:Cyclone Sidr Batters Bangladesh    

A mother and child stand outside their temporary shelter in Bagherhat.

Cyclone Sidr powered through Bangladesh on 15 November 2007, devastating coastal districts and forcing millions of people to abandon their homes.

More than 3,000 people have been reported dead and over 2,000 are missing, but numbers are rising fast as the full effects of the cyclone become clear.

Most deaths were caused by the huge tidal surge that plunged into coastal villages and towns, filling the air with debris and flattening bamboo and tin houses.

Vicious 250kph winds tore down homes, schools and power lines.  Roads and bridges were also seriously damaged by the cyclone.

Reaching affected areas

Communication networks are slowly being restored, making it easier for aid agencies and the government to reach all the affected areas.

Shortages of food, water and medicine are raising fears that diseases will spread fast. Dead bodies and rotten trees are also lying in many water sources, pushing the threat of disease even higher.

At the moment, survivors are most at risk from waterborne diseases such as cholera and diarrhea, but with the onset of winter, people will also become vulnerable to cold-related illnesses, such as pneumonia.

Crops wiped out

The massive tidal surge contaminated water sources with saltwater and swept away entire harvests of crops.

Around 1 million acres of crops have been destroyed, leaving hundreds of people with little to eat and no means to earn a living. In some areas, whole paddy fields have been swept away, wiping out four months of food. There are concerns that food shortages may continue to March/April 2008.

Looking to the future

Sidr has been reported as the worst disaster to hit Bangladesh since 1991, when a massive cyclone killed 143,000 people.

Disaster preparedness measures have since been put in place, allowing millions of people to be evacuated before Sidr hit land. This prevented loss of life on the same scale as 1991, however hundreds of thousands of people will still return to their homes to find the destruction that Sidr caused. 

Some people have lost everything they owned in an instant and it will take months, even years, to rebuild their lives.

Islamic Relief Emergency Response

Islamic Relief (IR) needs to raise £2 million to continue its emergency relief and recovery projects in the areas of Bangladesh worst hit by last November's Cyclone Sidr.

The money would allow IR to help around 10,000 families by providing them with access to shelter, water and sanitation facilities, education and health services, child welfare and orphan sponsorship, psychosocial support and reforestation.

IR has already been involved in raising £2.9 million for the victims of Cyclone Sidr, and along with organisations such as United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), World Food Programme (WFP) and UNICEF, has helped around 95,000 affected families to date.

Individually IR has helped 19,357 families in 50 villages in the districts of Bagerhat, Patuakhali, Jhalokhathi and Chandpur, by providing them with food and other essential items such as candles, matches and polythene sheets, as well as giving medical assistance to around 2,700 people in the region.

On December 10 2007 IR began to carry out early recovery assessments with UNDP, taking individual responsibility for the Jhalokhathi and Patuakhali districts. The assessments will be finished at the end of the month and will enable the organisations to decide how best to help the 10,000 targeted families.

Completed Projects Phase One

• Arab Medical Union provided essential food and non-food items and medical assistance with a budget of $20,000 (£9,804)

• European Commission Humanitarian Office (ECHO) provided essential food and non-items with a budget of €350,000 (£251,799)

• IR provided 'quick impact' essential food and non-food items with a budget of £20,000

• UNDP provided essential non-food items with a budget of $274,704 (£134,659)

• WFP provided food items with a budget of $4.17 million (£2,044,117)

• ISF provided food items with a budget of $100,000 (£49,020)

• Al-Eslah provided essential food and non-food items with a budget of $5,000 (£2,451)

• Al-Jamya Al Shariya carried out pond-clearing with a budget of $15,000 (£7,353)

• IR Germany provided essential food and non-food items with a budget of €50,000 (£35,971)

• IR USA provided essential food and non-food items with a budget of $250,000 (£122,549)

• IDRF-CIDA/IRUK provided essential food, non-food and medical assistance with a budget of Canadian $321,021 (£155,083)

• Life International provided essential food and non-food items with a budget of $37,321 (£18, 295)

• Kingdom Foundation provided essential food and non-food items with a budget of $250,000 (£122,549)

Total - £2,973,650

The Effects of Cyclone Sidr
The Latest Figures

• 3,347 people dead

• 871 people missing

• Over 2 million families (9 million people) affected

• Over 1.5 million houses damaged

• Around 2.4 million acres of crops washed away

• More than 4 million trees destroyed

• Around 1.5 million livestock wiped out

Islamic Relief Emergency Appeal

IR has launched an urgent appeal for £3 million to fund emergency relief and recovery projects in the worst-hit coastal regions.

Phase 1

• To benefit 30,000 families;
• Emergency distributions of food, blankets, jerry cans, utensils and shelter kits;

Phase 2

• To benefit between 15,000 - 20,000 families;
• Support shelter and livelihoods recovery and rehabilitation;

Please donate now to support people living in cyclone-ravaged areas.

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Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal

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Tajem Ali escapes death but not suffering

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Eyewitness account from Bangladesh – Habib Malik