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I was expecting it to be bad from the news but what we have seen in some areas is utter devastation and peoples’ homes that have been totally destroyed in the cyclone and the tidal wave that followed.

We are heading towards the worst hit disaster areas in Dhaka and we are expecting the first ShelterBox boxes to reach us tomorrow. We have been feeling frustrated with the co-ordination of the relief effort but it finally looks as if we are getting somewhere now.

I have to say the American warships have been great getting water distributed using helicopters to get into the badly effected zones and we want to follow this up by providing shelter for the families.

I traveled down on a bus to Kulna which took about ten hours and what I have seen here is that people are starting to collect together what they can to use as shelters. People are doing what they can but they need the tools and materials to build a shelter again so I can’t wait to be able to distribute our boxes to them.

I think from the information we have had the government has been really conservative with the estimates of fatalities. We have been told that there are 4,000 fatalities but I think there is a lot more devastation here than that.

We have pushed to get the boxes delivered to an army base where we can then collect them and begin the job of distributing them to the most worthy cases, which as you can imagine would be chaos if we didn’t do that.

We haven’t even got to the worst affected area’s yet and I just want to put all our training and good work to use after this tough initial stage.

Another ShelterBox team member Raul Fernandez returned to Falmouth yesterday from the town of Gabatula and reported more than 3,000 people were living without any shelter in desperate need of aid. He said the reason distributing aid was so difficult was having to access everywhere by boat and the military are struggling to give enough food and water to communities in need.

So far, more than 600 ShelterBoxes have now arrived in Bangladesh: each containing a 10-person tent, blankets, cooking utensils, water containers and other essentials. The charity hopes to send more aid this week and is appealing for continued public support. For more information or to give a donation call 01326 569782 or visit www.shelterbox.org