Darkness, water, wind, and tragedy. The Great Cyclone of 1970 swept into East Pakistan on the evening of November 12, its surging waters wiping out whole villages. The final death toll is still unknown. But for one of the first times in history, relief aid came pouring in from around the world. Several countries participated in short term relief to provide food, water purification, and shelter to people within the hardest hit areas. Pakistan implemented an agricultural rehabilitation plan to provide food and agricultural aid to see the agrarian society through until the next harvest. Exactly where much of this aid went is not clear. Select aspects of the short- and medium-term aid effort that were connected to geographic locations were mapped. Maps were created from British and American accounts depicting national relief efforts and the international helicopter relief assistance. This paper also used post-cyclone surveys and aid reports to map the distribution of agricultural aid. It also discusses three of the factors that were considered when allocating the agricultural aid: season, manpower, and supplies and equipment. This paper also conducts content analysis of news coverage of the relief effort during this time using newspaper articles from the two largest international contributors: the United Kingdom and the United States. The purpose of this paper is to locate the cyclone and subsequent relief efforts in their geographic and historical context by mapping and analyzing the relief efforts and their contemporary perception.
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