Disaster Fatigue

Most of them had eaten next to nothing in the five days since a 20-foot tidal wave swept over Kutubdia and at least 11 other islands. One helicopter that landed on Kutubdia was mobbed. Old women who fell to their knees to beg for food were quickly shoved out of the way by stronger villagers. They ripped some parcels to shreds in the fight for bread, precious water and medicine. Policemen beat back the crowd with sticks to allow the chopper to take off.

Villagers on nearby Sandwip Island said they buried hundreds of victims in mass graves. But they refuse to approach the distended bodies still washing ashore. Orphaned children wander around the debris of their homes looking for something to eat or drink. Officials estimate that more than 30,000 of the 264,000 farmers and fishermen who lived there perished.

The 40 tons of relief supplies that the government's small transport fleet can deliver daily is only a fraction of what is needed by hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of cyclone victims. And with much of the devastated region still flooded, some relief packages simply sink without a trace. But at least the villagers are getting something.

In addition to the fleet of Soviet-built AN-32 planes, all six serviceable Air Force helicopters have joined the relief effort. But ships are hampered by the fact that the storm washed away docks and jetties on the islands. Relief supplies cannot be off loaded in the country's main port, Chittagong, because eight ships sank there.

The survivors face a dismal future in this luckless nation, ravaged by cycles of flood and drought. Their rice crop was obliterated. Three quarters of their livestock died. The cyclone smashed warehouses containing emergency food stocks. It washed out roads and bridges, and severed electrical lines. It disabled the main satellite ground station. Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, 46, Bangladesh's first woman leader, estimated the damage at $1.42 billion. The death toll could reach 150,000. Officials say they need $56 million in supplies at once to keep thousands more from succumbing to starvation and disease.

Appalling though it was, the devastation could have been even worse, The winds peaked during low tide; high water would have magnified the waves' force. The government broadcast repeated warnings of the storm's approach. Bangladesh's Red Crescent Society organized 20,000 volunteers to coax people to safer locations. Warnings also went out over village loudspeakers. The alluvial plain offers no real refuge for hundreds of miles; still, officials said 3 million people made it to safety.