Tsunami Toll now 226.000

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

AP Thu, Dec 30, 2004

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...id=514&ncid=514

Tsunami Toll Tops 119,000; Aid Trickles In

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Pilots dropped food to Indonesian villagers stranded among bloating corpses Thursday, while police in a devastated provincial capital stripped looters of their clothing and forced them to sit on the street as a warning to others. The death toll topped 119,000, and officials warned that 5 million people lack clean water, shelter, food, sanitation and medicine.

American planes delivered medical staff to Sri Lanka and body bags to Thailand, while a Thai air base used by B-52 bombers during the Vietnam War was becoming a hub for a U.S. military-led relief effort that will stretch along the Indian Ocean.

On Friday, a U.S. Navy (news - web sites) aircraft carrier battle group led by the USS Abraham Lincoln churned toward hard-hit Sumatra, expecting to reach there the following day and possibly meet up with naval ships from Singapore and Australia, officials said.

Sailors in Singapore scrambled to depart aboard the RSN Endurance, a 450-foot landing ship tank that's carrying bulldozers, heavy-lifting equipment, food and medical supplies. In Australia, the HMAS Kanimbla was leaving Sydney transporting two helicopters, about 300 defense personnel and construction equipment to help clear debris and begin rebuilding Aceh province.

As a colossal international rescue effort struggled off the ground, relief efforts suffered a hitch when a false alarm of more killer waves sparked panic in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand and sent survivors and aid workers fleeing.

Indian women at a makeshift camp in a marriage hall said their children were going hungry. "For the past few days we were at least getting food," said Selvi, 35, who uses one name. "Today, we didn't even get that because aid workers fled the town after a fresh alert was issued this morning."

The false alarm from the Indian government was just one of the new and sometimes unexpected threats facing survivors.

Sister Charity, a 32-year-old nun rescued by an Indian navy ship from the Andaman and Nicobar Islands on Wednesday, said confused and hungry crocodiles were on the loose.

"As we were returning (to the ship), two or three crocodiles started coming toward us. The navy officers had to fire their revolvers to ward off the crocodiles to protect us," she told The Associated Press.

Death tolls across the region continued to grow Friday as Thailand announced a near doubling of its figure to more than 4,500. Officials said that number included 2,230 foreigners, a near tripling the number of confirmed foreign deaths in Thailand.

Indonesia led with fatal count with some 80,000. Sri Lanka reported 27,200 and India more than 7,300. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

The U.S. death toll was officially raised Thursday from 12 to 14, with seven dead in Thailand and seven in Sri Lanka. Some 600 Americans who were listed as missing have been found, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said, but several thousand had not been located four days after the disaster struck.

In Sri Lanka, Americans have been showing up at U.S. consular offices wearing bathing suits, with no money and no clothes, said Boucher.

In the remote Indian islands near the epicenter of Sunday's magnitude-9.0 earthquake, entire villages were wiped out. With only 400 bodies found so far, the region's administrator said 10,000 people were missing. Survivors who reached the archipelago's main city, Port Blair, said they had not eaten for two days.

Around the Indian Rim and beyond, families endured their fifth day of ignorance as to the fate of friends and relatives who had taken a holiday-season vacation to the sunny beaches of Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, which bore the brunt of the tsunami. Thousands were still missing, including at least 2,500 Swedes, more than 1,000 Germans and 500 each from France and Denmark.

Military ships and planes rushed aid to Sumatra's ravaged coast. Countless corpses strewn on the streets rotted under the tropical sun causing a nearly unbearable stench.

In Banda Aceh, the devastated main city of northern Sumatra, soldiers and police guarded abandoned shops in the city's market amid fears of looting. Three alleged looters caught by police were put on the street stripped to their underpants as a deterrent.

Food drops began along the coast, mostly of instant noodles and medicines, with some of the areas "hard to reach because they are surrounded by cliffs," said Budi Aditutro, head of the government's relief team.

The World Health Organization (news - web sites) said it needed $40 million to supply 3-5 million people with clean water, shelter, food, sanitation and health care.

"Unless the necessary funds are urgently mobilized and coordinated in the field we could see as many fatalities from diseases as we have seen from the actual disaster itself," said Dr. David Nabarro, head of crisis operations at WHO.

The next few days will be critical in controlling any potential outbreak of waterborne diseases in areas affected by the Indian Ocean tsunamis, Nabarro told the AP. The main threat to public health was drinking water that had been contaminated with feces.

"Wells, water supply systems just get broken, and then whatever water you do get is liable to be contaminated," Nabarro said.

Governments have so far donated some $500 million, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said, adding that he was "satisfied" by the response, even though another U.N. earlier complained that the West had been "stingy" in the past.

Responding to persistent criticism that U.S. pledges have been slow to materialize and deliveries of aid not fast enough, Boucher ticked off a string of relief flights and declared: "Any implication we are not leading the way is wrong."

The United States, India, Australia, Japan and the United Nations (news - web sites) have formed an international coalition to coordinate worldwide relief and reconstruction efforts.

In Galle, the graceful old city on the southern tip of Sri Lanka, German and Finnish teams helped set up water plants and mobile clinics.

A U.S. Air Force plane arrived in the capital, Colombo, bringing 26 medical specialists from the Army, Marines and Air Force, which form part of the Pacific Fleet Command.

American planes already have delivered 1,400 body bags to southern islands in Thailand, where Interior Minister Bhokin Balakula said more than 3,500 bodies have been found. Rescue and forensic teams from Australia, Japan, Germany, Israel and other nations fanned out across Thailand trying to find survivors and identify rapidly decomposing corpses.

"We have to have hope that we'll find somebody," said Ulf Langemeier, head of a German team that combed a wrecked resort with three body-detecting dogs under huge flood lamps early Thursday.

There likely will be up to 1,000 U.S. military personnel arriving in Thailand in the next week, Lt. Col. Scott Elder said. The first of many Air Force C-130 cargo planes has landed in Indonesia with blankets, plastic sheeting and medicines.

Australian and New Zealand military cargo planes have flown supplies and water purification plants into Indonesia. A Pakistani navy ship has been diverted to rescue survivors on outlying islands in the Maldives. Singapore is sending eight helicopters, a navy ship and more than 500 military personnel.

One bit of encouraging news came out of the Maldives, the Indian Ocean archipelago that is the world's lowest-lying country. Officials believe that at an average of just three feet above sea level, it lacked the conditions for a fall-scale tsunami to build up. That meant casualties and damage, while considerable, were less than in neighboring countries. Seventy-three people are confirmed dead and 31 are missing.

The islands' mainstay, tourism, looked likely to rebound quickly. Foreign tourists were back in the water and resort hotel rooms were reopening.

"My friends and family told me to go back home. But I told them I'd be more comfortable here than in the cold," said Michaela Niedermeyer, 43, of Vienna, Austria, who jumped on an inflatable mattress and paddled to shore after her bungalow, built on stilts over the water, was swamped by the tsunami.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

Top Stories - Reuters

Thu, Dec 30, 2004

12 minutes ago

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...d=564&ncid=2337

Tsunami Toll 125,000, Huge Relief Effort Mobilized

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Asia's tsunami death toll soared above 125,000 on Friday as millions struggled to find food, shelter and clean water, while the world began what may prove to be the biggest relief effort in history.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said the disaster that has displaced 5 million people was "an unprecedented global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented global response." He said a half-billion dollars had been pledged so far.

Aid agencies and experts warned a second wave of death from contagious diseases could hit Indian Ocean areas devastated by Sunday's tsunami, with children especially vulnerable.

"The worst is yet to come, I am afraid, because of the breakdown of sanitation facilities," said Dr. Robert Edelman, a professor of medicine at the University of Maryland.

Indonesia, where 80,000 have died, said on Friday it would host an international tsunami summit on Jan. 6 to hammer out aid and reconstruction needs.

Desperate crowds, their faces covered with masks or handkerchiefs against disease, besieged aid workers delivering food in Indonesia's Aceh province and clamoured for petrol for their vehicles.

The tragedy that has touched all corners of the globe is ushering in a somber New Year's Eve. Some 5,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans at popular Indian Ocean resorts, are missing and hopes are dimming they will be found alive.

A Red Cross Web site in Geneva to aid anxious relatives locate survivors partially crashed after being overwhelmed by 650,000 hits in the first 24 hours.

Dozens of aftershocks have unnerved the traumatised survivors after the 9.0 magnitude earthquake, the strongest in 40 years, sent an unprecedented tsunami rolling from Indonesia to Africa.

The Indian government issued an alert following one aftershock on Thursday that sent residents fleeing in panic and halted aid distribution in towns in Tamil Nadu state.

"I don't know how often this (tsunami) will happen but it has suddenly made our lives uncertain," said Apparachi Ashokan, a fisherman at Devanampatti village near Cuddalore town, 100 miles south of Madras.

Residents in worst-hit Banda Aceh city on the Indonesian island of Sumatra bolted from their homes for a second straight night after aftershocks late Thursday night.

PRIVATE DONATIONS SOARING

President Bush (news - web sites), criticized for a slow reaction to the disaster, said he would send a delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) to the region on Sunday to assess the need for U.S. assistance. Bush has pledged $35 million so far.

The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a flotilla of ships is steaming to Thailand to set up a base to coordinate aid for the region.

People across the world opened their hearts and wallets to give millions of dollars to victims, jamming phone lines and Web sites and in some cases outpacing their own governments in their generosity.

The Paris Club group of creditors is to examine a debt moratorium for disaster-struck countries, a source close to the Club said.

Indonesia's Foreign Minister Hassan Wirajuda said Jakarta has invited heads of state from the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations, China, Japan, South Korea (news - web sites), India, Sri Lanka, Australia, New Zealand and the United States to the aid summit along with the U.N., World Bank (news - web sites) and other agencies.

Analysts estimated damages from the disaster at about $14 billion, but that does not include potential losses of business and productivity. Some are cutting economic growth estimates for the hardest-hit countries.

Getting aid to the survivors is the big problem, with many roads washed out, petrol stations not operating and poor coordination among the military, aid groups and governments.

Many villages and resorts from Thailand to Indonesia are now mud-covered rubble, blanketed with the stench of corpses.

Weary volunteers and aid workers were piling body after bloated body into temporary mortuaries in Khao Lak, Thailand, where nearly 2,000 foreign tourists are known to have died.

"They just keep coming," said New Zealander Marko Cunningham at a makeshift mortuary in one of the Buddhist temples near the beach. "Everyone is sick of it." International forensic teams have flown in to identify badly decomposed bodies before burial.

Aircraft dropped supplies to nearly obliterated towns in Sumatra, an island the size of Florida.

But food and medical supplies were stacking up at the airport on Friday in Banda Aceh, which Indonesia is calling ground zero for the disaster, but few vehicles could be seen delivering aid to the devastated city.

Hundreds of people lined up with Jerry cans at the few working petrol pumps guarded by police with automatic weapons.

"The police are there, otherwise there would be violence," said Zezi Afrizal, 26, a food vendor. "Tell the world we need more fuel."

Handwritten signs tacked up on utility poles and fences across the city pleaded: "Please help. Give us aid."

The hundreds of thousands of homeless were being housed in refugee camps around the Indian Ocean.

Many of them, like Jackson, a 75-year-old farmer on India's remote Nicobar island, are now refugees.

"We are still terrified of the water and the thought of returning to the place where we lost everything," he said at a refugee camp in Port Blair, the main town in the island chain.

"But that island is still the only home I know and I would rather go back soon and die peacefully there than live as a refugee."

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

More than 4,500 confirmed dead in Thailand, half of them foreigners

8 minutes ago Asia - AFP

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=1530&ncid=2337

KHAO LAK, Thailand (AFP) - More than 4,500 people -- almost half of them foreign holidaymakers -- have been confirmed dead in Thailand's tsunami disaster and officials in the worst hit resort region say they expect to find hundreds more bodies later in the day.

AFP/DDP Photo

Reuters

Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster

The governor of Phang Nga province, which includes the devastated resort area of Khao Lak, said 2,027 foreigners and 1,662 Thais were confirmed dead there.

Interior ministry figures showed a total of 821 confirmed dead -- including 203 foreigners -- in the five other provinces on the Andaman Sea coast which were battered by huge waves last Sunday.

The combined data shows a total of 4,510 people including 2,230 foreigners confirmed killed in the whole country.

The ministry said 6,475 are missing nationwide and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said 80 percent of these should be presumed dead.

Phang Nga governor Anuwat Maytheevibulwut told AFP rescuers were Friday expected to retrieve 300 more corpses in his province alone.

"We will try to complete the task today on land but I have no idea how many would be floating in the sea," Anuwat said.

At least 100 more bodies are expected to be removed Friday from the once-idyllic Phi Phi island, said deputy interior minister Sutham Sangprathum.

He said a candlelight New Year vigil would be held on the island -- one of many planned in a sombre nation which normally marks the occasion with frenzied merrymaking.

European nations were also grieving.

New Year's Day will be an official day of mourning in Sweden. Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Thursday that 44 Swedes are confirmed dead in Thailand but that number "is going to end up in the hundreds, in the worst-case scenario exceed 1,000."

Norway said Thursday that at least 21 Norwegians died and 430 were missing across the Indian Ocean region. "We are faced with an incomprehensible tragedy that is growing by the hour," said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the same day that 19 French nationals died in Thailand and there was little hope for 90 who disappeared.

Britain warned nationals not to visit Thailand.

"Flooding, stagnant water, disruption of sewer lines, and poor quality sanitation conditions are conducive for the development of disease," the foreign office said.

In Ottawa, Thailand's ambassador Stanchart Devahastin pleaded for body bags, freezers, coffins and forensic experts to help store and identify decomposing corpses.

Thaksin, who has deployed 20,000 rescue workers, said the figure of those still missing is "very worrying."

He said the search of wrecked buildings had slowed, because of a shortage of heavy equipment and because some rescuers briefly fled Thursday due to a false alarm about more tsunamis.

Disposal of the masses of dead was posing a dilemma, with Western countries keen to preserve the remains for identification and Thai health officials favouring quick disposal in 33 degree Celsius (92 Fahrenheit) heat.

Refrigerated containers were in acutely short supply.

Thai officials and dozens of foreign forensic experts have now agreed that the bodies of foreigners will be collected at three sites in refrigerated containers pending an identification process which could take months, a French police source told AFP.

The bodies will be collected in Khao Lak, Phuket and Krabi province.

Photos and sometimes even fingerprints are useless in many cases because the corpses are so decomposed.

"As in all disasters, we are rushing afterwards. We have made progress but the disaster has also made progress," said one expert.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

World - AP Asia

U.N.: Tsunami Disaster Will Cost Billions

7 minutes ago World - AP Asia

By LEYLA LINTON, Associated Press Writer

UNITED NATIONS - As world governments and private organizations increase their financial pledges for the tsunami disaster in Asia, the United Nations (news - web sites) is stressing that billions will be needed in the long-term

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) says he's "satisfied" with world government relief pledges for victims of the tsunami, but he stressed that U.N. resources are stretched thin and long-term aid is needed.

Around $500 million has been pledged so far, including a $250 million commitment from the World Bank (news - web sites), Annan said Thursday. "This is an unprecedented global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented global response," he said.

"Over the past few days it has registered deeply in the consciousness and conscience of the world as we seek to grasp the speed, the force and magnitude with which it happened. But we must also remain committed for the longer term," he said.

Annan said countries would need to coordinate and pool efforts, because no one country or agency could deal with the disaster alone.

Annan applauded U.S. efforts to set up a core planning group, which includes Japan, India, Australia and the United Nations.

Annan was to meet with Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) at the United Nations on Friday to discuss relief efforts.

Annan met with European Union (news - web sites) ambassadors to the United Nations on Thursday. Afterward, Ambassador Dirk Jan van den Berg of the Netherlands, which holds the European Union presidency, said he expected the European Commission (news - web sites) to join the core group.

Citing the scope of the disaster, which involves tens of thousands dead and millions in need of immediate assistance, Annan said more helping hands are needed.

He said he hoped the donor nations will not use development aid as relief funds, "robbing Peter to pay Paul."

U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland said Thursday the U.N. appeal for emergency relief to be launched Jan. 6 would be in the hundreds of millions of dollars, but long-term costs would be higher.

"The reconstruction effort will be just tremendous and the total damages in the billions and billions of dollars," he said.

While acknowledging that global response has been generous, Egeland reiterated his concern that rich nations give too little for long-term development assistance.

"I am not satisfied with the many rich countries in the world who are getting increasingly rich ... . It is my full-time job to advocate for the poor and to ask for more money from those who can give."

Echoing Annan's comments, Egeland also said the United Nations is "overstretched" because of crises in Sudan and Congo.

"In Eastern Congo we have surveys saying 1,000 people die per day from preventable disease and from humanitarian neglect," he said. "That is a tsunami every four months, for years. We do not have enough resources."

Several countries made new aid commitments Thursday.

France roughly doubled its aid pledge to $57 million, and Britain tripled an earlier relief donation to $95 million.

Canada has pledged $33 million. Sweden pledged $75 million.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

Friday, 31 December, 2004, 07:06 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4136465.stm

Chaos hinders Aceh relief drive

A shattered infrastructure is stopping the delivery of aid in Indonesia's quake-ravaged Aceh province, where the death toll is now almost 80,000.

Some 500,000 people are without homes and desperately need help, a government spokesman told the BBC.

Many areas remain inaccessible after Sunday's disaster, which wiped out roads, ports and airstrips.

The government has announced it will host an international summit next week, to address the regional crisis.

The BBC's Andrew Harding in the provincial capital Banda Aceh says a logistical nightmare awaits the aid operation now taking shape.

He says foreign doctors have arrived in force at the main hospital in the city, but many essential items are in desperately short supply.

Infections are spreading among the injured, while food and clean drinking water - as well as the fuel needed to deliver it - remain scarce.

'Self-contained' aid

The UN has said it is especially worried about conditions in Aceh, close to the epicentre of the massive undersea earthquake that sent vicious waves of water crashing into coastlines across the Indian Ocean.

An official from the UN's World Health Organization, David Nabarro, said he is "pretty certain" supplies are available, but distributing them where they are needed most is the main obstacle.

Another UN official, relief co-ordinator Margareta Wahlstrom, said aid agencies are delivering mobile offices to the disaster zone so that aid workers can be "totally self-contained".

A base camp for international aid workers is expected to be ready by Friday, the UN said.

Infrastructure hit

An Indonesian naval ship carrying marines and medical teams has now anchored off devastated coastal town of Meulaboh. Up to 75% of the town is reported to have been wiped out.

Large areas of the south-west coast of Sumatra, the island where Aceh lies, as well as a string of smaller islands nearby, remain completely cut off.

Roads and airstrips in the region have been washed away and its ports have been destroyed, Indonesian presidential spokesman Andi Mallarangang told the BBC World Service's Newshour programme.

He said fuel for the naval vessels being used to access the worst-hit areas was being transported by truck from the town of Medan, a 24-hour drive away.

Some 10 helicopters had been made available, he said, but they could not carry large cargoes or land in water-logged areas.

Aceh's government offices and police and military bases had themselves lost staff and equipment in the disaster, Mr Mallarangang said.

He said all relief would be welcome - from heavy equipment and skilled manpower to body bags and tents.

cdnvic · December 31, 2004

That sattelite photo of that town is gonna haunt me for a while.

cv

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

last night on Thai TV (was it ITV?) have have shown similar photo for Phuket as I recall

the website provided thaitsunami.com - doesn't work

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

Map of affected countries and their death tolls

1. Indonesia: 79,940

2. Sri Lanka: 27,268

3. India (inc Andaman and Nicobar Is): 11,330

4. Thailand: 4,510

5. Somalia: 120

6. Burma: 90

7. Maldives: 67

8. Malaysia: 65

9. Tanzania: 10

10. Seychelles: 1

11. Bangladesh: 2

12. Kenya: 1

KEY AID PLEDGES

World Bank $250m

UK $96m

EU $44m

US: $35m

Canada: $33m

Japan: $30m

Australia: $27m

France: $20.4m

Denmark: $15.6m

Saudi Arabia: $10m

Source: Reuters, United Nations

FOREIGNERS MISSING AND DEAD

Sweden: 44 dead, at least 1,400 missing

Germany: 33 dead, over 1,000 missing

Britain: 28 dead, 50 missing

France: 22 dead, 90 missing

Norway: 21 dead, 430 missing

Italy: 14 dead, 600 missing

US: 14 dead, thousands unaccounted for

Switzerland: 11 dead, 850 unaccounted for

Australia: 10 dead, 1,000 missing

NATURAL DISASTERS

2004: Asian quake disaster - more than 122,000 dead

2003: Earthquake in Bam, Iran, officially kills 26,271

1976: Earthquake in Tangshan, China, kills 242,000

1970: Cyclone in Bangladesh kills 500,000

1887: China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000

1826: Tsunami kills 27,000 in Japan

1815: Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island kills 90,000

1556: Earthquake in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces kills 830,000

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Friday, 31 December, 2004, 03:58 GMT

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4136153.stm

UN urges 'special' wave response

United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan has said the scale of the Indian Ocean tsunami disaster demands an unprecedented world response.

He said the international community had reacted well to the wave aftermath but long-term commitment was required.

The World Bank, individual countries and citizens have pledged $500m in aid.

The death toll from Sunday's disaster is continuing to rise as relief workers reach more remote areas. More than 123,000 people are now confirmed dead.

Thousands of people remain unaccounted for after the 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake off Sumatra sent a wall of water smashing into coastlines as far away as east Africa.

Aid agencies have been struggling to provide relief to the region.

The World Health Organization says as many as five million people are at risk, with little water, food or shelter.

'Enormous strain'

US Secretary of State Colin Powell will meet Mr Annan on Friday before setting off on a visit to tsunami-hit areas on Sunday.

Mr Annan said after a meeting in New York with UN officials that the entire UN family was ready to help people rebuild their lives.

But he said there was an enormous strain on the UN, its staff and resources, and the disaster was so huge that no single country or agency could cope alone.

"This is an unprecedented global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented global response," he said.

"But we must also remain committed for the longer term. We know that the impact will be felt for a long time to come."

The World Bank has announced it is giving $250m to help victims while the UK increased its contribution to $96m, the biggest donation from an individual country.

The International Red Cross has opened a special website to cope with what it describes as the overwhelming amount of donations.

Support is also growing for a debt moratorium for some of the stricken countries, with France backing a proposal made by Germany.

Canada has announced its own unilateral moratorium.

Italy called for an extraordinary G8 summit to discuss debt relief, but UK Prime Minister Tony Blair said it was the job of the UN not the G8 to co-ordinate aid.

Stockpiles mount

Mr Powell agreed the UN had chief responsibility for co-ordinating the aid effort, despite a move by Washington to set up a core group of donor countries with India, Australia and Japan.

Donors were considering holding a conference next week, he said.

Mr Powell go to the affected region with US President George W Bush's brother Jeb, who has experience of handling natural disasters as governor of Florida, which was hit by three devastating hurricanes this year.

There are problems getting aid through to where it is needed as much of the region's infrastructure has been shattered.

Stockpiles of supplies have begun to mount at some airports and distribution centres, where helicopter shortages have held up airlifts of aid.

Health ministry officials in Indonesia put the death toll there at 79,940 on Thursday after large numbers of bodies were found on Sumatra's remote north-west coast.

Government institutions in the region have collapsed and fuel supplies have almost run out, officials said.

On Thursday, aftershocks off Indonesia triggered fresh panic among survivors in Aceh, the worst-hit province.

Rumours of impending waves quickly spread to the two other countries which bore the brunt of Sunday's tsunamis - India and Sri Lanka - prompting a mass flight from coastal areas.

Edited December 31, 2004 by aaaaaa

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake of moment magnitude 9.0 that struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 at 00:58:53 UTC (07:58:53 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok). It was the largest earthquake on Earth since the 9.2-magnitude Good Friday Earthquake which struck Alaska on March 27, 1964, and the fourth largest since 1900 (tied with a 1952 earthquake of 9.0 magnitude in Kamchatka). More than a hundred thousand people were killed by tsunamis of heights of up to 15 m, which flooded coastlines between 15 minutes and 10 hours after the quake, causing the deadliest tsunami in recorded history and one of the deadliest natural disasters in modern history.

The multiple tsunamis struck and ravaged coastal regions all over the Indian Ocean, devastating parts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other countries. Deadly tsunamis struck as far away as Somalia and several other countries on the east coast of Africa, 4,500 km (2,800 mi) or more west of the epicentre. Global ripple effects were so widespread that wave fluctuations passed into the Pacific Ocean and caused tidal disturbances in North and South America.

The plight of the affected people and countries prompted a widespread humanitarian response.

Quake characteristics

The quake was initially reported as 6.8 on the Richter scale. On the moment magnitude scale, which is more accurate for quakes of this size [1] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/meas.html), the earthquake's magnitude was first reported as 8.1 by the United States Geological Survey, but after further analysis they increased this first to 8.5 and 8.9 and finally 9.0.

Since 1900, the only earthquakes larger than this one were the 1960 Great Chilean Earthquake (magnitude 9.5, the largest ever recorded) and two Alaskan quakes: the 1964 Good Friday Earthquake (9.2) and a March 9, 1957 quake [2] (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/usa/1957_03_09.html) in the Andreanof Islands (9.1). The only other recorded earthquake of magnitude 9.0 was in 1952 off the southeast coast of Kamchatka [3] (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eq_depot/world/1952_11_04.html). Each of these earthquakes also spawned tsunamis (in the Pacific Ocean), but the death toll from these was significantly lower, ranging from zero to a few thousand (see Top 10 earthquakes (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/10maps_world.html)).

The hypocentre was at 3.298°N, 95.779°E, some 160 km (100 mi) west of Sumatra, at a depth of 30 km (18.6 mi) below mean sea level (initially reported as 10 km). This is at the extreme western end of the "Ring of Fire", an earthquake belt that accounts for 81% of the world's largest earthquakes. [4] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html#1) The quake itself (apart from the tsunamis) was felt as far away as Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Myanmar, Singapore, Thailand and the Maldives.

The earthquake was unusually large in geographical extent. An estimated 1,200 km (750 mi) of faultline slipped 15 m (50 ft) along the subduction zone where the India Plate dives under the Burma Plate. The seabed of the Burma plate is estimated to have risen 10m vertically up over the Indian plate, creating shock waves in the Indian Ocean that traveled at up to 800 km/h (500 mi/h), forming tsunamis when they reached land.

The India Plate is part of the great Indo-Australian Plate, which underlies the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal, and is drifting northeast at an average of 6 cm/yr (2 in/yr) (or 5 m (17 ft) per century), relative to the Burma Plate. The Burma Plate carries the Nicobar and Andaman Islands and northern Sumatra, and is pushed by the Sunda Plate to its east. Both the Burma and Sunda Plates are considered portions of the great Eurasian Plate. The tectonic activity that results as these plates scrape against each other led to the creation of the Sunda Arc.

Aftershocks and other earthquakes

Numerous aftershocks of magnitude between 5.7 and 6.3 were reported off the Andaman Islands in the hours and days that followed. Aftershocks off the Nicobar Islands were also reported, including ones of magnitude 7.1 [5] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussmax.htm), and 6.6 [6] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussmbj.htm). Other aftershocks between magnitude 5.0 and 6.3 occurred near the location of the original quake. See also: USGS current earthquake information (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/quakes_all.html).

The earthquake came just three days after a magnitude 8.1 earthquake in a completely uninhabited region west of New Zealand's sub-Antarctic Auckland Islands, and north of Australia's Macquarie Island [7] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/ussjal.htm). This would normally be unusual, since earthquakes of magnitude 8 or more typically occur an average of once per year [8] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/hist.html#8). Seismologists have speculated about a possible connection between these two earthquakes, saying that the former one might have been a catalyst to the Indian Ocean earthquake, as the two quakes happened on opposite sides of the Indo-Australian tectonic plate [9] (http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,4057,11787870%255E28477,00.html). The possibility of a seismic chain reaction across neighboring plates has also been considered, after a series of earthquakes peaking at 5.0 also struck China's Yunnan province on December 26, killing one person and injuring twenty-three. Coincidentally, the earthquake struck almost exactly one year (within an hour) after a magnitude 6.6 earthquake killed an estimated 30,000 people in the city of Bam in Iran [10] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsww/Quakes/uscvad.htm).

[edit]

Power of the earthquake

The total energy released by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake is equivalent to 32,000 megatons of TNT. [11] (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/faq/meas.html#19) This exceeds the total amount of energy consumed in the United States in one month, or the energy released by the wind of a hurricane like Hurricane Isabel over a period of 70 days ([12] (http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2003/10/031031062553.htm)). Using the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2, this amount of energy is equivalent to a mass of about 1500 kg (3300 lb). Equivalently, this amount of energy is enough to boil 10,000 litres (2,600 US gallons) of water for every person on Earth. Note that each unit of the magnitude scale represents a 31.6-fold increase in energy; every two units signifies 1,000 times more energy.

The massive release of energy and shift in mass insignificantly altered the Earth's rotation. The exact amount is yet undetermined, but theoretical models suggest the earthquake may have shortened the length of a day by as much as three microseconds (3 µs). However, due to tidal effects of the Moon, the length of a day increases by 15 µs every year, so any rotational speedup due to the earthquake will be quickly lost. Similarly, the earthquake may have also caused the Earth to minutely "wobble" on its axis by up to 2.5 cm (1 inch). However, the natural Chandler wobble of the Earth can be up to 15 m (50 ft) [13] (http://slate.msn.com/id/2111443/) [14] (http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/science/12/29/quake.wobble.reut/index.html).

Based on one seismic model, some of the smaller islands southwest of Sumatra may have moved southwest up to 20 m (66 ft). The northern tip of Sumatra, which is on the Burma Plate (the southern regions are on the Sunda Plate), may also have moved southwest up to 36 m (118 ft). However, other models suggest that most of the movement would have been vertical rather than lateral. Onsite measurements using GPS will be used to determine the extent and nature of actual geophysical movement.

Tsunami characteristics

See larger versionThe earthquake triggered massive tsunamis that struck the coasts of the Indian Ocean; Pacific Ocean coasts by contrast saw only minor sea level fluctuations. Viewing a complete animation of how the waves traveled shows exactly how and why some countries were more badly affected than others.

See a complete animation of how the waves traveled — warning, large file (about 1 MB).

Because the 1200 km of faultline affected by the quake was in a nearly north-south orientation, the greatest strength of the tsunami waves was in an east-west direction. Bangladesh, which lies at the northern end of the Bay of Bengal, had very few casualties despite being a low-lying country regularly devastated by cyclones.

Coasts that have a land mass between them and the tsunami's location of origin are usually safe; however, tsunamis can sometimes refract around such land masses. Thus, the Indian state of Kerala was hit by tsunamis despite being on the western coast of India. Also, distance alone is no guarantee of safety: Somalia was hit harder than Bangladesh despite being much farther away.

Tsunamis usually occur along the Pacific Ocean coasts of the "Ring of Fire", where populations and government authorities are better prepared and tsunami warning systems are in place. Several lethal earthquake-caused tsunamis have struck Pacific Ocean coasts and near the centre of the Indonesian archipelago in recent years: Flores (December 12, 1992), Java (June 3, 1994), Sulawesi (May 3, 2000).

Only the extreme western edge of the "Ring of Fire" lies within the Indian Ocean; nearly all of it is in the Pacific. Thus Indian ocean tsunamis are rare; the last tsunami near Sumatra, on the Indian Ocean side and western end of Indonesia, was caused by the eruption of Krakatoa in 1883. So the death toll of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake may be particularly high since this is the first large Indian Ocean tsunami to strike land in 100 years, leaving the affected countries unprepared and the people unable to recognise the telltale signs of an approaching tsunami (such as the sea receding from the coast in the minutes before the wave hits).

Damage and casualties

The death toll from the earthquake, the tsunamis and the resultant floods was reported to be more than 125,000, with tens of thousands of people reported missing, and over a million left homeless. Relief agencies report that one-third of the dead appear to be children. This is a result of the high proportion of children in the populations of many of the affected regions and the fact that children were the least able to resist being dragged by the surging waters. In addition to the large number of local residents, foreign tourists enjoying the busy Christmas holiday travel season were among the casualties.

States of emergency were declared in Sri Lanka, Indonesia and Maldives. The United Nations has declared that the current relief operation will be the costliest one ever. Governments and NGOs fear the final death toll may double as a result of diseases, prompting a massive humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

Historians predict that this will end up being the single worst tsunami (and in the top ten of most destructive earthquakes) in modern history, both in terms of total fatalities and economic damage.

For purposes of establishing timelines of local events, the time zones of affected areas are: UTC+3: (Kenya, Somalia); UTC+4: (Mauritius, Réunion, Seychelles); UTC+5: (Maldives); UTC+5:30: (India); UTC+6: (Bangladesh, Sri Lanka); UTC+6:30: (Cocos Islands, Myanmar); UTC+7: (Indonesia (western), Thailand); UTC+8: (Malaysia, Singapore). Since the quake occurred at 00:58:53 UTC, add the above offsets to find the local time of the quake. A list of times can be found at [15] (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_tz.html)(a USGS site).

Casualty summary

{the chart provided contains a lot of URLs and couldn't be copied as plain text; we have copied only Total figure, for casualties per country - please view on the we site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake}

Deaths

Confirmed Estimated Injured Missing Displaced

Total 126,185 132,000+ 510,000 20,000+ 3 - 5 million

Note: All figures are approximate and subject to constant change.

India, Indonesia, and Sri Lanka have suffered the vast majority of casualties from the natural disaster. A description of the countries most affected by the earthquake and resulting tsunamis is below. In order to make the article easier to read, the description of nations whose casualty totals cannot be counted in the dozens, as well as the account of nations that have lost citizens who were traveling abroad are listed as other countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.

{big part detailing each country is skipped - please refer to original source}

Damage in historical context

Regional map showing physiographic features, tectonic plate movements, and locations of volcanoes, earthquakes, and impact craters (Credit: USGS)

Although the earthquake was the fourth most powerful recorded since 1899, the likely death toll is lower than would have been the case if it had struck at a densely populated area. The deadliest earthquakes since 1899 were the Tangshan, China, earthquake of 1976, in which at least 255,000 were killed (estimates for this earthquake are as high as 650,000), the Ashgabat, Turkmenistan earthquake of 1948 (110,000), the Tsinghai, China earthquake of 1927 (200,000), the Great Kanto earthquake which struck Tokyo in 1923 (143,000), and the Gansu, China earthquake of 1920 (200,000). The deadliest known earthquake in history occurred in 1556 in Shaanxi, China, with an estimated death toll of 830,000, though figures from this time period may not be reliable ([57] (http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/eqlists/eqsmajr.html)).

While there are historical earthquakes that were more deadly, the tsunami created appears to be the most deadly in recorded history. The most deadly tsunami in history prior to 2004 was the result of an earthquake in the South China Sea in 1782 that killed 40,000. The tsunami created by the 1883 explosion of Krakatoa is thought to have resulted in 36,000 deaths. The most deadly tsunami between 1900 and 2004 occurred in the Moro Gulf, Philippines and killed 8,000 in 1976. The most deadly tsunami in the Atlantic resulted from the 1755 Lisbon earthquake that, combined with the toll from the actual earthquake, killed over 100,000.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake

Early warning systems

Relative size of a 10 m (33 ft) wave

The nations of the Indian Ocean do not participate in a regional tsunami early warning system like that in the Pacific Ocean, though neither do the nations of the Atlantic Ocean. The first reaction of many to the the disaster has been to question governmental priorities in the region in not having constructed such a system, but the region had no prior precedent to justify it.

In the Pacific, a system of sensors is linked to monitoring stations so that local media can warn the populace to seek higher ground well before a tsunami arrives. The system dates back to 1965 and was a reaction to the tsunamis resulting from the 9.2 seaquake of 1964, which was the last quake of 9.0 or larger magnitude. Thailand is a member of the Pacific tsunami warning system, but all of its ocean buoys, upon which wave sensors are mounted, are on the east coast of the country.

A single wave station south of the epicentre measured a two foot tall tsunami moving towards Australia. However wave fluctuations of 2.6 meters at Manzanillo, Colima was measured on tsunamis heading towards Mexico. The US Geological Survey has stated that if a monitoring and warning system had been in place, the loss of life could have been reduced, especially in areas that were struck by tsunamis more than three hours after the initial tremor, such as Sri Lanka and India. Furthermore, in Pacific regions where tsunamis are better known, the receding of the sea from the coast would have warned many people of an impending ocean surge. In the Indian Ocean region, this rare sight has been reported to have induced people to visit the coast to investigate. Also, the intensity of the tremors in India and Sri Lanka was too low to raise an alarm.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, the Indian government has decided to install equipment to warn about impending tsunamis, and to join a group of countries that would share information on tsunamis. The Malaysian government has also proposed to create a tsunami warning system, in cooperation with other countries in the region ([58] (http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?file=/2004/12/28/nation/9760871&sec=nation)).

Post-tsunami humanitarian situation

Main article: Humanitarian response to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

A great deal of humanitarian aid is needed due to widespread damage to infrastructure, food and water shortages, and economic damage to the fishing and tourism industries. Epidemics are of special concern, as they are highly likely due to the high population density and tropical climate of the affected areas. The United Nations has stated that the largest relief operation in history is underway. The overwhelming concern of humanitarian and government agencies is to quickly identify and bury the dead before they become a health issue, and also contain the spread of diseases such as cholera, diphtheria, dysentery and typhoid. Nations all over the world have so far provided hundreds of millions of US dollars for damaged regions, the World Bank offering $250 million and UK government and public offering $140 million. Officials estimate that billions of dollars will be needed.

[edit]

Bodies of those killed by trauma are not dangerous

Significant effort is being spent in hurriedly burying bodies, explicitly to prevent the spread of disease. However, the rotting corpses of victims of trauma, rather than infectious disease, are a "negligible" threat to public health, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In this and other disasters where there is competition for resources, more should be spent caring for survivors and less disposing urgently of the dead. Of course, religious and cultural practices, the stench, and the effect on morale must also be taken into consideration.

Mass burials do more harm than good-experts (http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/0/0fb1a0c8c4ca2bac49256e0d0006659c?OpenDocument)

==================================

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megatsunami

Megatsunami

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

A megatsunami is a rare tsunami more than 100 meters (325ft) high. Aside from some large tsunamis in Alaska, including one 520 m high, the last megatsunami to hit a populated area is believed to have occurred 4,000 years ago. Geologists say it is usually caused by a very large landslide, such as a collapsing island, into a vast body of water such as an ocean or sea.

Megatsunamis can rise to heights of hundreds of meters, travel at 890 km/h in mid-ocean and potentially reach 20 km inland in low-lying regions.

In deep ocean, a megatsunami is barely noticeable. It moves as a vertical shift of only a metre or so throughout the volume of water, with a crest to crest distance of hundreds of kilometers. However the huge amount of energy in the motion of this massive volume generates a much higher wave as it approaches shallow water.

Underwater earthquakes do not normally generate such large tsunamis unless they also trigger an underwater landslide — typically they have a height of less than ten metres.

Landslides that are large compared to the depth of water hit the water so fast that the displaced water cannot settle before the rocks hit the bottom. This means that the rocks displace the water at full speed all the way to the bottom. If the water is deep, the displaced volume is large and the lower parts are under high pressure. The resulting wave contains large amounts of energy.

Some have conjectured that historic megatsunamis underlie the deluge legends that are common to many cultures throughout the world. However this is unlikely, considering that megatsunamis usually occur without any warning, only hit coastal areas, and do not necessarily occur after a rain.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

I've tried to but couldn't find how to edit it - thanks for your help in this!

/only moderators can, thanks

Edited December 31, 2004 by Darknight

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

/only moderators can, thanks

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

that's much I've understood.

so perhaps you could kindly do that since you are one of them

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

Asia - AFP

12 minutes ago

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=stor...=1530&ncid=2337

Desperate struggle to help millions as tsunami toll passes 125,000

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) - Desperate relief workers are struggling to get food and water to the millions of Asia's tsunami victims facing starvation and disease as the death toll passes 125,000, from what the UN has called "an unprecedented global catastrophe".

Urging a matching "unprecedented global response", UN Secretary General Kofi Annan (news - web sites) said half a billion dollars in aid had been promised or delivered for relief operations after the waves of death left up to five million people homeless in Asia.

Indonesia, the worst hit among 11 affected nations with almost 80,000 dead, announced that it would host a summit of world leaders on January 6.

"The meeting will be to discuss the handling of the impact of the earthquake and the tsunami," Foreign Minister Hassan Wirayuda said.

Invitations would be sent to 23 countries, including the 10 member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, and four major international organisations.

Wirayuda said President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono would chair the meeting which was being called to "forge a joint commitment to encourage concrete action" for the rehabilitation and reconstruction of areas hit by the disaster.

The possibility of debt relief for poor countries devastated by the tsunamis has also become a major topic as world leaders grapple with the enormity of the human and material cost of the disaster.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) told AFP in an interview that he backed the idea of debt relief to stricken countries, French President Jacques Chirac urged the Paris Club group of rich nations to approve a moratorium on debt payments and Canada put in place a unilateral moratorium.

In Indonesia, rescue workers raced to get aid into the devastated province of Aceh amid growing fears tens of thousands more people could quickly die from disease, starvation and injury.

A magnitude 9.0 undersea earthquake off the coast on Sunday sent torrents of water scything through the exposed province on the northern tip of Sumatra, which accounts for the large majority of the 79,900 people reported dead by authorities in Indonesia.

"The indications are the disaster is going to be a lot worse than we have anticipated already," United Nations (news - web sites) Children's Fund communications director John Budd told AFP by telephone from Jakarta.

"Aceh really is ground zero... there are miles and miles and miles of nothing."

Budd said there was a desperate shortage of food and fuel across the remote province, which had already suffered from a lack of infrastructure due to a decades-long violent battle between separatist rebels and the government.

"There's no food, there's no fuel, it's a cruel situation. If we get food in, say, rice, there is no pure water or fuel to cook it. We are desperately trying to break this cycle," he said.

Efforts to bring vital aid to the province remained hampered by transport problems, compounding the misery for survivors surrounded by rotting bodies and heightening fears that disease will trigger a second round of mass deaths.

The World Health Organisation said that out of an estimated five million people who had been displaced around Asia between one and three million were in Indonesia.

Despite Indonesia's trauma, Sri Lanka and the Maldives were likely to suffer the heaviest economic consequences from the tsunami disaster, with bigger economies in the region better placed to withstand the fallout, analysts said.

The economies of India, Indonesia, Thailand and Malaysia were in a strong position to overcome the tragedy, they said.

Sri Lanka Friday marked an official day of mourning after cancelling all New Year celebrations with the death toll set to exceed 29,000.

The national Lion flag was at half mast at state buildings and radio and television played sombre music as relief workers carried out the grim task of burying rotting corpses in mass graves along the island's devastated coast.

Adding a ghoulish note to the tragedy, local media reported that bodies of tsunami victims in Sri Lanka have been stolen from hospitals and "sold" to distraught relatives while fingers and ears of corpses have been chopped off to steal jewellery.

In Thailand, where more than 2,000 foreigners were among 4,510 people confirmed killed, there were also reports of some rescue workers -- or people posing as them -- looting stores or stealing from bodies.

A major international relief organisation has requested police escorts to help speed the delivery of aid to tsunami stricken areas in Sri Lanka, an Australian aid official said.

Blocked roads and other problems are hindering aid convoys, which this week took eight hours to carry emergency supplies the 120 kilometers (75 miles) from the capital Colombo to the southern city of Galle, said Tim Costello, head of World Vision Australia.

"We've now got a promise from the government that we'll have police escorts with our lorries because the aid is only trickling when it takes that long -- it needs to be flooding," Costello told Channel Seven television from Colombo.

While emergency aid is the focus at the moment, the UN's Annan said "we must also remain committed for the longer term. We know that the impact will be felt for a long time to come."

"A total of half a billion in assistance has been pledged and received, as well as contributions in kind. More than 30 countries have stepped forward to help us help millions of individuals from around the world," he said.

Britain led the field with a pledge of 96 million dollars, followed by Sweden, the Netherlands and France which offered tens of millions of dollars more than they had previously amid charges that wealthy countries were "stingy."

If there is any silver lining to the tsumani cloud, it is that the disaster could put a stop, at least temporarily, to one of the separatist wars in the region.

In Sri Lanka, calls have been made for the government and Tamil Tiger rebels to unite in the aftermath of the disaster, despite three decades of war that have left 60,000 dead.

"The silver lining in this tragedy is that we may not go back to war anytime soon," said retired airforce chief Harry Gunatillake. "The common grief also gives an opportunity for mending fences."

Indonesia's President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has also urged separatist rebels in Aceh to lay down their weapons and join efforts to rebuild the region.

"I call on those who are still raising arms, to come out... let us use this historic momentum to join and be united again," Yudhoyono said.

But the Indonesian military said Friday it was continuing to launch raids against the separatists.

"Our security operations continue, the only difference is that it may be less in scale and intensity," Lieutenant Colonel Nachrowi, of the military headquarters' general information department, told AFP.

Several affected countries, including India where nearly 12,000 people died, have cancelled plans for New Year's Eve celebrations. The government in Malaysia, where 66 people died, has replaced planned fireworks displays and other celebrations with a call to prayer.

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

Video Shows Tsunami Hitting Malaysian Coast

Annan: Nations Pledge $500M in Disaster Aid

Tsunami Death Toll Soars Past 117,000

Audio/Video - Asia Tsunamis

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=2338

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/3...uake/index.html

Tsunami death toll tops 134,000

World Bank will release $250 million

Friday, December 31, 2004 Posted: 3:52 AM EST (0852 GMT)

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from Sunday's tsunamis has jumped to more than 134,000 after Sri Lankan officials and Tamil Tiger rebel officials combined their tallies, which now stands at 40,389.

CNN correspondent Stan Grant reports Tamil rebel officials estimate 14,000 people were killed and 6,000 are missing in rebel-controlled areas in the north and east.

The Sri Lankan government is counting 26,389 deaths.

In Sri Lanka's non-rebel areas, 4,832 are missing and most likely dead, 12,482 are injured, and 888,035 are without homes.

At least 10,000 were killed in India, the country's official state media said.

In Thailand, more than 4,000 are feared dead and dozens of deaths are reported in Malaysia, Myanmar, Maldives, Somalia and Tanzania.

Many who did survive are struggling to stay alive, and the World Health Organization estimates that five million people are without basic needs.

Emergency workers reported that in some parts of Aceh, Indonesia -- the region closest to the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned the killer tsunamis -- as many as one in every four citizens was dead.

Scenes of destruction were repeated across the region, as were the scenes of grief with residents and holidaymakers searching in vain for loved ones.

The events began just before 7 a.m. (midnight GMT Saturday) when a massive earthquake -- at magnitude 9.0, the strongest in the world since 1964 -- struck just 160 kilometers (100 miles) off Aceh's coast.

Indonesian-based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the area and said it was "like a nuclear blast has leveled the area."

Between Meulaboh and Chalang, about 60 miles north, no villages are left, he said.

Calong, a town of 13,000, has "vaporized," he said.

"You couldn't even recognize there'd been a town there unless you'd flown over it before."

Dino Patti Djalal, spokesman for Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, said the Indonesian military's 30,000-strong force in the province was devastated.

Saying an unprecedented catastrophe requires an unprecedented response, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan has appealed for the international community to come together to help aid the areas ravaged by the tsunami.

Annan announced that the World Bank had added $250 million to the $250 million already pledged by the international community for the humanitarian effort, but more is needed.

The United Nations will send out an appeal for millions of dollars, and a donors conference is planned for January 11.

Several European nations said they were increasing their donations in response to Annan's appeal, including Britain which increased its pledge from $30 million to $95 million.

Canada has announced a debt moratorium for tsunami-affected countries, and other wealthy creditor nations are expected to follow suit.

A U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, brother of President George W. Bush, will travel to southern Asia on Sunday, a White House spokesman said.

John Budd, a spokesman in Indonesia for the U.N.'s children's fund UNICEF, said infrastructure damage in Aceh had made distributing aid especially difficult.

"UNICEF has an office which could have easily started, but that office has been wrecked," he said.

"It needs to be almost a military campaign," he said. "There needs to be airports set up. ... What we're looking at is re-establishing a social infrastructure in that country."

On Thursday, an Indonesian official said the death toll there had nearly doubled, from 45,000 to 79,940. (Full story)

Meanwhile, a low-pressure weather system settled over Medan on Sumatra, where the Aceh relief effort is based, forcing officials to close the airport and ground planes carrying aid to the hard-hit province.

A tsunami warning from Indian authorities on Thursday sent thousands of panicked coastal residents fleeing for higher ground. But the warning appeared to be a false alarm, after officials said it was meant as advice to be careful, not orders to evacuate. (Full story)

On the Indian coast, survivors wondered what they would do now that their homes have been flattened.

In Sri Lanka, survivors told CNN they were afraid and had lost hope after losing everything they owned and seeing members of their families swept out to sea.

WHO's David Nabarro said survivors were at risk of diarrhea, respiratory infections and insect-borne diseases that could result in "quite high rates of death," but he quickly added that the living are in more danger from other survivors than from the dead. (Full story)

Nabarro also said the mental health of the survivors is at risk. "Tremendous mental scarring" results from disasters like this one, he said.

There also were fears in Sri Lanka that plastic land mines could be uprooted by the floodwaters. (Full story)

Islands engulfed

Just before the towering waves washed over Sri Lanka, they swamped the vacation shores of Thailand, home to 40 percent of the country's $10 billion tourism industry.

Thai officials have confirmed more than 4,000 deaths, 1,000 of which are believed to have been in the low-lying coastal province of Phang Na.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said Thursday that casualties in his country could reach 7,000.

Some of Thailand's smaller vacation islands were swallowed by the water, Thailand's Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said.

As far away as Somalia on Africa's east coast, reports trickled in of fishermen swept out to sea and swimmers lost. Jan Egeland, the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, said entire villages were swept away in Somalia, and Kenya television reporter Lillian Odera said "hundreds" were killed there.

In all, at least 11 countries, including the Maldives, Myanmar, Malaysia, Bangladesh and Tanzania, were affected by the monstrous waves.

CNN correspondents Hugh Riminton in Colombo, Sri Lanka; Satinder Bindra in Matara, Sri Lanka; Atika Shubert and Mike Chinoy in Banda Aceh, Indonesia; Aneesh Raman and Matthew Chance near Phuket, Thailand; Suhasini Haidar in Chennai, India; and journalist Iqbal Athas in Sri Lanka contributed to this report.

Edited December 31, 2004 by aaaaaa

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/2...aths/index.html

Tsunami kills more than 134,000

Friday, December 31, 2004 Posted: 3:58 AM EST (0858 GMT)

(CNN) -- Relief officials are working to assess the death tolls from Sunday's tsunami that killed thousands of people in at least 11 countries.

CNN has confirmed that the undersea earthquake off Sumatra and the giant waves it triggered killed 134,000 people, and that number is expected to rise.

Deaths by country:

Indonesia: 79,940

Sri Lanka: 40,389, with another 10,000 missing and considered most likely dead.

India: At least 10,000

Thailand: More than 4,000. Thai PM says toll could exceed 7,000.

Myanmar: 90

Malaysia: 66

Maldives: 46

Tanzania: 10

Bangladesh: 2

Somalia: Kenyan media reports hundreds dead.

Kenya: Kenyan media reports one death.

Seychelles: Unconfirmed reports of deaths.

Edited December 31, 2004 by aaaaaa

Richard W · December 31, 2004

Britain warned nationals not to visit Thailand.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I don't think such a statement ever appeared in the UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office Advice to Travellers to Thailand. At present (update on 30/12/04) it is advising against travel to the West Coast, especially Phuket, Krabi and Khao Lak. I thought earlier it was just saying:

If you are intending to visit any of the areas of Thailand affected, you should check carefully with your travel and/or accommodation agents to make sure that it is safe and tenable to proceed. Phuket Airport is in operation.

The following paragraph seems new:

There has been considerable damage to the underlying health care in affected areas. Flooding, stagnant water, disruption of sewer lines, and poor quality sanitation conditions are conducive to development of disease. Those in affected areas are advised to purchase bottled water, as local water sources may be contaminated. For further information health, check the Department of Health’s website at: www.dh.gov.uk

Can anyone advise on what's happening on this front? The last I read here was that the sewage works in Patong was out of action, another reason not to go swimming there.

If these quotes from the advice matter to you, please check with the Advice at the FCO site (link above). The Advice can change rapidly. Ministers have announced that adequate measures to prevent epidemics will already have been put in place, but in a Thaksin-like fashion that immediately dispelled my confidence that they would be.

Edited December 31, 2004 by Richard W

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/3...g.ap/index.html

Thursday, December 30, 2004 Posted: 9:44 AM EST (1444 GMT)

Echoes of 9/11 in hunt for loved ones

PHUKET, Thailand (AP) -- Pictures flutter from notice boards at Phuket's city hall: Thai families posing stiffly for a formal photo; Smiling tourists basking in the sun; Battered corpses. They are the missing and the dead from Sunday's devastating tsunamis.

In scenes reminiscent of the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terror attacks in New York, anxious friends and relatives are converging on city hall -- a makeshift diplomatic enclave and relief center on the Thai island of Phuket where nations have set up temporary embassies on fold-up tables.

Diplomats log lists of names in computers and offer free phone calls to survivors.

There are computers giving access to Web sites and Internet message boards designed to link up family and friends with the missing.

Experts from around the world have poured into Phuket with equipment to identify victims or take DNA samples and photographs to help put a name to them in the future. Computer-generated lists of the dead and digital photos are posted on notice boards alongside those of survivors.

But there is a huge gulf between the well-coordinated efforts in this tourist haven -- where many victims were wealthy foreigners -- and impoverished regions even harder hit by Sunday's tragedy.

In poor coastal regions of India, Indonesia and Sri Lanka -- where most of the victims died -- most relatives have virtually no access to computers and many are illiterate.

In Indonesia's Banda Aceh region, Samson, who uses only one name, was looking for his grandmother by checking corpse after corpse.

By the side of a road where she used to live, he lifted a mattress covering a bloated body.

"It's not her," Samson shouted to his mother, who couldn't bare to watch. "This one has black hair."

Samson, with cotton wool in each nostril to block out the stench, said he would check all the hundreds of corpses still littering the streets close to where her house used to be. If he had no luck, he would check Banda Aceh's one functioning hospital and then the scores of refugee camps.

"If we still can't find her, then we will accept it as God's will," he said.

Many of the corpses it seems are destined to end up unidentified and buried in mass graves, amid fears rotting corpses could spread disease.

The story is the same along the southeastern coast of India.

In Tamil Nadu state, where more than 6,000 of the national total of nearly 7,000 deaths occurred, hundreds of distraught people left no stone unturned, literally, to look for loved ones. They combed the beaches, turned every boat, every piece of wood and rocks to look for bodies. Many found them.

In the Christian town of Velangani, most of the dead were out-of-town visitors and pilgrims. After the disaster, hundreds of relatives descended on the region looking for their loved ones.

The task of finding the bodies has been left to the police, who have cordoned off beaches to all except a volunteer force of body searchers.

"Relatives cannot search for themselves so we have employed volunteers who are tracing the bodies, consoling kith and kin. We have made arrangements for them to stay here also," said Father P. Xavier, the rector of the Bascilica of Our Lady of Good Health, a shrine dedicated to Virgin Mary.

Grief and hope

In Sri Lanka, where more than 4,000 people are unaccounted for, television channels are devoting 10 minutes every hour to read the names and details of the missing. Often photos of the missing are shown with appeals that they should contact the family or at the nearest police stations.

Back in Phuket -- and despite the high-tech efforts, Catherine and David Smith from Vancouver, Canada, were supposed to meet their friends John and Jackie Knill on Wednesday.

Instead, the Smiths spent the day poring over pictures at city hall after spending the night sleeping on the lawn of a hospital.

At the hall -- where dazed survivors mingled with diplomats, volunteer helpers and other people trying to track down loved ones -- the Smiths registered their friends, also from Vancouver, as missing.

There is no word on their plight.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra warned Thursday that most of the nearly 6,000 still missing in Thailand are likely dead.

German volunteer Thomas Mueller said a German came in Wednesday looking for his mother-in-law. Instead he found her image -- among those of the dead.

"The man he was very sad about it ... he didn't cry. But you could see it in his face -- very sad," Mueller said.

The photo boards are like a United Nations of grief and hope with images of people from countries including Mexico, Sweden, Russia, Switzerland and France.

"The saddest thing is just all the other foreigners that we've run into over the last day and just hearing who they're looking for," Catherine said, her voice choking with emotion.

"Not to sound cliche but I feel like I'm reliving 9/11. I remember sitting at home and watching people who were searching for their missing loved ones and now I'm doing it, it's very surreal."

aaaaaa · December 31, 2004