DHAKA, 17 July 2004 — Millions of people huddled together in makeshift flood relief shelters in Bangladesh yesterday as the death toll climbed to 37 in the worst deluge the country has seen in more than a decade, officials said.

Days of heavy rains pounding the northern and eastern regions resulted in tropical flooding that stranded more than three million people in flat alluvial villages isolated by the swirling waters.

Civil defense rescuers said the sharply rising Brahmaputra River smashed a protective dam overnight erasing 10 villages and forcing 30,000 people to flee their dwellings in northern Sirajganj district.

The rain-swollen Surma and Kushiyara rivers yesterday flooded new areas in the worst-hit Sylhet province that borders India’s northeastern Assam state also gripped by severe flooding.

Two fresh deaths by drowning were reported from Sylhet yesterday and another person was electrocuted by a snapped live wire in neighboring Netrokona district adding to the overnight death toll of flood-related mishaps.

There is a serious shortage of dry land to accommodate more flood refugees seeking shelter in Sunamganj district, the area’s civil administrator Zafar Siddique said.

Siddique ordered all schools to close to make room for a rising tide of flood-stricken families fleeing their inundated homes.

The government’s Disaster Management Office yesterday said floods triggered by an active monsoon engulfed 24 out of 64 administrative districts submerging one-fourth of the country.

Water gushing down the hills from neighboring upstream Indian states of Assam, West Bengal and Bihar, which are also pummeled by the tropical downpours, swelled the Brahmaputra, Ganges and Meghna rivers in Bangladesh inundating muddy villages, rice plains, fish farms and rural roads.

The National Flood Warning and Monitoring Center said if heavy tropical showers set off by monsoon cloudbursts continue through the week, flood waters were likely to reach the outskirts of the capital Dhaka.

Rescuers yesterday continued to battle raging waters and logistical problems to reach thousands of families stranded on isolated hamlets across the flooded countryside without fresh water and food.

Bangladeshi officials warned that the floods could worsen in the next two or three days reaching the levels of 1988 when three-fourths of the country went under water.

Recurrent floods have caused serious damage to agriculture, the economic mainstay of the overcrowded poor country. Estimated losses in the floods will run into millions of dollars, according to reports.

A spokesman for the state-run railways said train services were disrupted in the inundated districts as parts of the railroad were washed away by the deluge.

The season’s first serious flooding in June left 19 people dead and 100,000 homeless in Bangladesh.