A reporter for the "Pakistan Observer" spent a week in the worst hit areas in early January and saw none of the tents supplied by relief agencies being used to house survivors and commented that the grants for building new houses were insufficient. The "Pakistan Observer" regularly carried front-page stories with headlines like "No Relief Coordination", while publishing government statements saying "Relief operations are going smoothly." In January, the coldest period of the year in East Pakistan, the National Relief and Rehabilitation Committee, headed by the editor of "Ittefaq", said thousands of survivors from the storm were "passing their days under open sky". A spokesman said families who were made homeless by the cyclone were receiving up to 250 rupees (US$55 dollars in 1971; ) to rebuild, but that resources were scarce and he feared the survivors would "eat the cash".