Cyclone Aila Strikes Bangladesh - BRAC Launches Relief Efforts

Cyclone Aila tore into the southwestern coast of Bangladesh on Monday, wreaking havoc in ten coastal districts and killing more than 150 people. BRAC staff have been working around the clock since before the cyclone hit to evacuate people and immediately launched relief efforts. The storm, with tidal waves caused by winds of up to 100 kilometers per hour (Reuters), has rendered hundreds of thousands marooned homeless, and many are still missing.



As many of the cyclone-hit areas were also affected by Cyclone Sidr, BRAC was already involved in the region with Sidr rehabilitation work, and has quickly shifted into disaster relief mode. Today, Dr. Babar Kabir, Director of BRAC's Disaster, Environment and Climate Change Program (DECC) traveled to the districts of Bagerhat, Khulna and Satkhira to assess damage and relief needs as well to provide support to the local BRAC staff who bore the brunt of the storm, and since then have been working overtime on relief efforts.

Dr. Kabir has reported to us that water scarcity will become a public health concern as the local ponds (which are the only source of drinking water) have become inundated with saline water. His prognosis is grim, explaining that while the pond sand filters we had installed after Cyclone Sidr will remove microbial contamination, the water will remain saline. However, he also reports that BRAC staff worked around the clock to evacuate people, and are now providing dry food to those who have sought shelter in our offices and cyclone shelters.

No stranger to disasters, BRAC has provided emergency aid and rehabilitation since its inception as a relief organization in the aftermath of the catastrophic 1970 Bhola cyclone, the deadliest tropical cyclone ever recorded with estimated casualties of 300,000 to 500,000 lives.

With the generous help of our supporters, BRAC USA was able to raise nearly $6 million for relief efforts following Cyclone Sidr in November 2007. Please click here to donate to support BRAC's relief program in response to Cyclone Aila.

With the death toll likely to rise, Aila is the worst cyclone to hit Bangladesh since the 2007 storm, Sidr, which killed an estimate of more than 5,000 people. As some districts are still recovering from Sidr, Aila’s damage to village infrastructure—livelihoods, agriculture crop production, housing—is devastating. The Daily Star reports that the economic loss in the affected districts of southern Bangladesh is massive. The humanitarian impact is also potentially terrible, with the Daily Star reporting acute shortage of drinking water and 90% of thatched huts and mud houses demolished by the cyclone.


Please support our Cyclone Aila relief efforts. You can donate online, or send a check to BRAC USA, 11 East 44th St., Suite 1600, New York, NY 10017, ph: 212 808 5615. You can also help by publicizing this post in your own blog/social media and by emailing this link to your friends and network. Your support will go a long way to reducing suffering and allow people to get back on their feet.

Click here to read the full press release.