Westport, CT (November 21, 2007) -Tens of thousands of cyclone survivors in Bangladesh - many of them homeless with little means to sustain themselves - remain in critical need of assistance one week after a devastating storm struck the country's southern coast, killing more than 3,000 people, damaging hundreds of thousands of homes and closing thousands of schools.
During the past week Save the Children has reached more than 90,000 survivors with the basic necessities of survival, including food and clean water, but tens of thousands more families still are in need of critical assistance.
Kelly Stevenson, Save the Children's country director in Bangladesh, reported that extensive emergency preparations saved tens of thousands of lives despite the tremendous destructive force of the cyclone that hit the coast with the same intensity as a storm that killed 140,000 people in Bangladesh in 1991.
"While many survived the cyclone itself, thousands of families are facing the real possibility of a second wave of death that can result from lack of clean water, food, shelter and medical supplies," Stevenson said. "We must continue to reach as many survivors as quickly as possible."
"Many families have lost everything, including their homes and their crops, and they are struggling to survive," Stevenson said. "We are appealing to the U.S. public to support our efforts to assist children and families affected by this disaster. We remain concerned about possible outbreaks of cholera and severe diarrhea due to the lack of access to clean water." Save the Children has learned that at least two children have died from diarrhea since the storm hit.
Save the Children estimates that 50 to 90 percent of the region's rice crop has been destroyed, leaving up to 3 million people at risk of food shortages over the next six months. Children's health and access to education and families' loss of income are also of great concern.
Save the Children was one of few humanitarian agencies with emergency responders positioned in the path of the storm, remote and low-lying areas still recovering from extreme flooding last summer.
The agency has begun distributing thousands of essential items for survival including eating supplies, plastic sheeting, water containers, and basic treatment for diarrhea as well as thousands of blankets and 100,000 water purification tablets.
In one area, Save the Children staff have used boats to ferry 2,000 liters of purified water across riverways to affected households. The agency also is operating three water ambulances to transfer injured patients to health facilities.
Save the Children, which assisted in the large-scale evacuation of families in the region, is coordinating with local authorities. The agency has dispatched 19 teams to assist in relief efforts. Prior to the storm, the agency deployed equipment, including zodiac rescue boats, to the impact area, and mobilized food and water-purification resources.
Save the Children has been working in Bangladesh since 1972 and in recent years has worked closely with local and national authorities to prepare coastal communities for a severe cyclone. The agency conducted an emergency cyclone drill for some 10,000 residents living in the area where the cyclone struck as part of its own preparations.
The agency, which implements disaster risk-reduction programs in addition to conducting emergency relief efforts around the world and in the United States, also provided relief and assisted with recovery efforts after floods left nearly two-thirds of the country under water in June and July.