MONGLA, Bangladesh (UCAN) -- Cyclone shelters that Caritas Bangladesh started building more than 15 years ago saved countless lives when Cyclone Sidr devastated coastal areas last week.

The local Catholic Church's relief and development agency was one of the pioneers in the construction of such shelters in Bangladesh, where cyclones roaring in from the Bay of Bengal have killed hundreds of thousands of people.

Akhila D'Rozario, Caritas' disaster response and development director, told UCA News the agency has built 225 cyclone shelters since 1991, when a cyclone killed 143,000 people.

The confirmed death toll for Sidr, which landed on Nov. 15 evening with wind speeds approaching 250 kilometers an hour, stood at 2,699 on Nov. 20, according to the Caritas website. But the organization, like others, says the final tally could reach 10,000. The update said 1.2 million families have been affected by the disaster.

Given the extent of the destruction, much credit for the relatively low death toll has gone to early warnings and evacuations, with many people sheltering in shelters built by the government and NGOs including Caritas and Protestant-run World Vision.

Tropical storms and flooding menace this densely populated Muslim-majority country of more than 140 million people, most of which occupies a vast river delta. The worst storm in recent history was in 1970, the country was still part of Pakistan. A cyclone that year claimed as many as 500,000 lives.

It was after the 1991 storm, however, that Caritas began building cyclone shelters as a way to prevent deaths during the inevitable disasters, D'Rozario said.

Typically, cyclone shelters are concrete two-story structures where people take refuge on the second floor. Because of the soft earth in delta areas, pillars have to be sunk very deep, the Caritas official explained. The buildings often double as schools and community centers until needed as refuges when a storm approaches.

Caritas Bangladesh does not buy land for the shelters. All have been built on school land and handed over to the school or college management committees for maintenance. The costs run about US$50,000 a shelter.

Even with the many groups that have built shelters, there are still "not enough to accommodate the increasing number of people," D'Rozario said. "Bangladesh's coastal districts need at least 2,000 more cyclone shelters," he estimated.

One of the places Sidr hit hardest was the area around Mongla, the country's second-largest port, about 160 kilometers southwest of the capital.

Caritas field worker Ananda Das told UCA News in Mongla on Nov. 19 that all the cyclone shelters were used during this latest cyclone but that the urgent need in the storm's aftermath was for food and medical care.

A local school headmaster, Jalal Uddin, told UCA News the local Caritas-built cyclone shelter saved up to 2,000 lives. He noted that at other times the shelter is used as a school and community center.

Others who could have been saved thought the disaster warning as Sidr approached was another false alarm.

According to D'Rozario, many storm warnings have been issued over the years, including one for the 2004 tsunami that caused no damage or loss of life in Bangladesh. As a result, the Caritas official said, people grew complacent and many made the fatal decision not to flee to the shelters ahead of Sidr.

World Vision has constructed 17 cyclone shelters in coastal areas, each one able to accommodate 800 people.

In addition, it has constructed 340 schools in low-lying districts around the country that also serve as emergency shelters when needed, according to a World Vision official. They are used for adult literacy, formal schooling and health education for women throughout the year, but each can accommodate 400 people when a storm hits or during a flood.

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