DISASTER WATCH : Help Wanted

World relief agencies are being asked for help again--this time by China.

Breaking from its traditional, proud posture of self-reliance, Beijing is appealing for help to cope with devastating floods. But this unusual open request comes at a time when agencies are scrambling to keep pace with relief efforts stretched thin from Africa to Bangladesh.

Months of unrelenting rain has caused China’s worst flooding in a century, with the Yangtze River Valley hardest hit. Raging waters swept away dikes, flooded wheat fields and destroyed communities. The floods have killed more than 1,700, injured thousands and left more than 4 million homeless. In all, one-fifth of China’s population has been affected. Beijing has estimated economic damage conservatively at $4.9 billion.

Appeals to the United Nations and other relief organizations for humanitarian aid have resulted in donations totaling $8.1 million, according to the U.N. Disaster Relief Office.

The United States has chipped in $125,000 in aid and equipment and is considering additional assistance.

The collective response to Beijing’s appeal continues despite the “compassion fatigue” that has set in amid the bewildering number of recent natural disasters across the world.

This latest disaster shows U.N. relief operations to be in better condition than in the past, when the organization’s capability to deliver food to famine-ravaged Africa left something to be desired.

That’s the good news. The bad news is that the United Nations still hasn’t received enough aid to distribute.