More than 43,000 people living in seven World Vision Bangladesh programme areas have been made homeless or had their home badly damaged by the massive Cyclone Sidr.

World Vision (WV) staff are now hard at work assessing needs and handing dry rations of rice, molasses or sugar to the survivors of the devastating storm which hit Bangladesh thursday night and is so far reported to have killed at 500 people.

Forty-five of these deaths are in WV programme areas. There are no reports from programme staff of deaths among sponsored children or their families. The number of casualties is likely to increase with hundreds of people, including fishermen are still missing.

Seven ADPs: WV US-funded Aghailjhara, Mongla and Kotalipara; WV NZ-funded Chitalmari and Laudobe; and WV Canada-funded Kalkini; and WV Australia-funded Muksudpur were severely impacted.

WV Asia Pacific Region, WV Bangladesh and other senior staff will be on a conference call tomorrow (Saturday November 17, 2007) when a Category level and Level or response is due to be recommended.

Vince Edwards, World Vision Bangladesh National Director, said: "There has been a serious impact on rice crops which would have been ready for harvesting next month. These crops have been seriously damaged. People's livelihoods are going to be very badly affected.

"Our relief teams have already started emergency distributions, with an initial coverage of 20,000 families. However, several areas are inaccessible due to fallen trees. Our teams are also trying to reach other areas to assess damage. I am in regular contact with our teams on the ground. At the moment it looks like our major focus in coming days will be on shelter and on household livelihoods through agricultural interventions."

Government officials are reporting 60-70 percent of homes in the worst hit areas were destroyed. A surge of 5 metres was also reported.

Current World Vision distributions include two kilos of flattened rice and one kilo of molasses or sugar. WV staff also providing first aid to those hurt by falling trees or house parts.

World Vision Bangladesh is planning to provide 20,000 families with 7-days packs of items that include rice, sugar, salt, candles, blankets and mattresses valued at a total US$32 per family.

Before the cyclone hit - with wind speeds of up to 210 km per hour - World Vision programme staff helped evacuate hundreds of people to cyclone shelters, coordinating with government and trained volunteers. In total some 600,000 in Southern Bangladesh people were evacuated.

The country has been suffering from nationwide blackouts, telephone connections to affected regions are disrupted, mainland areas and delta islands are still cut off and internet connections patchy.

More than 20,000 people took shelter in Mongla and Laudobe programme areas in 31 World Vision Bangladesh-built cyclone shelters and schools that were designed to double as refuges.

The total planned response of US$640,000 is proposed by World Vision. Of this US$150,000 will be covered from existing community programme funds. World Vision funding offices are being asked to fund the rest.

World Vision Bangladesh will be focusing on housing and agricultural rehabilitation.

WV Bangladesh communications officer Raphael Palma who spent the night trapped on a ferry on the River Padma hopes to return to Khulna city from Mongla shortly and aims to provide photos to the ftp wvphotolibrary.

Vince Edwards has been taking a number of high-profile media calls.

Contacts: Please note phone contact is extremely difficult. Contact Vince to book media slots.

Vince Edwards, World Vision Bangladesh National Director: Cell: +880-1711594001