The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Mathbaria

As army troops and volunteers are struggling to reach the survivors making ways through divested communication lines, millions eye the skyline for air force helicopters, still the only means to reach the succour to the remotest corners.

"The helicopters appeared as saviours to us," said Afzal Kazi, a local clothes shop owner as the Russian-made MI-17 landed in a field with date, flattened rice and molasses at this ravaged locality.

His remark came as hundreds others crowded the vicinity while local officials received the urgently needed food for the victims, who are also in dire need of drinking water and clothes.

Air Force officials at the Base Bashar in Dhaka said until yesterday 10 of their wide-bodied helicopters and two transport planes made 90 sorties while in another 17 sorties they are expected to reach the relief materials to remote areas where the rescuers could not reach yet.

"Several hundred airmen are working on a war footing from pre-dawn hours to late evening as the air force pilot began their sorties before 8 in the morning every day," an Air Force official overseeing the operations told this correspondent.

Officials earlier said the army troops almost covered all the devastated localities but aid workers and local officials said the airlifting of relief materials were still crucially needed for the ravaged coastlines though each of the aircraft could carry only 2.5 tonnes of goods at a time.

"It often appeared a very difficult task, we often needed to air drop the relief from a close altitude instead of landing on the ground fearing mob assaults particularly where the people are in dire need of food for their lives," said an air force pilot.

Officials in Dhaka, however, said the airlifting of lifesaving relief goods could be easier in next one week when two huge US navy ships each carrying 20 or more helicopters are expected to reach Bangladesh to join the succour campaign.

The century's worst cyclone, "SIDR", had dumped tonnes of rubbles and uprooted trees on the rural roads while the killer tidal surges literally defaced concrete roads making it difficult for the movement of lorries or trucks carrying relief goods.

Officials and aid workers said the traditional fishing trawlers could be appropriate means for reaching the succor to remote coastlines criss-crossed by numerous canals and rivers.

But, they said, the surges destroyed hundreds of such small vessels alongside the other infrastructures making it difficult for scanty navy boats to take the role of the fishing trawlers.

"Actually the fishing boats and trawlers were like lifeline for the coastal people, those are used also for transportation of goods alongside fishing in the sea . . . the destruction of the trawlers broke the supply lines in the coastline," said a local newsman in Barisal.