Then every government effort to restore communication seemed to be failing, a group of the volunteers belonging to National Institute of Amateur Radio (NIAR) finally made a breakthrough in the small hours of the Monday when they successfully established a contact with the Chief Minister's residence in Bhubaneshwar from Delhi.

At around midnight, the team of volunteers, mostly students, succeeded in making it to Giridhar Gamang's residence in the State capital from Hyderabad. Within an hour, they set up a temporary radio station at the Chief Minister's residence and started operations in the high frequency bandwidth.

At 1.30 am, Gamang was himself on line. `` Everything is marooned here. All telephone lines are dead. We need some more HAM radio operators (common term for amateur radio communicators).''This is a part of the message that Gamang communicated to the HAM operators camping at the office of Principal Resident Commissioner of Orissa in Delhi.

In the face of abortive attempts of Department of Communications to restore the communications, the HAM radio communicators are now taking the lead in establishing radio links in the State. Till evening, about 50 important official messages had been sent across to Chief Minister's residence by the temporary station in Delhi.

``Our volunteers in Bhubaneswar will shortly disperse in the affected districts to establish communication,'' said Bharati Prasad, additional director of NIAR. The institute, specialising in disaster communication, is a non-government organisation.

While Communications Ministry's attempts are seeing no ground, some of the radio equipment provided by the World Bank to NIAR during setting up of HAM radio network in coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh, after 1977 supercyclone, are doing wonders in the cyclone-ravaged State.

``Thesituation is still bad and the wind is blowing at a speed of 60 kmph. The city is still waterlogged and without power. Our counterparts are making desperate attempts to reach the Secretariat for establishing local VHF (very high frequency) links,'' said Karan, an undergraduate from Delhi University and volunteer of NIAR.

Meanwhile, as telephone communication remained disrupted for the third successive day after the super cyclone wreaked havoc in the State, the Oriyas from all over the country have now pinned their hopes on the amateur radio communicators. ``HAM operators from Kerala, Banagalore, Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad and Mumbai have been contacting us on our operating frequency and inquiring about the well-being of their kin and friends in marooned State,'' said Bharati.

If the tone in air is of grief, the scene is no different on ground. Scores of Oriyas can be seen pleading to HAM operators at the office of Principal Resident Commissioner, to inquire about their relatives. They are passing onslips with telephone numbers and messages. ``They do not know that we cannot access the landlines. It's contact between the two HAM sets.''

The women make a vain attempt to hide their tears as they are consoled by the officials at the Orissa Bhavan that relief is reaching the affected areas.

``It will at least a week for relief to reach all parts of the State. By then many people would have died of hunger and diseases. And those alive will die a slow death,'' says Anadi Sahu, MP from Berhampur.

But all have not lost hopes.``My father, wife, sister and child are in Bhadrak. There is no telephone in our village. I do not know how they all will be. But I hope they have survived. They say the relief operations have started,'' says B Jena, a room boy at Orissa Niwas. ``My wife and three daughters are stranded in Bhadrak. I can only communicate through letters. I will write one when everything is all right. I think the wireless communication will help me trace them,'' says Baikunth Dash, a cook at OrissaBhavan.

Aditya Samal, a plumber in Delhi, has his wife and two sons in the marooned Jajpur district. ``I strongly believe that they all will survive. I will soon make a trip to my village to trace them. Lord Jagannath will be kind to us,'' he hopes.