Troops, called out to rescue flood victims, tried to reach some of the worst-affected areas in Sylhet and Sunamganj with an estimated 30 lakh people waiting to be rescued in the two districts amid a gushing onrush of water from the upstream in India experiencing heavy rains on Friday.

Authorities said that the north-eastern districts were in the grip of one of the worst flooding in history, with Sylhet and Sunamganj, including their cities and towns, almost entirely deluged by floodwaters amid forecasts of the flooding worsening over the next three days.

The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre on Friday warned that a total of 18 districts in the Brahmaputra, Padma and Meghna basins were likely to experience flooding in the third and fourth week of this month.

Floods have already rendered Sunamganj cut-off from the rest of the country, with water overflowing its roads with huge current, prompting a suspension of the national electricity grid operation in the region since Thursday night.

The operation of the Osmani International Airport, Sylhet has also been put off for three days at 3:37pm on Friday after floodwater started flowing over the runway and parts of the airport.

Stranded flood victims in Sunamganj and parts of Sylhet told their relatives by the phone of huddling on rooftops, soaking in rain, as floodwaters passed just under the eaves.

By the afternoon on Friday, flood victims in Sunamganj who had called earlier for help were unreachable even by the phone for they either ran out of charge or because of very poor network operation.

Even the ground floors of some 700 flood shelters opened in Sylhet and Sunamganj for rescued flood victims were under water.

In Sylhet, troops along with government Power Development Board officials dumped geo bags to prevent the huge onrush of water from entering a power plant and transmission grid sub-station, the source of power for the entire Sylhet district.

Authorities already confirmed that more than 10 lakh consumers have been without electricity in Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrakona.

This is the second spell of flash floods of this magnitude experienced by the  north-eastern districts in less than a month.

‘Our first priority is to save lives at risk,’ Muhammad Mosharrof Hossain, divisional commissioner, Sylhet, told New Age, adding that no less than 30 lakh people needed to be rescued immediately.

‘If rain continued as forecasted, we may need to evacuate as many as 50 lakh people,’ he said.

While troops moved in dozens of speed boats to reach their destinations, local government authorities loaned them boats from locals in strengthening the rescue bid in the sea of turbulent water.

The rescue efforts on Friday were mainly carried out by the local administration while troops headed to targeted destinations. An Inter Services Public Relations official told New Age in the afternoon that troops were fighting many odds in reaching flood-affected areas.

‘The situation is so bad that even relief could not be distributed on Friday,’ said disaster management and relief state minister Enamur Rahman, dubbing that the flood is the worst in seven decades.

Government officials in the affected areas said that the flood washed away roads, houses and other infrastructures while sweeping cropland and residential premises with enormous quantities of mud and sediment.

Even if the government manages to rescue the huge number of marooned people, the challenge is to supply them with food and drinking water, as there is  almost no place to cook food and almost all drinking water sources went under water, first responders to the disaster said.

Against the grim backdrop of the flood, authorities on Friday postponed the SSC and equivalent examinations scheduled to begin on next Sunday. The authorities of the Shahjalal University of Science and Technology also suspended its academic activities, including classes, because of the flooding.

‘Floodwater is waist-deep at some points of the university. Students and teachers are completely stranded,’ said Javed Kaiser, who teaches anthropology at the SUST.

The New Age correspondent in Lalmonirhat reported four deaths after people were crushed under their houses while relocating as the flood situation worsened in northern districts as well.

The deceased have been identified as Abdul Quddus, 51, Solaiman Ali, 51, Nikhil Roy, 29, and Arman Sheikh, 59. They were from Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kurigram.

Over 22,000 people have taken shelter on roads after being driven out of their houses by floods between Thursday and Friday in Rangpur division.

The Rangpur divisional commissioner’s office said that 3.5 lakh people were stranded in 28 upazilas of eight districts due to the flooding.

Water Development Board officials also confirmed collapses of nine flood protection embankments in the division.

The north and north-eastern regions of Bangladesh drain vast quantities of water from the mountainous terrain across the border in India. The hilly areas upstream have been receiving very heavy to extreme rains for over a week.

In the 24 hours until 9:00am on Friday, extreme rain was recorded in the upstream, with Cherrapunji logging record 972 mm of rain, according to the Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre.

The rainfall recorded by Meghalaya was 677 per cent above what is the average normal for the reporting period, the India Meteorological Department said.

The state of Assam recorded 311 per cent excess rain compared with what is the average normal, followed by Arunachal Pradesh recording 279 per cent above-normal rain, Sikkim 253 per cent above-normal rain, and Manipur 22 per cent above-normal rain, according to the IMD.

The IMD predicted isolated extreme rains continuing in Assam, Meghalaya, Sikkim and West Bengal through Sunday.

The FFWC warned that the flood situation in Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrakona, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kurigram might deteriorate today while major rivers such as the Jamuna, Padma, Teesta, Surma, Kushiyara and Dharla might continue swelling through tomorrow.

At least 10 rivers flowed above their danger marks at 13 points on Friday, the FFWC said, with Jadukata flowing 154 cm above its danger mark.

The Surma flowed one metre above its danger marks at two points.

The other rivers running above their danger levels are the Brahmaputra, Dudhkumar, Dharla, Teesta, Sarigowain, Old Surma, Someshwari and Bhugai.

Of the 109 river-gauging stations operated by the FFWC, 95 recorded rise in the water levels of rivers.

Extreme rain continued in catchment areas of almost all these rivers inside Bangladesh as well.

The FFWC recorded the country’s highest rainfall of 407 mm at Moheshkhola, Moulvibazar in the 24 hours reporting period, while 375 mm rainfall was recorded in Sunamganj, 320 mm at Lorergarh, 268 mm at Jaflong, 225 mm at Kaunia and 210 mm at Durgapur, Netrakona.

According to the FFWC, the 18 districts under flood watch are Gaibandha, Jamalpur, Bogura, Sirajganj, Tangail, Manikganj, Faridpur, Rajbari, Munshiganj, Shariatpur, Pabna in addition to  Sylhet, Sunamganj, Netrakona, Lalmonirhat, Nilphamari, Rangpur and Kurigram.

The Bangladesh Meteorological Department predicted rain at most places of Bangladesh today.