INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
At least 59 people died as floods cut a swatch across north-eastern India and Bangladesh, leaving millions of homes underwater, authorities
flood waters since Thursday, the state disaster management agency said.Lightning strikes triggered by the storms had killed at least 21
people in Bangladesh since Friday afternoon, police officials said
Among them were three children aged 12 to 14 who were struck in the rural town of Nandail, local police chief Mizanur Rahman said.Another
four people were killed when landslides hit their hillside homes in the port city of Chattogram (formerly known as Chittagong), police
inspector Nurul Islam said.Both countries have asked the military to help with the severe flooding, which could worsen because rains were
Photograph: Anadolu Agency/Getty ImagesNearly 7,500 people had been rescued in Assam by mid-afternoon Saturday, its disaster response agency
caught in the flooding.Several train services were cancelled in India amid incessant rains over the past five days
Twitter, after landslides and surging rivers that submerged roads.In Bangladesh, districts near the Indian border have been worst
affected.Water levels in all major rivers across the country were rising, according to the flood forecasting and warning centre in Dhaka,
The country has about 130 rivers.A rickshaw rider navigates a flooded street in Sylhet, Bangladesh
Photograph: Md Rafayat Haque Khan/Zuma Press Wire/REX/ShutterstockThe centre said the flood situation was likely to deteriorate in the
worst-hit Sunamganj and Sylhet districts in the north-eastern region as well as in Lalmonirhat, Kurigram, Nilphamari and Rangpur districts
in northern Bangladesh.Schools have been turned into relief shelters to house entire villages inundated in a matter of hours by rivers that
suspended for three days as flood waters have almost reached the runway, according to Hafiz Ahmed, the airport manager.Last month, a
north-eastern regions, destroying crops and damaging homes and roads
The country was just starting to recover from that shock when fresh rains flooded the same areas again this week.Bangladesh, a nation of 160
million people, is low-lying and faces threats from climate change-related natural disasters such as floods and cyclones
decade or so if global warming persists at the present rate.With Agence France-Presse
This article first appeared/also appeared in theguardian.com
