TEHRAN — The authorities on Monday ordered the immediate evacuation of flood-stricken cities in western Iran as rivers burst banks, dams overflowed and vast areas were cut off from communication.

The highest level of alert was declared in Lorestan Province with four or five cities “completely critical,” state television reported from Khorramabad, the provincial capital.

“In Khorramabad the water has risen by as much as three meters in parts,” the television broadcast said, with reports elsewhere of areas “completely submerged with residents stranded on their rooftops.”

The Red Crescent’s provincial director, Sarem Rezaee, said his organization had lost contact with much of the region.

“Telephones are not working, our radio communications are down,” he was quoted by state television as saying. “At this moment we have no news of other cities and villages.”

Aircraft that could be deployed to help the affected area were unable to take off because of the bad weather. “We have requested emergency help from neighboring provinces but at the present no one can do anything,” Mr. Rezaee was quoted as saying.

The airport in Khorramabad was flooded, with images showing water submerging the runway and cutting the province’s main air link to the rest of the country.

The authorities in Lorestan ordered evacuations in many regions, bringing in the armed forces to forcibly remove those who did not comply, local Iranian news media reported.

The authorities said the cities of Pol-e-Dokhtar and Mamulan were already half submerged, with one fatality reported in Mamulan.

Every village in the vicinity of the two cities had been surrounded by floodwaters, while all five dams in Lorestan had reached capacity and four of them were overflowing.

Numerous rivers had burst their banks and landslides blocked many roads, said the reports. News outlets showed images of collapsed bridges and oil and gas pipelines destroyed by the flooding. The main railway line linking Tehran to the south of the country had also been blocked by the flood.

This is the third major flood to hit Iran in the past two weeks after heavy rainfalls in the mostly arid country, which had endured a prolonged drought until this year.

The first flood struck the northeast of the country on March 19 and the second hit the west and southwest on March 25, with a combined reported death toll of 45 people.

There was no immediate respite from the latest flooding, again striking the west and southwest, following heavy rain that was forecast to continue into Tuesday.

Aside from Lorestan, a half dozen other provinces are facing flood emergencies. Twenty-three of Iran’s 31 provinces have been affected and could face floods.

The reservoirs of many dams have reached full capacity, forcing emergency discharges, as much as 1,800 cubic meters per second in some cases, to prevent them from breaking.

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