| More than 22,000 people are now confirmed dead and at least 40,000 missing, with more than a million displaced.
Speaking about the increasingly complex situation in Myanmar, Brendan Gormley, chief executive at the DEC said: “Aid is getting through via our agencies and so we are calling on people to donate to our DEC Myanmar (Burma) Cyclone Appeal.
"Our priority is to deliver aid to those who need it the most and we can do that through our local teams already working on the ground.”
World Vision, the Red Cross and Save the Children are among the charities who have a long-term presence in Myanmar and their teams have responded since the cyclone struck on Saturday. They are already distributing clean drinking water, hygiene kits and emergency relief supplies and aim to scale this up in the days to come.
Red Cross team on standby for Myanmar
A joint British and Swiss Red Cross emergency response unit (ERU) is on standby to fly to Myanmar to help deliver goods to the most vulnerable. One of the team, Kris Flegg, from London, had been waiting for a phone call telling her she is being deployed to Myanmar.
"I'm on the on-call rota this month, so when I heard about the disaster I thought it would only be a matter of time before we would be deployed," she said.
Kris, who worked with the ERU in Kenya after severe floods in 2006, will help set up systems for the logisticians to receive and deliver relief items.
"I know there will be some horrific scenes but I feel prepared to face that as I've had some excellent training with the Red Cross.”
Kris worked with team leader Ina Bluemel in Kenya and has worked remotely with logistician Gareth Tate as part of the tsunami programme in Indonesia. The fourth member of the team is Rodney Stone, air operations, who joins the ERU for the first time.
For donations, please visit www.dec.org.uk or phone: 0870 60 60 900
Read information sheet
At present there are no Red Cross tracing activities taking place in the affected areas of Myanmar.
British citizens who are worried about family members in the disaster affected area can contact the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, London on 020 7008 1500 for possible information.
Nationals of the Union of Myanmar, if they are able to do so, can contact the Embassy of the Union of Myanmar on: 0207 499 8841 or 0207 499 4340. | 
