Non-stop rainfall with thunder and gusty winds started on Friday night and continued till yesterday evening affecting normal lives in Barisal.
Prodip Kumar, officer of Kalapara weather radar station of the district, said the weather office has asked to hoist weather signal number 3 in coastal areas and signal number 1 at the inland river ports.
Barisal weather office sources said the rainfall, started around 10:30pm and continued until the filling of this report in the evening without breaks. It has crossed more than 59 millimetres in 9-hours from 6am to 3pm.
Lowland areas near river and canal banks affected by flash floods have caused its dwellers immense suffering.
Busy roads of the town were almost empty, as most of the people had confined themselves to their houses.
Makeshift shops, hawkers markets remained closed during most of the day, while very few customers’ visited kitchen markets as people refused to come out of their homes unless it was an emergency. Attendance at educational, religious institutions, socio-cultural-political programmes was also very poor.
At the same time, people who had no choice but to leave their homes for their workplaces had to suffer due to a shortage of transportation.
Road transport operators and passengers said road communication in the Kuakata tourist zone was often disrupted as ferry gangways were submerged due to excessive rain, while road transports were seen plying the risky Barisal-Faridpur route and the Barisal-Dhaka highway.
