Bangladesh relief effort stepped up with U.S. help

By Ruma Paul

DHAKA (Reuters) - U.S. military helicopters and Bangladesh air force planes stepped up relief operations in the cyclone-ravaged country on Tuesday as attention turned from rescue efforts to getting survivors back on their feet.

The aircraft dropped food, water and medicine to tens of thousands of people along the country's devastated coast.

"It looks like a war to save people, mostly living under the open sky, from being battered by hunger and cold and disease," said a witness in Barguna district, one of the areas hardest hit by Cyclone Sidr which struck on November 15.

Sidr hit the impoverished South Asian country with 250 kph (155 mph) winds and a 5-metre (16-foot) tidal surge. It killed about 3,500 people, left thousands missing or injured, and displaced more than 2 million.

It came as low-lying Bangladesh was still working to deal with the effects of widespread flooding just months before.

"Now we have lost everything ... (we) are trying to recover from the trauma and rebuild lives," said Barguna villager Mohammad Hatem.

Helicopters from the U.S. navy's Kearsarge, anchored off the coast, started to airlift drinking water on Monday to survivors in the worst-hit districts of Doblar Char, Bagherat and Barguna.

Reporters in the affected areas said there were still many people the massive aid operation had yet to reach.

INTERNATIONAL ASSISTANCE

The International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed on Tuesday for 24.5 million Swiss francs ($22.27 million) to provide long-term support for the people affected by Cyclone Sidr.

The funds will be used to provide families in nine districts with immediate relief, shelter, health care, water and sanitation, the Geneva-based Federation said in a statement.

"Winter is coming and people will need help in fighting the cold," Federation spokesman Pierre Kremer told a news briefing.

Some 300,000 children under age five were "severely affected" by the cyclone which left them particularly vulnerable to disease due to malnutrition, according to the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF).

Bangladesh would need half a million tonnes in food aid by March 2008 to offset the effects of floods from July to September this year and the cyclone, Tapan Chowdhury, the government's food and disaster management adviser, said after a meeting with donors.

The U.S. Agency for International Development has pledged more than $10 million in food assistance for the relief and immediate recovery efforts for the cyclone victims.