Coping with the Storm: A mother and her four children struggle to survive Cyclone Sidr

November 27, 2007

Meet Salma, a mother with four small children, who evacuated her home as Cyclone Sidr - and its accompanying storm surge - struck their small village of Senerhat in Bangladesh. The family survived but their house, pieced together from corrugated metal and perched at the side of a lagoon near the river, did not.

"The water was chest high when we left," said Salma. "Men ran through the village and told us to leave. Now we have no food and nowhere to live."

Salma and her children live along the Tetulia River where families, mired in poverty before the Category - 4 storm struck Bangladesh, have been left with nothing. Indeed, few clues remain that Salma's one - room house and its contents ever existed. Today, Salma and her children are living with a neighbour, who also took in another neighbour and her three children. Together, they are three adults and 12 children in a tiny wooden house, equally precarious as Salma's but still standing.

Throughout Bangladesh, survivors of the storm face enormous challenges, particularly the need for the basics: food, water and shelter. Many also have lost their means of making a living, their chickens and livestock, and all household goods.

Save the Children is working in Bangladesh's storm - affected areas distributing food rations, safe water, blankets and household kits (which include cooking pots, utensils, plastic sheeting, soap and matches) to families in need. To date, the agency has reached more than 130,000 families with much - needed assistance.

Read another survivor's story here: Nazma
Read the news release