Floods continued to devastate India’s northeast and Bangladesh’s eastern region, raising this week’s death toll to 30, according to officials and media reports Friday.
Although rain eased in many parts of Bangladesh and waters began to recede in some areas, weather officials in Dhaka warned that flooding would persist for several more days.
In India’s Tripura state, eight additional fatalities were reported in the past 24 hours, raising the death toll to 19 since Monday, according to a state disaster management official who spoke on condition of anonymity. Earlier reports had indicated 11 deaths.
In Bangladesh, seven more people died in the last 24 hours, Dhaka-based Ekhon TV reported Friday.
Earlier, four deaths were reported due to raging waters flooding downstream from India and incessant rains in the country’s eastern region.
Bangladeshi nongovernmental organization BRAC said in a statement that up to 3 million people remained stranded as fast-moving water inundated vast areas of farmland, destroying livelihoods, homes and crops.
Many people remained without electricity, food or water.
Other media reports indicated that up to 4.5 million people have been affected in the delta nation of 170 million.
Several charity groups have called for help, with a student group collecting dry food, cash, water and medicines at Dhaka University in the capital.
In the Indian state of Tripura, authorities said around 100,000 people had taken shelter in over 400 relief camps, as the floods affected 1.7 million people across eight districts. Chief Minister Manik Saha conducted an aerial survey to assess the situation.
Liakath Ali, BRAC’s director of Climate Change, Urban Development and Disaster Risk Management, said these were the worst floods Bangladesh has seen in three decades.
"Entire villages, all of the families who lived in them, and everything they owned – homes, livestock, farmlands, fisheries – have been washed away.
People had no time to save anything. There are people stranded across the country, and we expect the situation to worsen in many places as rains continue,” he said.
New breaches on a flood protection embankment in the Gomti River in the eastern district of Cumilla inundated about 100 low-lying villages from Thursday night, Dhaka-based The Business Standard newspaper reported Friday. Other districts, including Noakhali, Feni, and Chattogram, were also hard hit.
Volunteers in Cumilla attempted to alert people to move to safety after the breaches on Thursday night, while residents used loudspeakers at neighborhood mosques to relay warnings.
Some victims in the area told television stations they had left their belongings behind and rushed to higher ground for safety.
Abed Ali, a senior relief official in Cumilla district, told The Associated Press (AP) by phone that residents have been asked to move to shelters but are facing difficulties reaching them under the current conditions.
The military used helicopters to deliver relief materials and dry food to affected people on Friday, according to posts on its Facebook page.
