Biggest Relief Operation underway for Tsunami-hit Area by Reuters / BBC News / IPS Correspondents 12:12am 30th Dec, 2004   Jan 3, 2005    "Tsunami toll hits 150,000", by Tomi Soetjipto and Dean Yates.    BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Some 150,000 people are now known to have been killed by Asia's tsunami, U.N. officials say, as helicopters and elephants are used to find and feed survivors and shift the rubble of razed towns.    Aid workers on Monday struggled to help thousands huddled in makeshift camps on Indonesia's northern Sumatra island, where the tsunami claimed two-thirds of its victims eight days ago, and to reach remote areas after roads and airstrips were washed away.    Half a world away from the changed map of South Asia, U.S. President George W. Bush and two predecessors, his father George and Bill Clinton, urged Americans to give money to ward off hunger and disease in the 13 countries hit by the killer waves.    "The current death toll ... what we operate with are the confirmed people who are identified as dead ... is around 150,000," said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland. "There are many, many more who have disappeared or who are missing or who are for us nameless as of this stage. And it is particularly in the Sumatra coast."    U.S. helicopters began shuttling injured refugees, many of them children, out of some of the worst hit parts of Indonesia's Aceh province, where many towns and villages were wiped out. Pilots described columns of refugees trudging up the coast towards the provincial capital Banda Aceh. Some charged the helicopters to fight each other for the food.    "All the villagers started coming out of the woodwork, telling us they needed help. They said there were a lot more wounded people further inland up in the mountains," Lieutenant-Commander Joel Moss said from the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln.    Amid the struggle to stay alive, few survivors of the December 26 disaster forgot their appalling grief and losses. "I thought that my two sons were my future. With them I could build this family," said 22-year-old Shiva Shankari, choking back tears at a refugee camp on India's east coast.    While her daughter survived the tsunami, the sons aged three and five that she and her sister struggled to save both died. "What can I do? I am lost," she said. "My husband said, 'Why are you alive and my sons are dead?'"    Affected nations, working with aid agencies, private relief groups and donor governments, have eased some transport bottlenecks to get supplies to the estimated five million people requiring some form of help. Many airports are now bursting with emergency supplies. But a logistical nightmare looms over distributing them through vast regions where roads and bridges have been washed away, and uncontaminated water is scarce.    "The emergency teams are arriving to be blocked by a wall of devastation. Everything is destroyed," Aly-Khan Rajani, CARE Canada's programme manager for Southeast Asia, said in Jakarta. In Sri Lanka, the second-worst hit nation with more than 30,000 dead and 850,000 homeless, there was little sign of an organised government relief effort, but food distribution looked smoother.    "It's still very chaotic," Save the Children's Irene Fraser said in Akkaraipattu. "But the situation is changing, coordination is happening." Many in refugee camps were sick with various ailments or deep wounds, and the U.N. said it had reports of children dying of pneumonia in Aceh.    The U.N International Children's Emergency Fund estimates about 50,000 children died across the region -- a third of the total death toll. Tens of thousands have been orphaned. "The biggest challenge is to make sure the children stay alive -- to avoid the outbreak of disease. One of the biggest problems now is that the still water may be as dangerous as the rushing water that killed," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy, visiting rebel-run northern Sri Lanka.    As dehydration, disease and hunger threaten to add to the death toll, the world's response has gathered pace. More than $2 billion has been pledged by governments and the World Bank, while private donations have been unprecedented.    "I ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so," said Bush, joined in his appeal by his two predecessors. Bush, whose early reaction to the disaster was criticised in some quarters as sluggish, called his government's pledge of $350 million "an initial commitment".    "We offer our sustained compassion and our generosity and our assurance that America will be there to help," he said. Vast resources, from foreign troops to military field hospitals, were on their way or already on the ground, but residents in some areas used more traditional methods.    In Aceh and southern Thailand, relief workers used elephants to shift debris from shattered buildings and hunt for survivors.    As the world poured out its heart for the victims, a women's collective in Sri Lanka said rapists were preying on survivors at refuge centres. The U.N. Joint Logistics Centre said pirates were a threat to aid supplies along Sumatra's west coast. In Aceh, officials said they were investigating reports of trafficking in orphans.    Sweden sent police to Thailand to investigate the reported kidnap of a Swedish boy of 12 whose parents were washed away, and said it was keeping the names of some victims secret after thieves burgled some homes in Sweden. With the relief operation growing hourly, an aid conference in Jakarta on Thursday was starting to draw leaders including Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.    Egeland said donors would be asked for a "few hundred million dollars" for immediate needs, and another pledging conference would be held on January 11 in Geneva as longer-term requirements became clear. U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell and Jeb Bush, the U.S. president's brother, who has experience cleaning up Florida after a number of hurricanes, headed to the region to help assess reconstruction needs.    In southern Thailand, where the known death toll is close to 5,000, forensic experts were trying to identify bodies. Nearly 4,000 people were still missing in Thailand, including more than 1,600 foreigners, many of them Scandinavian.    In Malaysia, the crew of a fishing boat brought in an Indonesian woman they had rescued four or five days after she was sucked out to sea. The woman, from Aceh, had clung to a floating sago palm and survived on its fruit. "She said she had felt cold, but her will to survive was very strong," a local official said.    © Reuters 2005. All Rights Reserved.    December 30, 2004.    Tsunami toll may top 100,000. (Reuters)    The Red Cross says the death toll from one of the worst tsunamis in history could top 100,000, as more bodies are found from India to Indonesia. Those who survived the tsunami are now grappling with thirst and disease. Sunday's colossal seawater surge was triggered by an undersea earthquake off Indonesia which was so large it may have made the world wobble on its axis.    The head of operations support with the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Peter Rees, says the federation currently puts the death toll from the tsunami at 77,828. But he expects that to rise as the consequences in remote areas become clear. "I would not be at all surprised that we will be on 100,000 [deaths] when we know what has happened on the [Indian] Andaman and Nicobar islands," Mr Rees said.    In parts of India's Tamil Nadu state, officials gave up counting the dead in their hurry to bury them in mass graves. The stench of death hung over stricken coastal villages.    The United Nations has mobilised its biggest relief operation amid fears that cholera and diarrhoea could worsen the death toll. The World Health Organisation says 5 million people lack the essentials of food, water and sanitation to survive.    "There is no food here whatsoever. We need rice. We need petrol. We need medicine," said Vaiti Usman, an Indonesian woman in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province, where tens of thousands died."I haven't eaten in two days."    Inadequate relief    In many areas, health experts say the relief operation looks woefully inadequate with shortages of coffins, equipment and medicine. Emergency workers are struggling with power outages, destroyed communications and badly damaged roads.    A harrowing race is on for relatives to find loved ones. A Swedish boy on a family holiday to the Thai resort of Phuket was shown in one news photograph clutching a piece of paper. On it was scrawled: "Missing parents and 2 brothers."    "I have lost three brothers, four sisters, and my father is missing," wept 18-year-old Tamil fisherman Rajan Xavier.    Health experts have warned disease could kill as many people as the tsunami, as the full extent of the tragedy begins to unfold.    Communities wiped out    For Scandinavia and Germany, fond of Asia as a winter refuge, the tsunami has turned the tropical paradise into hell for hundreds of travellers. More than 2,000 Scandinavians and about 1,000 Germans are still missing, a full three days after disaster struck. At least 600 Italians are missing.    Primitive tribes on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands were running out of the coconuts they were living on, with whole communities wiped out. Buddhist monks are handing out rice and curry to survivors in Sri Lanka and aircraft have dropped food to isolated Indonesian towns.    In Thailand, idyllic resorts were turned into graveyards. Near Khao Lak beach, the smell of decaying bodies hung over a Thai Buddhist temple-turned morgue."We have only cloth to wrap the bodies in and our bare hands and machetes to retrieve the bodies," Surasit Kantipantukul, a Thai rescuer, said. "We want machinery and boats."    Some Thai officials said their lack of equipment was embarrassing. "Our workers have only noses to smell for foul odours," Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said.    Survivors have told tragic tales of the moment the tsunami struck villages and resorts, sucking tourists into the sea, surging through buildings, sweeping away cars and smashing ships. "The water was just too strong," said Surya Darmar, lying on an army cot in Indonesia's Banda Aceh with a broken leg."I held my children for as long as I could but they were swept away."    Children may account for up to a third of the dead, one aid official said.In the midst of tragedy, there were also tales of luck. A 14-month-old Swedish toddler was found wrapped in a blanket on a hill in Phuket, Thailand, by an American couple. On Khao Lak, a two-year-old fisherman's son survived for more than two days after being swept into a treetop.    Indonesia has suffered the highest number of victims, with 45,268 known to be dead, although the toll could rise to 80,000 in Aceh alone, the province closest to the quake's epicentre.    Dead bodies and rubble    Troops and rescue crews reached the town of Meulaboh on Aceh's west coast, about 150km from the epicentre, to find dead bodies and rubble. "Today so far 3,400 bodies have been found in Meulaboh. Eighty per cent of the buildings are wrecked," Chief Security Minister Widodo Adi Sutjipto said.    A senior UN official in Indonesia said the toll in Meulaboh could reach 40,000. In the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, as much as 5 per cent of the 300,000 population is believed dead.    Shocked survivors wandered among the rubble in search of lost family. "I have given up searching for their bodies," said Rohani Amad, 40, wiping her eyes with a black Muslim headscarf, days after two sisters and her 16-year-old daughter disappeared.    Washed away    In Sri Lanka, where the death toll has topped 22,400, Tamil Tiger rebels appealed for help as they dug mass graves. Hambantota, a tourist haven on the south coast, was wiped out. Sri Lankan Army soldiers were still pulling hundreds of bloated bodies out of the mangrove behind the town.    "The people were washed away and trapped in the roots," an officer said. "Only after time do they all come up." Each new tide loosens hundreds more corpses to add to the more than 2,500 that were buried outside what remained of the town.    India's toll of nearly 7,000 is likely to rise sharply. Many of the dead were on the Andaman and Nicobar islands. "When the waves came and it kept climbing higher and higher I knew God had meant us to die," said islander Augustine."But my child was there with me and I had to run. Jesus saved us."    Hope fades    More than 1,800 bodies were recovered from Khao Lak beach and more than 3,000 people may have died there. More than 300 were killed on Phi Phi island, location of the film The Beach. Bloated and decaying bodies washed ashore on the island as hopes of finding survivors amid the rubble faded.    "It's hard to tell which bodies are foreign because they are just unrecognisable," said French rescue volunteer Serge Barros.    DNA tests might be used to identify some victims.    Hundreds of people were killed in the Maldives, Burma and Malaysia. The region has seen huge killer waves before, including one when Krakatoa erupted off southern Sumatra in 1883, but Indian Ocean countries have no tsunami warning system.    US President George W Bush said he would consider all requests for aid to afflicted countries.    29 December, 2004    Crucial days in wave disease fight. (BBC News)    The next few days are critical to stop the spread of diseases killing even more people following the Indian Ocean tsunami.    Cholera, malaria, dengue fever and diarrhoeal diseases could take hold in the next week unless fresh drinking water and medical supplies reach the areas affected by the disaster.    But relief agencies have warned there may be problems accessing areas, and ensuring people have access to clean water. Unicef executive director Carol Bellamy said "time is of the essence right now".    "Hundreds of thousands of people fought to survive the tsunamis. Now we need to help them survive the aftermath. "For children, the next few days will be the most critical." Dr David Nabarro, of the World Health Organization (WHO), agreed. He warned if relief did not reach people by the end of the week there would be a rise in diarrhoeal diseases within two weeks.    Western governments have promised more than £50m of relief while aid agencies are also sending supplies of medicine and water purification equipment.    The WHO has already warned the numbers killed by subsequent diseases could exceed the 60,000 estimated to have died when the tsunamis hit on Sunday. Corrine Woods, who is helping co-ordinate Unicef's aid response in India, said access to areas affected by the tsunamis was a concern. She said 2,500 water storage tanks, each holding 500 litres, water purification powder and rehydration tablets were on their way to affected states. Speaking from India, she also told BBC News: "We are also facing a challenge to make sure people know what precautions they should take. "Water supplies have been contaminated and we are sending people around the areas affected to tell people how they can get hold of fresh drinking water once the supplies arrive."    Experts say getting clean water, and managing the disposal of human waste are the key priorities. But they say the accumulation of dead bodies is not as great a risk as people believe, and it is the living who pollute the water.    In Sri Lanka, Tamil Tiger rebels have complained aid is not reaching areas under their control. And Ted Chaiban, speaking from Unicef's office in the capital, Colombo, said Sri Lankans and the relief effort was at risk from landmines. "Mines were floated by the floods and washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are and the warning signs on mined areas have been swept away or destroyed."    A Medicins Sans Frontieres spokesman said: "Humanitarian efforts to reach populations are always frustrated during such natural emergencies. "Communications and transport are often severely interrupted. "Telephone lines have been destroyed and many airports are either damaged or flooded."    The Associated Press has reported that aid is piling up at distribution points into the Aceh province in Indonesia because of impassable roads. Corruption also remains a concern. David Macdonald, Oxfam's Indonesia programme manager, said supplies could be taken by private hospitals, the military or corrupt traders who would then sell it.    A spokesman for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said aid agencies were also facing a challenge dealing with 11 disaster zones with "different aid needs".    "There is no point just throwing aid as quickly as possible at the countries affected. "We need to get logistics teams on the ground, which is happening, to find out what the local situation is and how help can be managed."    BANGKOK, Dec 29    Biggest Relief Operation underway for Tsunami-hit Areas. (Inter Press Service News)    The biggest humanitarian relief operation the world has ever seen is underway in Asia, as international aid agencies supported by foreign troops race to provide emergency help in the aftermath of a massive earthquake and the huge tsunamis it unleashed.    As the number of dead continue to increase by the hour, foreign governments, international aid agencies and international organisations have dispatched personnel, medical supplies and survival kits to help tens of thousands of people in the region.    Japan sent a Maritime Self-Defence Force (MSDF) convoy, including a helicopter, to waters off Thailand to help search for missing people following the Dec. 26 earthquake and subsequent tsunamis in the South-east and South Asian region.    As of Wednesday evening, the death toll passed the 60,000 mark, with victims from Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Thailand, Burma, Malaysia, Maldives, Bangladesh and as far away as Africa. Indonesia's number of dead stood at nearly 33,000, while Sri Lanka was reporting nearly 22,000. Tens of thousands are still missing.    The Japan Defence Agency did not specify how long the mission will last, but said the ships and their 580 MSDF crew are expected to begin activities in the devastated areas on Wednesday.    These 580 MSDF will also be joining 15,000 U.S. troops on two flotillas of warships that the Pentagon has deployed to the region - one from Guam, in the Pacific and the other from Hong Kong.    The United States has more than doubled its emergency funds to the region to 35 million U.S. dollars to help aid agencies and governments cope with the catastrophe still unfolding.    With deadly diseases now stalking the survivors of the massive Asian tsunami, U. N. agencies are turning to the urgent task of providing clean drinking water and health care for millions of people.    'In the coming days, additional threats to human life such as diarrhoeal diseases and acute respiratory infections can be expected to arise from contaminated water sources,'' the World Health Organisation (WHO) said of the disaster which struck 10 nations around the Indian Ocean.    The U.N. Population Fund (UNFPA) on Tuesday committed up to one million U.S. dollars and additional staff for rapid health assessments, hygiene needs and health supplies, including water purification tablets. The agency urged that the special needs of women and girls be factored into all short- and medium-term relief planning,    'While the magnitude of this disaster may be unprecedented, we already know from our experience in previous crises - such as last year's earthquake in Bam, Iran, and the hurricanes that struck the Caribbean earlier this year - that women and girls will be hit especially hard,'' UNFPA Executive Director Thoraya Obaid said in a statement.    For Bekele Geleta, an Ethiopian heading the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in South-east Asia, responding to tragedies is part and parcel of his daily working life.    But never has he seen such massive devastation, like that caused by Sunday's tsunami.'The enormity of the disaster is just unbelievable,'Geleta told IPS. 'Never in my working career with IFRC have I seen anything like this.''    The IFRC issued a flash appeal on Sunday for 7.5 million Swiss francs (6.57 million U.S. dollars) for survivors following the massive 9.0-magnitude earthquake under the Indian Ocean off Indonesia's Sumatra island.    'But we realise there is a big gap between the funds sought in the appeal and the actual amount needed on the ground, after we made our emergency assessments,' said Geleta. 'I would not be surprised if Geneva increased the flash appeal by three times or more.''    In a phone interview, Carolyn Green, a spokeswoman for the British aid agency Oxfam, said: 'We're looking at 10 countries across two different continents. It's very difficult to get supplies to all those in need. Some of them are in very remote towns."    Oxfam has sent relief supplies to help 175,000 people across Indonesia and Sri Lanka and dispatched 27 tonnes of water and sanitation equipment. - Relief supplies are now coming in,'' added Green.    For UNICEF Australia, the provision of safe drinking water is crucial at this juncture.    'Local water supplies are contaminated and damaged. Without safe water, people will start drinking from unclean sources and that will lead to disease,'' said Carolyn Hardy, the chief executive of UNICEF Australia, in a phone interview.    From New York, UNICEF issued a statement Wednesday warning that millions of people were at risk of water-borne diseases without immediate wide-scale action to provide safe water in affected communities.    'The floods have contaminated water systems, leaving people with little choice but to use unclean water. Under these conditions, people will be hard put to protect themselves from cholera, diarrhoea and other deadly diseases," UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy said.    So far UNICEF has provided shelter supplies, providing more than 100,000 blankets and sleeping mats, shelter equipment such as tents, hundreds of thousands of water purification tablets, thousands of community water tanks of 500 litres each, hundreds of thousands of sachets of oral rehydration salts for sick children, and medical supplies to places like Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, Somalia.    In Thailand, the government now puts the number of casualties at more than 1,500 and more than 1,000 people still missing. In the island resort of Phuket, bodies are still being pulled from wrecked structures and mud-covered areas, four days after the disaster struck.    'For the first couple of days, the relief efforts here have focused on search and rescue. Now the relief efforts are focusing on those who have survived,'' said a local aid worker.    Many children were separated from their parents when the waves struck. Hospitals have posted their pictures on the Internet in an attempt to find their families. It has drawn thousands of locals and foreign tourists to the hospitals, desperate to be united with their loved ones.    The Thai government has appealed to the international community for forensic equipment to help identify the victims and refrigerated mortuaries to store the corpses while the identification process takes place.    Airlines in Thailand have arranged flights back to the capital, are allowing relatives to go and find missing kin. Travel associations are pitching in by issuing updates and missing-persons bulletins, including on the Internet, on the situation in tsunami-hit areas.    In the meantime, while relief supplies are being flown in the region, the mass evacuation of tourists continues in the opposite direction. Swedish holidaymakers appear to be among the worst affected, with among 1,500 of them unaccounted for mainly in Thailand.
	Next (more recent) news item
	Next (older) news item