Cyclone Shelter Assessment

While there is little information on the availability of cyclone shelters prior to cyclone Nargis, a total of 358 cyclone-resistant community buildings (includes completed, under construction and planned), in 8 townships in the region were listed according to the data collected by UN-Habitat through the Shelter Working Group (23rd February, 2010) with support from the DRR Working Group members. These shelters include: stand-alone cyclone shelters, school cum shelters, hospitals cum shelters, monasteries cum shelters, government shelters, etc. either through renovating and retrofitting existing structures but primarily through building new shelters in vulnerable areas. Over the past three years, the Government, together with the humanitarian and development aid community has sought to invest in disaster risk reduction and disaster preparedness measures and programs in support to communities, in order to reduce their vulnerability and increase their readiness in case of disasters.