PRESS CONFERENCE on Bangladesh CYCLONE

 

Early warning, tracking of the storm path and implementation of preparedness measures had contributed to saving lives when “Super-Cyclone Sidr” had hit land the previous night in Bangladesh as the worst storm there since 1991, it was stated today at a Headquarters press conference by John Holmes, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator.

The cyclone had hit on 15 November with winds of 140 to 165 km/h and an “eye” measuring 74 km across with winds of 240 km/h.  The category 4 tropical storm had come across the Bay of Bengal and hit the south and south-west coasts of Bangladesh.  It had inundated three coastal towns with a combined population of 700,000 people and was thought to have destroyed 20,000 homes in the worst affected districts.  Dying down while travelling over land, the storm had been downgraded to a category 2 by the time it reached the capital, Dhaka.  Neighbouring India had not been affected.

The worst damage, he said, had come from a water surge the cyclone had triggered, creating waves up to 5 metres or 15 feet high.  While casualty figures were rising as they came in from the more remote parts of the country and islands, it was estimated that 1,000 people had died after 3.2 million had been evacuated.  The fate of some 150 trawlers was still unknown, and the whole experience had taxed and traumatized those affected, however accustomed they were to cyclones.  The damage to families, houses and crops would be extremely severe, and yet preparedness had kept the damage to a minimum under the circumstances.

As the cyclone advanced, the Under-Secretary-General continued, 116 medical teams had been deployed.  Tens of thousands of volunteers, the Red Crescent and other non-governmental organizations had also deployed.   The Government had been prepared and was in contact with both local agencies and donors to build support.  International support had not been requested, but the Government had made it clear that support would be welcome, particularly to local donors.

He said a joint assessment between the Government and the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) would now be conducted and the extent of damage and needs would be determined.  The World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO) had already deployed response teams to strengthen the local management and response.  Food rations had been provided for up to 400,000 people.  The main needs were likely to be in the areas of food, health care and shelter.

As part of the broader United Nations response, he added, the OCHA regional office for Asia and the Pacific, which was headquartered in Bangladesh, had already established a task force that would arrive on site tomorrow.  The United Nations assessment team from Geneva was on standby in case it was needed.  Several million dollars from the Central Emergency Response Fund could be made available to agencies and the Government for use in ways that those on site could best identify.

In response to a question about relocating people who lived in such often devastated areas, he said much had been done in the past few years with the United Nations in setting up disaster risk reduction measures, increasing preparedness, making sure shelters were up, making sure people knew where to go to find higher ground.  The death tolls had been reduced very dramatically from such events.  In 1970, the death toll from such a cyclone had been in the area of 300,000 to 400,000.  In 1991, it had been about 130,000 to 140,000.  While the death toll this time was still unknown, it would be nowhere near as high as those figures.

As for relocating people, he said Bangladesh was already a very densely populated country, and there was no indication people would be willing to move.  That was not a practical approach and for now the focus of efforts was in preparing for such relatively predictable events.  While it was impossible to know where exactly a storm would hit, with how much force or how much devastation it would cause, a gathering storm was identifiable.  In this case, the early warning mechanism had been activated for about 10 days before the storm hit.  The Government had monitored the track and kept local authorities informed with growing intensity as the storm neared.  It was not certain that everyone had been reached, but the majority had been, and the effect would be reflected in the relatively small death toll.

Asked for more detail on delivery of assistance, he said that, of the 3,000,000 people evacuated to safety, 620,000 had been taken to specific cyclone shelters, about 2,000 of them built by the Government for this particular cyclone.  Others of the evacuees had been taken to “higher ground”.  There was a large United Nations presence in Bangladesh in the development area, and while it was unclear how many of them would be present in the area affected by the cyclone, people had been predeployed as part of the readiness activity.

Asked about a mechanism for donations, he said the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva had issued an immediate appeal for funds in the area of 3 million Swiss francs.  That was one possible channel and it would be natural to channel some of that money to the local Red Cross/Red Crescent Society.

On other matters, he said his Office did not know about any registry for non-governmental organizations.  There were channels for contacting home offices of non-governmental organizations and doing research on them.  OCHA could not keep a registry, but national Governments often gave their seal of approval.  Also, OCHA talked with people for the purpose of assessing needs and not for any political reasons.

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For information media • not an official record