1954 : On August 2, Dhaka district went under water. On August 1 flood peak of the Jamuna river at Sirajganj was 14.22m and on August 30 flood peak of the Ganges river at Hardinge bridge was 14.91m.
1966 : One of the most serious floods that ever visited Dhaka occurred on 8 June 1966. The flood level was almost the highest in the history of Sylhet district too. A storm on the morning of 12 June 1966 made the situation grave. About 25% of houses were badly damaged, 39 people died and 10,000 cattle were lost, and about 1,200,000 people were affected. On September 15 Dhaka city became stagnant due to continuous rainfall for 52 hours, which resulted in pools of water 1.83m deep for about 12 hours.
1968 : Severe flood in Sylhet district and about 700,000 people were badly affected.
1969 : Chittagong district fell in the grip of flood caused by heavy rainfall. Crops and valuable property were damaged.
1974 : In Mymensingh about 10,360 sq km area was flooded. People and cattle were severely affected and more than 100,000 houses were destroyed.
1987 : Catastrophic flood occurred in July-August. Affected 57,300 sq km (about 40% of the total area of the country) and estimated to be a once in 30-70 year event. Excessive rainfall both inside and outside of the country was the main cause of the flood. The seriously affected regions were on the western side of the Brahmaputra, the area below the confluence of the Ganges and the Brahmaputra, considerable areas north of Khulna and finally some areas adjacent to the Meghalaya hills.
1988 : Catastrophic flood occurred in August-September. Inundated about 82,000 sq km (about 60% of the area) and its return period is estimated to be 50-100 years. Rainfall together with synchronisation of very high flows of all the three major rivers of the country in only three days aggravated the flood. Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, was severely affected. The flood lasted 15 to 20 days.
1993 : Severe rains all over the country, thousands of hectares of crops went under water. Twenty-eight districts were flooded.
1998 : Over two-thirds of the total area of the country was flooded. It compares with the catastrophic flood of 1988 so far as the extent of flooding is concerned. A combination of heavy rainfall within and outside the country, synchronisation of peak flows of the major rivers and a very strong backwater effect coalesced into a mix that resulted in the worst flood in recorded history. The flood lasted for more than two months.
2000 : Five southwestern districts of Bangladesh bordering India were devastated by flood rendering nearly 3 million people homeless. The flood was caused due to the outcome of the failure of small river dykes in West Bengal that were overtopped by excessive water collected through heavy downpour. |
