Nov. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Tropical Cyclone Sidr slammed into the Ganges Delta with winds of 250 kilometers (155 miles) per hour, causing devastation in Bangladesh before weakening over northern India.

At least 1,100 people in Bangladesh were killed, the Associated Press said today, citing the United News of Bangladesh. At least 1,000 fishermen were missing, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said today in an e-mailed statement. Some 3.2 million people fled to the country's highlands or went to shelters, the UN agency said.

``Damage will be extremely severe,'' John Holmes, the UN's coordinator of emergency relief, told reporters in New York. ``The entire country has been affected. The main needs will be for food, shelter and health care.''

The Rome-based World Food Program is rushing food for 400,000 to Bangladesh and the UN is prepared to make several million dollars available to the government from its emergency relief fund, Holmes said. In the hardest hit areas along the coast, more than 20,000 homes were destroyed, he said.

The cyclone swept in from the Bay of Bengal, crossing the Khulna-Barisal coast yesterday at about 9:30 p.m. local time, the U.S. Navy's Joint Typhoon Warning Center said. Sidr destroyed homes and livestock, uprooted trees and damaged crops as it made landfall, Priya Jyoti Khisa, a director in Bangladesh's disaster management bureau, said in a telephone interview from Dhaka.

Frequent Cyclones

Bangladesh and northeastern India are regularly hit by cyclones that form in the bay, bringing flooding and devastation to local communities. Bangladesh stepped up its storm preparations after a cyclone that hit the South Asian nation in 1970 left 500,000 people dead.

Twelve districts, including Khulna, Patuakhali, Barisal and Bholad, were ``severely affected'' by Sidr, Khisa said.

The storm's center was 61 kilometers south of Shillong, India, at 8:30 a.m. local time today, the U.S. center said in its final advisory on Sidr. The system's maximum sustained winds had weakened to 37 kph as it moved northeastward.

Sidr brought a storm surge as high as 6 meters (20 feet) to one of the most low-lying areas on the planet. The storm was 500 kilometers wide before coming to shore.

India Spared

In India, the outer bands of Sidr passed over West Bengal without causing damage, D. Pal, joint secretary for disaster management at the state government, said in a telephone interview from Kolkata.

There were no ``adverse effects,'' K.L. Mishra, deputy general of the disaster mitigation authority in neighboring Orissa state, said by telephone.

More than 30,000 people were evacuated from Indian coastal areas before the storm arrived, he said.

U.S. and other foreign organizations that have worked on relief projects for years in Bangladesh are prepared to help, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.

``We're ready to work with the government and foreign donors to assist in relieving the effects of the disaster,'' McCormack said in Washington today. ``We're now working with the Bangladeshi government to assess what the needs are.''

To contact the reporters on this story: Bibhudatta Pradhan in Delhi at bpradhan@bloomberg.net; Heather Langan in London at hlangan@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: November 16, 2007 13:04 EST