Distraught and angry inhabitants of Mayotte shouted out their grievances to French President Emmanuel Macron, five days after the Indian Ocean archipelago was devastated by a cyclone.
High on their list was the lack of water and food, and the fear of looting.
Mr Macron, visiting the French overseas territory to assess the destruction wrought by Cyclone Chido, said he would extend the trip by a day, so he could inspect remote areas.
The French president also declared a national day of mourning for Mayotte on Monday.
Emergency teams were still working at full pace, searching for survivors and supplying desperately needed aid.
"Mister President, nobody feels safe here," one woman told Mr Macron during his visit to the Mamoudzou hospital centre. "People are fighting over water."
As Mr Macron talked with hospital workers, one staff member said under her breath:
"Two more days and we won't be able to feed the patients anymore. I'm disgusted."
'Everything in my power'
Mr Macron listened to the accounts, touching the arm of a woman in tears to comfort her.
"I will do everything in my power so you have water, food and electricity," he said. His promises were met with a mixed reception, ranging from hope to incredulity.
Mr Macron later vowed to "rebuild" Mayotte.
The French leader said he would step up the fight against illegal immigration "while at the same time rebuilding schools, rebuilding homes, rebuilding the hospital, and so on", he told reporters.
"Don't let anybody say that the government threw in the towel."
Mr Macron's visit came after France declared "exceptional natural disaster" measures for Mayotte.
Located near Madagascar off the coast of southeastern Africa, Mayotte is France's poorest region.
Mr Macron's plane carried some 20 doctors, nurses and civil security personnel on board, as well as four tonnes of food and sanitary supplies.
"Don't leave too soon," airport security official Assan Halo pleaded with the president as he arrived.
"We have nothing left," Mr Halo added.
'Worst' disaster 'in centuries'
Some bystanders jeered the presidential convoy as it passed a petrol station where cars were lined up in a long queue hoping to get fuel.
"It's crazy," said one Mayotte policeman asking not to be named. "You get the feeling the government completely underestimated the disaster's scale."
A preliminary toll from France's interior ministry shows that 31 people have been confirmed killed, 45 seriously hurt, and more than 1,370 suffering lighter injuries. However, officials say that, realistically, a final death toll of hundreds or even thousands is likely.
"The tragedy of Mayotte is probably the worst natural disaster in the past several centuries of French history," French Prime Minister Francois Bayrou said.
France said it had activated the European Union's Civil Protection Mechanism, a pooled response by EU members and others to disasters.
In response to widespread shortages, the government issued a decree freezing the prices of consumer goods in the archipelago at their pre-cyclone levels.
'Mass graves'
An estimated one-third of Mayotte's population lived in shanty towns whose flimsy, sheet metal-roofed homes offered scant protection from the storm.
At Mamoudzou hospital centre, windows were blown out and doors ripped off from hinges, but most of the medics had taken to sleeping at their battered workplace as Chido had swept their homes away.
Staff soldiered on despite the hospital being out of action, with electricians racing to restore a maternity ward, France's largest with around 10,000 births a year.
Much of Mayotte's population is Muslim, whose religious tradition dictates that bodies be buried rapidly, so some may never be identified.
"There are open-air mass graves. No emergency services," said Estelle Youssouffa, a National Assembly deputy for Mayotte.
"Nobody is coming to get the bodies."
Assessing the toll is further complicated by illegal immigration into Mayotte, especially from the Comoros islands to the north, which means that much of the population is unregistered.
While Mayotte officially has 320,000 inhabitants, the authorities estimate the actual figure is between 100,000 and 200,000 higher when taking into account undocumented migrants.
