children aged 12 to 14 were among those killed when lightning struck the rural town of Nandail on Friday, according to police commander Mizanur Rahman.
Another four people have been killed when mudslides hit their hillside homes in Chittagong, according to police inspector Nurul Islam.
‘The situation is dire.’
Flooding worsened on Saturday morning after a brief respite from rains the previous afternoon, according to Sylhet region chief government superintendent Mosharraf Hossain.
“The situation is dreadful. Flood waters have stranded over four million people “Hossain added that almost the whole region was without power.
Flooding forced the closure of Bangladesh’s third largest airport terminal in Sylhet on Friday.
Flooding was expected to worsen over the next two days due to heavy rains in Bangladesh and upriver in India’s northeast.
