Monsoon storms in Bangladesh and India have killed at least 59 people and unleashed devastating floods that left millions of others stranded, officials said Saturday.
SYLHET, Bangladesh – Floods are a regular menace to millions of people in low-lying Bangladesh, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency, ferocity and unpredictability.
“The whole village went under water by early Friday and we all got stranded,” said Lokman, whose family lives in Companiganj village. “The water rose so quickly we couldn’t bring any of our things,” she said. “And how can you cook anything when everything is underwater?” Another four people died when landslides hit their hillside homes in the port city of Chittagong, police inspector Nurul Islam told AFP.
Eighteen people had died in flood waters or landslides around the state since Thursday, the agency reported, with nearly 7,500 people rescued on Saturday by mid-afternoon. The flooding forced Bangladesh’s third-largest international airport in Sylhet to shut down on Friday.