The downpour left a significant number of dwelling houses and the MAG Osmani Medical College Hospital compound flooded and waterlogged.
Director of the hospital Brigadier General Md Mahbubur Rahman Bhuiyan told the newsmen that all the rooms of the hospital buildings and medical college ground floor as well as the main gate were inundated by the downpour in the early morning. Patients as well as the hospital employees and officials are facing much trouble on the waterlogged hospital premises, he added.
As it started raining, the pathology department and wards no. 26, 27 and 31 of the hospital were flooded with knee-deep water in the afternoon.
The authorities have taken no effective steps to resolve the problems since the flood that occurred years ago, he said, adding had anything been done, the situation would not have been like this.
Among other worst-affected neighborhoods are Upashahar, Taltola, Sheikhghat, Kazirbazar, Mirabazar, Sobhanighat, Jatarpur, Tero Ratan and Laldighirpar.
The city experienced 224 mm rainfall during the last 24 hours while the Meghalaya in India experienced 122 mm rainfall at the same time, informed Executive Engineer of Bangladesh Water Development Board, Sylhet, Dipok Ranjan Das.
Around 90 per cent area of the city reels under water due to the inundation.
He also told the FE that since the Surma River was already swelling, the water cannot recede from the city, keeping dwelling houses in a vast area submerged.
The Surma was flowing 13 cm above the danger mark in the city and over 59 cm at Kanaighat point while the Kushiyara River was flowing 44 cm above the danger mark at its entry point at Amolshid on the border in the morning.
At Sheola point, it was flowing 17 cm above the redline, the official added.
The Indian River Barak flows into Bangladesh and bifurcates assuming the names Surma and Kushiyara at Amolshid in Zakiganj upazila in a meandering way.
Due to not dredging for long at Amolshid, shoals have emerged there disturbing the river's natural flow, sources informed.
UNB adds: About 90 per cent of Sylhet city, including Upashahar, Jatarpur, Mendibagh, Jamtola, Taltala, Sheikhghat, Kalapara, Majumdar Para, Laldighirpar, Topkhana, Kazir Bazar, Terratan and Sobhanighat areas and Osmani Medical College Hospital were submerged.
Due to the flood situation, Monday's examinations in various educational institutions in the city were postponed. The city's residents demanded that the Surma River and the adjacent canals and streams in Sylhet be dredged urgently to get rid of the situation.
According to the district administration, since May 29, flash floods and heavy rains originating from upstream in India have affected 643,470 people in Sylhet's Gowainghat, Kanaighat, Jaintiapur, Companiganj, Jokiganj, Beanibazar, Golapganj, and Sylhet Sadar upazilas.
Some 547 shelters have been opened in the affected areas, with 3,739 people taking refuge in these centers.
Meanwhile, over a hundred families are staying in two shelters in Sylhet city, according to Sajlu Laskar, public relations officer of Sylhet City Corporation.
He said food is being provided for them and that the flood situation is being closely monitored.
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