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Feni is reeling from one of the worst floods in recent memory amid downstream runoff from India and unrelenting rain.
Saving the lives of the 350,000 people trapped by the water in the townships in three Upazilas in the district has become the main priority, reports bdnews24.com.
Flood victims say they have never seen such intense flooding. The situation is continuing to deteriorate as nearly 95 per cent of the Fulgazi, Parshuram, and Chagalnaiya Upazilas are under water.
Road connections have been severed and the power is down. Mobile networks are down in most areas too.
Twenty-four boats of the Army and Coast Guard are engaged in flood rescue operations. The BGB, Fire Service, and volunteers have joined the effort too.
But the loss of communication and strong currents are hampering rescue efforts. As time passes, people are becoming more desperate to escape the flooding.
On Thursday morning, the water in Feni’s Muhuri River was flowing 100 cm above the danger line.
More than 50 villages in the Sadar Union, Anandapur, Munshirhat, and Amjadhat Union have been flooded.
Similarly, over 50 villages in Parshuram’s Mirzanagar, Chithalia, Bakshmahmud, and municipal town areas have been inundated.
Several villages in Chagalnaiya’s Pathan Nagar, Radhanagar and Shuvopur Unions are waterlogged.
Roads, ponds and crop lands have been submerged in the flooding. In some areas, the water level has reached the roofs of the houses.
Feni Additional Deputy Commissioner (General) Raihan Mehbub told bdnews24.com, “The flood situation in three Upazilas is dire. Most areas are under water. Also, many areas in Feni Sadar, Sonagazi and Daganbhuiya Upazilas are affected.”
Stating that 350,000 people are trapped by the water in three Upazilas, he said: "The Army, Navy, BGB, local people and students of the Anti-discrimination Student Movement are working to rescue the people trapped by the water."
From Wednesday night to Thursday morning, about 30,000 people were rescued and taken to shelters, the additional deputy commissioner said.
Tall buildings at all educational institutions in Feni are being used as shelters.
A government official said that water has also accumulated in Feni city and most Upazilas do not have mobile networks or electricity.
Ismail Hossain came to a hotel on Station Road in Feni city with five family members from the Mirzanagar area of Parshuram.
He said, "There was tension throughout the night. The people are in pain at the devastation from the floods. I was forced to leave the house to save my life with only a few clothes.”
The Feni Water Development Board says that to protect localities from runoff and flooding, 40 gates of the Muhuri regulator built on the Boro Feni River in Sonagazi Upazila have been opened to protect the locality from landslides and floods.
Locals said that, at the beginning of July, the water of the Muhuri, the Kahua and the Silonia rivers rose and breached their banks in 15 places. Earlier this month, more than 100 villages were flooded after the dam collapsed at 11 other places after repairs.
The first round of flooding led to over Tk 300 million in damages to infrastructure, rice, crops and fish. Fifteen days later, the area was flooded again.
In addition to the 26 dams that were breached in the first round of flooding, another dam has been breached too. Authorities believe the damages this time could also number in the hundreds of millions.
Selina Akhter, deputy commissioner of Feni, told reporters that the Army, Navy, and BGB are working to rescue the flood victims. District and Upazila officials are also in the field.
She said that dry food has been distributed to more than 2,000 families. Flood-affected people are being brought to safe shelters in areas that have been heavily flooded.