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Millions of disaster victims in Bangladesh are still in serious need of housing 5 months after Cyclone Sidr swept through, killing 4000 people and destroying 1.5 million homes. Hundreds of thousands of familes are still living in or under makeshift shelter with the annual monsoon season just around the corner.

Combining the cyclone with the storm surge that shortly followed, the devastation is nearly 4 times greater than that of the 2005 Pakistan earthquake, making it nearly impossible for disaster relief organizations to provide the required aid.

“The combined efforts of all aid agencies as well as bilateral government pledges for core housing are likely to reach around 60,000 affected families. But this is only a fraction of those who need help,” said Graham Saunders, head of shelter for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, speaking on behalf of the global Emergency Shelter Cluster and the operational shelter agencies in Bangladesh.

“More than 260,000 extremely vulnerable families are currently not getting any assistance to rebuild their homes. Assessments indicate that these families have very limited means of coping on their own, and there are simply not sufficient programmes in the pipeline to help them,” he said.

For a map of the affected area, click here.