|PIC1|Thousands of survivors left homeless and destitute after Cyclone Sidr swept over Bangladesh last week are facing a race against time to find the clothes, food and shelter they need to survive the approaching winter.

Temperatures have already started their winter cool in some of the coastal districts where thousands are now without a home.

The Associate Director of Health, Education and Economic Development (HEED), Sylvester Halder, said: "We are moving towards winter and thousands of people are living in the open without warm clothes or shelter.

"It is getting cooler and people urgently need clothes, blankets and food to survive."

Temperatures are currently hovering around 15 degrees but nights are chillier, and Mr Halder warned that temperatures could drop as low as six degrees Celsius in January.

HEED has the support of Christian humanitarian agency Tearfund and is currently distributing emergency food aid to 10,000 people. Prior to the cyclone, HEED staff and community volunteers successfully helped 27,000 people evacuate to nine cyclone shelters across five districts.

"If we did not have a system of warning some of these people would have perished," said Halder.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs estimates that out of the more than five million people affected by the storm, around half of them need "life-saving" emergency assistance for the next two to three months.

On Thursday, the 13 major aid agencies that make up the Disaster Emergency Committee, including Tearfund, World Vision and CAFOD, launched an appeal to raise funds for desperately needed food, shelter and water.

With an estimated million homes destroyed or damaged, and around a million acres of cropland believed to have been devastated, the focus now is on long-term reconstruction and disaster preparedness.

HEED's Mr Halder welcomed the DEC Appeal, saying: "There are many urgent needs such as food and blankets, but it will take one to two years for some of these communities to recover.

"We need also to make a long-term response ensuring that we replace the bamboo and straw huts that were destroyed with stronger homes that will withstand storms and cyclones."

For donations, please log on to the DEC website at www.dec.org.uk or phone 0870 6060900.

The Disasters Emergency Committee agencies are Action Aid, British Red Cross, CAFOD, CARE International UK, Christian Aid, Concern Worldwide, Help the Aged, Islamic Relief, Merlin, Oxfam, Save the Children, Tearfund and World Vision.