The flooded plains of Sylhet, Bangladesh seen from Laitkynsew, Meghalaya, India. Image by insectatorious via Flickr. CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to the effects of climate change in the world, as two-thirds of the country is less than 15 feet above sea level. Floods continue to be the biggest threat as each year about 26,000 square kilometres (10,000 sq mi) or around 18 percent of the country is submerged in water during the rainy season, killing thousands of people and displacing millions. In the third week of June 2022, floods had taken a severe turn in the northeastern region of Bangladesh, especially the areas of Sylhet, Sunamganj and Netrokona. In May 2022, the Sylhet division was inundated with the first floods of the season. But in mid-June the flood was triggered by the record rainfall in the bordering India states of Meghalaya and Assam, as these waters came gushing the downstream, overflowing rivers and streams. Besides the lowlands near the border, major towns and business hubs in this region, such as Sylhet and Sunamganj went under water quickly. The worst #flood in decades has hit #Sylhet and other localities in Bangladesh. People & animals stranded on rooftops. Schools, businesses & houses in undated. Electricity & transport disrupted. @GretaThunberg#Sylhetflood #Bangladesh pic.twitter.com/beETNjTIbX — Fridays For Future – Bangladesh (@FFF_Bangladesh) June 18, 2022 In some areas the water rose to 8 feet, making this the deadliest flood in more than a century. It seemed like a doomsday situation as the power supply was cut off in inundated areas to avoid accidents, leaving millions in the dark. As the power cuts were prolonged, the majority of over 3,600 mobile towers in this region went offline, leaving around 4 million people already suffering a crisis of food and purified drinking water stranded in a communications blackout. The local airport in Sylhet was closed for six days as the runway was under water. The roads and railway connections between the cities and the rest of the country were also cut off, marooning this region. Maria Kibtia, a student from Sylhet, tweets that people in her generation have never seen such a catastrophic flood before. The people of #Sylhet have never seen such a catastrophic #flood before. Most of the peoples living spaces are now under flood water.Electricity & internet supply is unavailable due to flood. #BangladeshArmy carrying out rescue operation. The airport flooded, and flights canceled pic.twitter.com/a3hPXwVvpP — Maria Kibtia 🇧🇩 (@Mariakibtia4065) June 18, 2022 As of Friday, June 24, 68 people had died since the mid-May floods. The speed of the flash flood and the disrupted communications meant that government relief efforts took time to reach the flood-affected. The army and the air force were deployed to distribute emergency aid and rescue flood victims in remote areas. Several political, and social organizations and the general public have come forward in various ways to help the flood victims, as people are not out of the woods yet despite some improvement in the situation. They are complementing government efforts by raising funds from the public and reaching out to the flood-affected population with medicine, clothes, food, water and other necessities. Along with the army, they are helping with rescue and resource distribution efforts. Author Hasan Morshed, from his experience of working directly in the region during the floods of 2004 and 2016, says that rescue operations are most needed during the first few days. He wrote in a Facebook post: তাহলে এই মুহুর্তে মানুষের আসলে প্রয়োজন কী? এই মুহুর্তে মানুষের আসলে প্রয়োজনে- উদ্ধার। মানুষকে আক্রান্ত এলাকা থেকে দ্রুত নিরাপদে সরিয়ে আনা। সরিয়ে আনার পর খাওয়া দাওয়ার চিন্তা। সরিয়ে আনার কাজ কি যে কারো পক্ষে সম্ভব? না সম্ভব না। এর জন্য বিশেষায়িত উদ্যোগ প্রয়োজন। এই বিশেষায়িত উদ্যোগটুকু স্থানীয় প্রশাসনের সহযোগী হিসেবে শুরু করে সেনাবাহিনী। What do the [flood-affected] people need at this moment? At first, people need to be rescued. They need to be evacuated from the affected area quickly. The issue of feeding and sustaining them comes after that. Is it possible for anyone to help in the rescue efforts? Not possible [without logistics and access]. This requires specialized initiative. The army started this specialized initiative to rescue people as an ally of the local administration. Asif Saleh, the executive director of BRAC, the largest non-governmental development organization in Bangladesh, tweeted that all their offices in Sunamganj were flooded: Sylhet flood situation is really bad and is going from bad to worse quickly. We are mobilising support. This is picture that came from our field staff just now. All our offices in Sunamganj are flooded.