Money to save lives from disaster must be the priority, as climate change leads to more storms, floods and droughts, Christian relief and development agency Tearfund has said.

The UK-based development agency Christian Aid has launched an emergency appeal in response to the devastating floods in Bihar, India. More than 2.5 million people have been affected and it's feared that thousands have died.

Development agencies say that the final outcome of the Burmese cyclone disaster, which latest reports suggest has claimed over 23,000 lives, may be on the scale of the Asian tsunami a few years ago. They are urging a global response.

Regional and international staff working for major church agencies involved in the region are consulting about relief interventions in the immediate aftermath of a series of quakes in Africa's Great Lakes area.

Extreme rainfall in Mozambique, Zambia and Zimbabwe has caused severe flooding with devastating consequences - including food shortages to come as farmers’ crops are washed away, warn international church and development bodies.

Church and development organisations across Africa say the extreme rainfall experienced by the continent this summer is the worst in decades and is having a devastating impact on the food supply. They are warning that immediate action is needed.

Christian Aid emergency staff in South Asia are working with local partner organisations to co-ordinate its response, after the worst floods in years hit a large swathe of northern India, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Governments, aid agencies and humanitarian actors must spend twice as much on disaster preparedness activities that could save millions of lives, according to Robert Tickner, CEO of Australian Red Cross.

A North American peace church aid and development organization which opposed the US war with Vietnam in the 1960s and 70s, and has continued to build positive relations ever since, is providing 30,000 US dollars worth of help to communities affected by Typhoon Xangsane in the central region of the country.