At least six people, three each from two families, including four children, were killed in two separate landslides triggered by extremely heavy rain that continued in the coastal district of Cox鈥檚 Bazar since Thursday afternoon.
The deceased, identified as Akhi Akter, 25, and her daughters Jannat Naima, 7, and Latifa Islam, 2, were a family from Jhilongja in Cox鈥檚 Bazar.聽
Dolon Acharya, senior station manager of the fire service and civil defence station in Cox鈥檚 Bazar, said that the family was buried after the hill looming over their house collapsed on it about 2:00am Friday.
Local residents managed to pull out Mizanur Rahman alive but his family could not be saved.
The three other deceased, identified as siblings Abdur Rahim, 30, Abdul Hafez, 10, and Abdul Wahed, 8, were from a Rohingya refugee family from Rohingya camp no-14 in Ukhia鈥檚 Hakimpara.聽
The Office of the Refugee Relief and Repatriation Commissioner said that at least three houses were destroyed in landslides in the Rohingya camp.
With the new deaths, landslides triggered by heavy rainfall killed 25 people since June, including 13 Rohingya refugees. Of them, eight Ronhingyas were killed in the landslide of June 19.
The incessant rain, caused by a depression over the Bay of Bengal that started moving onto land on Friday morning, set Cox鈥檚 Bazar district鈥檚 second highest rainfall record of 436mm in the 24 hours until 6:00pm on Friday.
The heavy downpour that began about 3:00pm Thursday still continued till this report was filed at 8:00pm Friday without a break, submerging most of the district鈥檚 nine upazilas.
The district鈥檚 highest rainfall record of 467mm was logged on June 25 in 2015 with the district鈥檚 highest rainfall data being available since 1981, said the Bangladesh Meteorological Department.
Since the heavy rain started, in the 30 hours until 6:00pm, Cox鈥檚 Bazar recorded 561mm of rainfall.
Almost the entire landscape in the urban towns and rural areas in the district went under water by Friday afternoon, leaving thousands of tourists stranded and risking all road, railway and air communications to become snapped.聽
鈥楥ox鈥檚 Bazar is likely to see a reduction in rainfall from tomorrow as the low moves further inland, bringing rain to Chattogram and Dhaka,鈥� meteorologist Shaheenul Islam told 抖阴精品 on Friday.
Saiful Boshor, a Rohingya聽 community leader, meanwhile, at the Rohingya camp no-26 at Shalbagan in Ukhia, described the situation, 鈥楾he Rohingya camp has become unlivable with knee-deep water inside the shelters.鈥�
鈥楾here is no way of cooking. Children and elderly are suffering the worst,鈥� he said.
Cox鈥檚 Bazar airport manager Golam Mortuza said that several flights were delayed due to heavy rainfall on Friday.
The highway police, however, said that vehicular movement on the Dhaka-Cox鈥檚 Bazar highway remained unaffected.
A heavy rainfall warning with chances of it triggering landslide in the Chattogram division has been in effect since Thursday. The heavy rainfall warning has been issued for Dhaka, Chattogram, Khulna and Barishal divisions for 72 hours on Thursday.
The BMD also issued Number-3 warning signal for all the four maritime ports of Chattogram, Mongla, Payra and Cox鈥檚 Bazar. All fishing boats and trawlers have been advised to remain in shelter until further notice.
Forecasters warned that the low might bring heavy rainfall to coastal districts such as Feni and Noakhali over the next two days. The low pressure is likely to move over land all the way to Bangladesh鈥檚 upstream in Tripura, dumping rain over vast swathes of land.
The forecast spelled bad news for the coastal people for the disaster was making its way towards them right after another one. In the last quarter of August, a deadly flash flood swept over eastern, south-eastern and north-eastern Bangladesh killing over 70 people.
The Flood Forecasting and Warning Centre in a bulletin on Friday afternoon said that heavy rainfall over the next two days might cause the rivers in Chattogram, Khulna and Barishal to rapidly swell.
Low lying areas in eight districts of Chattogram, Cox鈥檚 Bazar, Bandarban, Khagrachhari, Feni, Cumilla, Noakhali and Lakkshmipur faced flooding risks, the bulletin said.
Heavy to very heavy rainfall was recorded in Barishal and Khulna divisions as well on Friday.
While the coastal region saw very heavy rain, the northern region was swept by a heatwave. A mild to moderate heatwave was blowing over the entire division of Rangpur and the districts of Bogura, Sirajganj and Sylhet.
Bangladesh鈥檚 highest maximum day temperature of 37.9C was recorded in Tetulia.
The BMD, however, predicted the day temperature to drop by 3C today.
