OBI is funding relief efforts through medical missions and air cargo transportation. About 6.7 million people have been impacted by the storm.

BARGUNA, Bangladesh – In an instant, 160-mile-hour winds destroyed hundreds of acres of farmland, killed livestock and ripped people from homes.

When Cyclone Sidr made landfall on Nov. 15, it wreaked havoc on the people of Bangladesh. The United Nations reports an estimated 6.7 million people in nearly half of the country's 64 districts have been impacted by the storm.

Within days of the cyclone, OBI helped mobilize medical teams with German partner, Humedica. Already a team of four Humedica aid workers have held medical missions in two villages. The team also assessed 12 other villages and will return there when a new medical team arrives this week.

"Everything has been destroyed," said Dieter Schmidt, who is on the ground with Humedica. "Wherever you look, there are ruins."

An estimated 3,500 people have been killed by the storm and that number is expected to rise.

The cyclone is a familiar site for Mr. Poritus. In 1964, he watched as his baby brother was ripped from his mother's arms as an eight-foot wave of water swept through the house. Fortunately, the family found the baby alive at the top of a 30-foot tree.

Today, thanks to OBI partner Mission Aviation Fellowship (MAF), Poritus, now deputy minister of flight safety in Bangladesh, was on a MAF flight to check on the safety of his family once again. His childhood home and his uncles' farms were destroyed. The winds drove a surge wave almost 20 feet high into the riverside area.

MAF, who partnered with OBI during tsunami relief, is flying non-stop delivering medical aid and water.

"Everything has been destroyed," said Dieter Schmidt, who is on the ground with Humedica. "Whereever you look, there are ruins."

Livestock killed by the floodwaters have contaminated available water sources leaving the displaced people nothing to drink.

"Carcasses are everywhere," Schmidt said. "It has ruined any water the people had access to."

Operation Blessing is shipping four water purification units to the hardest hit areas with the help of DHL, an international packing delivery service. The four units will provide 40,000 gallons of clean water daily.  

"The water purification plants will answer a desperate need, since the typhoon victims are suffering from lack of clean drinking water and water borne disease is rampant," said OBI president Bill Horan.

Thanks to a partnership with Water Mission International, the units were bought at a reduced price and DHL shipped the units free-of-charge.

Other OBI-funded relief efforts include plans for mobile medical clinics as well as a distribution of food and non-food items such as tarps, blankets, clothes and hygiene products to several thousand families in the devastated Barguna district.

According to reports, this is one of the worst disasters to hit the poverty-stricken region since 1991, when a cyclone and subsequent storm surge killed more than 140,000 people.

HOW YOU CAN HELP
You can help by making an online donation toward OBI's disaster relief efforts. With your support, we can continue to provide emergency relief and recovery. Please make an on-line donation today.

 

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