Contact: Georgina Cooper, British Red Cross, 020 7877 7479, out of hours 07659 145095

BANGLADESH, Nov. 19 /Standard Newswire/ -- "People who have survived Cyclone Sidr in remote areas Bangladesh have lost their homes and livelihoods and are in desperate need of assistance", said Ali Asgar, British Red Cross disaster preparedness project manager in Dhaka.

In response, the British Red Cross has set up the Bangladesh Cyclone Appeal to raise money for those affected to provide relief including food, blankets, medical supplies, emergency shelter such as tarpaulins, and on-going relief.

Early assessments indicate that nearly 500,000 homes have been fully destroyed, with around 845,000 households having been directly affected by the cyclone.

Asgar said: "The needs are enormous - there is a huge scarcity of food and water and people also need clothing."

The rescue and relief effort is not being made any easier by the fact that many of these remote areas are incredibly hard to reach, and communications and electricity remain down.

Asgar continued: "We are working hard to establish a link to the teams that work at cyclone shelters to ensure that aid will get through.

"Meeting the needs will be a huge challenge."

Assessment teams are in some of the worst hit areas where hundreds of thousands have been affected, and thousand died, with the death toll increasing.

Aside from losing friends and relatives, people in the worst-hit southern area of Bangladesh are living in extreme poverty with unstable houses, many of which have been completely destroyed by the cyclone and the tidal surge that came with it.

As part of its disaster preparedness programme the Bangladesh Red Crescent, supported by the British Red Cross, was working on a project to help people in these vulnerable communities prepare for cyclones. Nearly 40,000 Bangladesh Red Crescent volunteers began supporting evacuation efforts and working in 1,800 evacuation shelters as early as two days before Cylone Sidr.

Asgar added: "While any loss of life is tragic we believe that the preparedness for this cyclone was better than in previous cyclones - with people being informed earlier and understanding the dangers of cyclones and how to respond to stay safe.

"At this stage the focus has to be on emergency relief. However, in the coming weeks we will be doing an assessment to see the impact of the awareness levels in the hope that some people will have been saved by the projects."

People can donate to the appeal online at www.redcross.org.uk/cyclone or call 0845 054 7021.

Notes to editors

In the event that we raise more money than can be reasonably and efficiently spent, any surplus funds will be used to help us prepare for and respond to other humanitarian disasters either overseas or here in the UK. For more information, visit www.redcross.org.uk

The project to help communities prepare for cyclones is called the Building Community Disaster Preparedness Capacity, and is supported by the Consortium of British, German and Swedish Red Cross, managed by British Red Cross.

The British Red Cross had been working to lessen the impact of disaster and reduce communities’ vulnerabilities in Bangladesh since the 1970s.

The British Red Cross helps people in crisis, whoever and wherever they are. We are part of a global voluntary network, responding to conflicts, natural disasters and individual emergencies.

We enable vulnerable people in the UK and abroad to prepare for and withstand emergencies in their own communities. And when the crisis is over, we help them to recover and move on with their lives.