After the 1970 cyclone 238 cyclone shelters were constructed in 1972-73 with the financial support of World Bank. Twelve years after that till 1985 no cyclone shelters were constructed. After the cyclone of 1985 Bangladesh Red Crescent Society constructed 62 and some NGOs constructed 24 cyclone shelters. Out of that in Urir Char some small house-based shelters were constructed with the financial support from Pakistan and India. After the 1991 cyclone different agencies constructed some of cyclone Shelters. The total quantity of cyclone shelter in the coastal area is now not more than 1800, which are less than the need. If by year of 2002 the number of cyclone shelter will increase to two thousand and each of that can accommodate 1000 people, in that situation only 20 lacs people will have the opportunity to take refuge. If 70 lacs people are staying in the more vulnerable areas in that case 50 lacs people will be out of shelter during the emergencies. Of course some of them will take shelter in different buildings and private houses.

The foreign aid depended cyclone shelter construction when will be able to meet our demand we should seriously consider that. We have to think about the alternative way of constructing the shelters. The tidal surge accompanied with the cyclone is the major causes for the loss of lives. So it is important to construct the cross dam on the coastal belt to protect the tidal flood. In the distance islands and char where it is not possible to construct the cross dam, there it is important to motivate the people to raise the homestead plinth at least 20 ft. In the flood prone area many people raise their plinth between 15 fit to 20 ft. The problem for the safe place of animal also be solve if the plinth will be raise "Strong houses in the raised plinth and trees protect the cyclone" this type of motivational slogan will be necessary.

It is important to link between development and disaster. Any structure developed in the coastal area should consider the disaster constrain. In that case during emergency the structure can be used as shelter. In the absence of connecting road to the shelter discourages the families to move to shelter. On the other hand the evacuation order disseminates in such a time that it becomes difficult to cross the road and reach the shelter with children and female in a real bad weather. To avoid this type of disruption it is important to build small shelter and killa instead of big shelter. It can be organized to distribute credit for construction of small shelter and killa in the coastal area like as the house building finance in the urban area. The island without the cross dam should get the first preference in this scheme. The people of the coastal area can construct the technically sound house to stay during cyclone.

The disaster management efforts become more coordinated and affective after the establishment of Disaster Management Bureau. The Cyclone Preparedness Program is also made strong to fight with the cyclone. Bangladesh Meteorological Department plays a vital and timely role in disseminating weather forecast. SPARSO is also providing an important support through research and satellite observation. The local administration is more active now a days for disaster management compare to past.

A quantifiable measure of risk was developed by Sener and Others (1996) for a Cyclone Shelter Preparatory Study for the Government of Bangladesh where the objective was to develop a project to provide access to safe havens for all inhabitants, both human and animal, of the coastal area at the time of cyclone. A risk index has been devised to assist in ranking of the Mouzas, Unions and Thanas in the coastal area for priority investment. Union and Thana are the lowest and the second lowest tiers respectively in the local government system. A Mouza is a small land revenue unit within the Union. People consider 1.0 to 1.5 km to be the maximum distance that they could be expected to travel to a designated safe-haven at the time of disaster. Hence, the basic land unit that is appropriate for planning purposes is the mouza which has an average area of 2.5 km2, equivalent to a circular area with a 1.8 km diameter (Sener and Others, 1996).

There are 3889 mouzas with a projected population in the year 2001 of approximately 80 million in the storm surge prone coastal area. A risk index map of the coastal area is shown in Figure 3  There are 423 mouzas in the severe risk class and 483 in the very high-risk class having populations of approximately 2.2 and 1.9 millions respectively (Sener and Other, 1996). A total of 485 mouzas have been identified as the first priority for the provision of safe havens. About 11 per cent of the population in the severe risk category have safe haven provision at present. Taking into consideration the planned construction of shelters, an additional 1.6 million safe haven spaces would be required to cater for the severe risk population.

Figure 3 : Thana classified by Risk Index