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With each passing day, those marooned on the islands faced new perils. Virtually all buildings had been leveled, all roads and bridges destroyed; most of the survivors had no shelter, no clothing, no medicine, no food. There was little fresh water, and many were forced to drink a salty brine that had been exposed to the elements and was probably polluted by decomposing bodies. The corpses were ubiquitous. "It was terrible," said Mohammad Taher, who arrived on Urirchar the day after the disaster. "I could not believe what I saw. Bodies were all around. I myself buried at least 40."
The corpses were, to be sure, committed as quickly as possible to mass graves, but by that time they had been lying in the open long enough to arouse fears of epidemics. Only a few days after the storm struck, 40 people were dead of cholera, and others were described as in critical condition. When the first relief teams landed on Urirchar, they tried to inoculate 300 people against typhoid, tetanus and cholera. But the resources at hand were totally inadequate: all the injections had to be given with the same needle because replacements were not available. "We cannot change the needle," said Nurul Islam, a navy medic. "We cannot afford it. God give them resistance."
Gradually, relief supplies began to trickle into the storm-struck areas. But the government was reportedly able to mobilize only five naval vessels to carry food, water and clothes to the stranded. By the time the ships had reached their destinations, having plowed through rain and still heavy seas, many more of the afflicted had died. A few air force helicopters -- Bangladesh has all of 15 -- dropped off water and food. But demand far exceeded supply.
As the full scope of the tragedy sank in, the people of Bangladesh rallied to recover. In the commercial areas of Dhaka and in other towns and cities spared by the storm, students energetically collected money for the homeless, while devout citizens offered gaibana janaza, or prayers for the unburied dead. Government employees contributed a day's pay to help the destitute, and banks and private companies pitched in with relief efforts of their own.
President Ershad set up camp on Urirchar to take control of rescue operations and relief efforts. Nearby, many of the island farmers, having laid their kin to rest, bravely set about rebuilding. Yet even as reconstruction got under way, floods 200 miles away battered the northeastern regions of the ill-starred country and 300,000 more Bangladeshis lost their homes.
On Urirchar late last week the winds were calm and the sea lapped softly against noiseless beaches. But there was little peace -- or hope -- among those who had survived the night of terror. At the ill-equipped local relief camp, 26-year-old Ayesha Begum plaintively told of how she had spent two days searching for the bodies of her husband and two children. She had not found any of them. "Why," asked the widow, fighting back tears, "why is Allah so unkind as to keep me alive?" Her question, like her prayer, was unanswered.