OCHA Situation Report No. 5
Bangladesh: Cyclone Sidr
21 November 2007


Source: UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

This situation report is based on information received from the
Bangladesh Disaster Management Information Centre, the UN Resident
Coordinator's Office Bangladesh, the Disaster Emergency Response Group
(DER), UN Agencies, UN OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific
(ROAP) and media sources.

I. Situation in Bangladesh

1. Cyclone Sidr (Category IV) hit Bangladesh on the evening of 15
November. The cyclone struck offshore islands at 1830 hours and made
landfall across the southern coast from Cox's Bazaar in the east toward
the Satkhira districts in the west at 2030 hours local time, with wind
speeds of up to 240 kilometres per hour. The storm caused extensive
damage to the southern districts as it moved north across central
Bangladesh.

2. More than 4 million people in 28 southern districts are now known to
have been directly affected by the cyclonic storms. As of 20 November,
the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) official reports indicated an
increasing death toll of 3,447 people, with a further 2,062 missing and
6,611 injured. The GoB estimates that over 300,511 homes were destroyed
and a further 626,088 houses were partially damaged. An estimated
870,000 acres of crops were damaged. Extensive damage to roads and
public buildings is also evident, including 792 educational institutions
destroyed and another 4,393 partially damaged. The worst affected areas
include Bagerhat, Barguna, Barisal, Bhola, Gopalgonj, Jhalkhati, Khulna,
Mandaripur, Patuakhali, Pirojpur, Satkhira and Shariatpur districts.

3. A series of assessments are currently underway and more detailed
information on the scale of the needs is expected to be made available
in the coming days. The Disaster Emergency and Response (DER) group
coordinated the pre-positioning of UN agencies and NGOs in affected
areas in advance of the cyclone, allowing initial assessment data to be
made available in the immediate aftermath of the disaster.

4. On the basis of early assessment data, priority needs include food,
clean water supply, diarrhoea treatment and shelter assistance. The
longer term perspective requires rehabilitation of livelihoods,
infrastructure, health and educational services and increased shelter
capacity.

II. National Response in Bangladesh

5. To date, the Chief Government Adviser has allocated 100 million taka
for relief and house construction in 11 districts. The Deputy
Commissioners are procuring and collecting sufficient amount of dry food
to respond to the current situation. The Ministry of Food and Disaster
Management (MoFDM) has allocated 4,000 metric tonnes of rice, 7,500
tents, 18,000 blankets and 30 million taka as gratuitous relief grants,
to date. A special fund was established allocating 350 million taka for
housing construction grants. 13,000 bundles of corrugated iron sheets
are ready for immediate distribution. 732 medical teams are working in
the affected areas. The Bangladesh Armed Forces Division deployed
several aircrafts and a number of helicopters. Six Bangladesh Navy ships
are conducting rescue, evacuation, relief and reconnaissance operations
in the worst storm affected areas. While more roads are opened, the
military continues to bring relief items to the affected people by
planes, boats and helicopters.

6. The Government of Bangladesh held the Disaster and Emergency Response
group (DER) meetings on 15 November and 18 November. The next DER
meeting will be held on 22 November.

7. The Government of Bangladesh's early warning and preparedness systems
were activated prior to the cyclone making landfall, which greatly
reduced the humanitarian impact of this disaster. Preparedness measures
included the evacuation of approximately 3.2 million people. Alarms were
raised and relief and rescue items were stockpiled.

III. International Response in Bangladesh

8. The United Nations, IFRC, and NGOs, including Save the Children,
World Vision International, CARE, Caritas, OXFAM, Islamic Relief, ACT,
Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), Muslim Aid, CONCERN,
Plan and ActionAid continue to provide support to the Government of
Bangladesh through extensive emergency response mechanisms, including
mobilizing in-country staff and pre-positioned relief stocks across
southern Bangladesh.

9. Reports from the UN needs assessments of the storm-affected area is
expected on 21 November. On 19 November, UN Heads of Agencies visited
the worst affected districts to assess the situation. They met
assessment and relief teams and confirmed that relief is reaching the
farthest corners of the affected area. They also noted that material
damage was severe and varied between regions, nevertheless there were
indications of small-scale economic recovery.

10. The United Nations is distributing 208 tonnes of high-energy
biscuits to assist an estimated 850,000 cyclone affected people. 240,000
packets of water purifying powder are reaching 48,000 families. Shelter
materials (thick polyesters) will also be distributed to 18,000
households whose houses were destroyed by the storms. Partners are
currently distributing dry food (flattened rice and molasses) to 70,000
affected families. Medical officers have been made available to assist
Government response, including 4 for coordinating central response. USD
50,000 was made available for water and supplies and transportation.
More relief will be made available following initial determination of
needs.

11. The United Nations Emergency Relief Coordinator released an initial
allocation of USD 8.75 million from the Central Emergency Relief Fund
(CERF) for projects in Agriculture, Child Protection, Food, Nutrition
and Water and Sanitation on 21 November. A second round of allocations
is in-process for activities in Heath and Shelter.

12. On 16 November, IFRC launched a preliminary emergency appeal for USD
3.5 million to support the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society to assist
235,000 beneficiaries for a period of 9 months.

13. The following countries have pledged assistance to the relief effort
so far: Australia (USD 2.7 million); Czech Republic (USD 81,000);
Estonia (USD 46,000); France (USD 730,000); Germany (USD 1 million);
India (USD 1 million); Ireland (USD 720,461); Spain (USD 1 million);
United Kingdom (USD 5.2 million); United States of America (USD 5
million). The USA also contributed USD 100,000 in initial emergency
assistance.

14. The European Commission Humanitarian Aid Office (ECHO) has pledged
USD 9.2 million to the Cyclone Sidr emergency response.

15. Caritas Spain contributed USD 288,184 for emergency aid to the
affected disaster population.

16. For updated information on financial contributions, please refer to
the OCHA Financial Tracking System website: http://ocha.unog.ch/fts2/.
Donors are encouraged to verify this table and inform FTS of
corrections/additions/values to this table.

17. This situation report, together with further information regarding
on-going emergencies, is also available on the Reliefweb:
http://www.reliefweb.int.

For detailed information please contact:

OCHA Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific (Bangkok)
Ms. Eliane Provo Kluit
Tel. +66819129854
Email : provokluit@un.org


Desk Officers:

(NYC) Ms. Kendra CleggMr. Jean Verheyden
Tel. +1 646 416 1140
Email: clegg@un.org

(GVA) Mr. Jean Verheyden
Tel: + 41 79 509 8116
Email: verheyden@un.org


Press contact

(NYC) Ms. Stephanie Bunker
Tel. + 1 917 367 5126

(GVA) Ms. Elizabeth Byrs
Tel. + 41 22 917 2653


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