Flash floods: ‘We had no clue what was coming’

When Tuhin Rana heard last week that his remote village in Noakhali was being flooded, he called his parents and wife who just gave birth to a daughter and told them to stay safe.
The private company employee in Dhaka thought his family members, natives of the coastal region, would know how to cope with the disaster.
On Thursday, he found out that their phones were unreachable and read about the devastation the floods were causing in his village.

Yesterday, he reached his home after a nearly 18-hour journey, which does not take more than five hours under normal circumstances.
“I found my elderly parents sitting on the bed of our hut to stay dry. They had not eaten cooked food in two days. My wife and newborn were taken to a safer place by the neighbours. There is still one-feet deep water in the house,” he told this correspondent.
“They are drinking unsafe water. Water in the hand pumps is not clean. I am feeling helpless. They had no idea what was coming.”
Most residents of the area took shelter at Batakandi Model School and College. But they also do not have enough food, water and sanitation, locals said.
“Some people set up kitchens and provided food. But they ran out of money. Due to the lack of boats in the area, barely any relief goods reach us.”
Like this family, millions of people in Noakhali, Feni, and Cumilla districts are suffering.
Eight upazilas of Noakhali are still flooded. Due to a bout of downpour yesterday, the situation worsened.
In Feni, several remote upazilas remained inaccessible by road yesterday, even as the waters were receding. Mobile networks have not yet been fully restored, and many areas are still without electricity.
Locals said there is now a severe shortage of drinking water and food.
Meanwhile, three new deaths — one each in Noakhali, Cumilla, and Rangamati — were reported yesterday, taking the toll from the floods to 21. Two people went missing in Moulvibazar.
People started returning to their homes as the situation in Brahmanbaria, Laxmipur, Sylhet, Moulvibazar, Habiganj, Khagrachhari, Chattogram, and Cox’s Bazar was improving.
According to the Ministry of Disaster Management and Relief, the floods marooned over 10 lakh people in 11 districts and the total number of those directly affected was over 52 lakh.
At least 73 upazilas have been severely impacted. The authorities opened 3,654 shelters, providing refuge to over 4 lakh people.