(3 of 5)
In the days that followed, the country struggled to resuscitate itself. Ershad established a special relief coordinating committee headed by his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Sultan Ahmed, and ordered Bangladesh's 150,000-man armed forces put on a "wartime footing" to help cope with the disaster. Some 20,000 military personnel and 50,000 civilians were enlisted for relief operations. The President also appealed to other nations for $50 million in emergency aid; he specifically requested cash rather than supplies, so that the stricken could be given immediate relief. "So many of the survivors have lost everything," he said. "I appeal to the whole world to help."
The plea was quickly answered. The International Red Cross set about raising $2 million for reconstruction, clothing, food and medicine. King Fahd of Saudi Arabia sent $4 million in cash and ordered the dispatch to Bangladesh of 30,000 tons of wheat, tents, blankets and medical aid. Japan pledged $1.2 million, Pakistan $1 million in relief supplies. The U.S. promised $575,000 in emergency assistance and said that more would be made available as the situation warranted; the United Nations made available $500,000. Other sizable pledges came from the European Community, the West German Red Cross and Britain.
One of Bangladesh's next-door neighbors, India, also was quick to announce its support. After committing $10 million, along with medical personnel and food, to the stricken land, Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi scheduled a visit to Bangladesh to express his sympathy and to tour the ravaged areas. Sri Lankan President J.R. Jayewardene, who was due to hold talks with Gandhi, promised to come too, in a show of "South Asian solidarity."
Of all nations, Bangladesh can least afford such a tragedy. Three months ago, a World Bank survey described the country as the world's poorest, with an average annual per capita income of only $130. Two-thirds of its people live below the poverty line. In addition, Bangladesh is one of the most densely populated nations on earth: 96 million people -- more than four times the population of California -- are crammed into an area the size of Wisconsin. The cyclone aggravated already serious problems. It shattered much of the economic fabric of Bangladesh's coastal areas, leaving at least 30,000 cattle dead, about 3,000 sq. mi. of cropland ravaged, vital fishing grounds wasted. It also left tens of thousands of subsistence farmers both shelterless and penniless.
Over the past 2 1/2 decades, more than 32 cyclones, the Indian Ocean's equivalents of the hurricanes of the Atlantic and the typhoons of the Pacific, have boiled out of the moist, hot air over the Bay of Bengal to sweep across Bangladesh. With its wide-open flatlands and labyrinthine waterways sprinkled with hundreds of chars (tiny islands created by silt deposits from the rivers and tributaries that empty into the bay and shift as the water level changes), southern Bangladesh is especially vulnerable to the attacks of great tropical tempests. Seven of the world's ten most destructive killer storms on record have ripped through the Bay of Bengal.