Maybe Up To 6000 Dead, Tidal Waves Slams Thailand

[Darknight]

Reporters' log: Asia disaster

Aid teams are battling chaos to reach thousands who survived sea surges triggered by a massive earthquake in the Indian Ocean. BBC correspondents report from affected areas around the region and beyond.

Saturday 1 January

Gina Wilkinson : Galle, Sri Lanka : 0850 GMT

Heavy rain on Sri Lanka's battered east coast is adding to the misery of the hundreds of thousands of people whose homes were swept away by tsunamis.

The military says some bridges and roads have been damaged by flash floods, and the south-eastern town of Akkarapathu is under three feet of water.

Some tents and plastic sheeting have been distributed, but many of the half a million people displaced by the disaster have little or no shelter.

Rachel Harvey : Banda Aceh, Indonesia : 0457 GMT

A US aircraft carrier, the USS Abraham Lincoln, has arrived off the Sumatran coast and the first of 12 helicopters have already arrived.

Their mission is to get help to areas which have been cut off from the outside world.

They are reported to be carrying food, water and generators. Back on board, the Americans say they have the facilities to purify up to 90,000 gallons of water a day.

The scene at Banda Aceh's tiny airport is chaotic. Planes are arriving full of aid only to find that there isn't enough manpower to unload the cargo and there's a shortage of safe places to store supplies.

If the relief effort is to be in any way effective, co-ordination now is vital.

Jonathan Charles : Port Blair, Andaman Islands : 0209 GMT

The authorities in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands have been swift to set up camps for the survivors and more than 7,000 people have been airlifted from flooded islands to the regional capital, Port Blair.

But now many of the survivors are accusing the authorities of failing to hand out aid to the camps, saying that if it wasn't for the generosity of Port Blair residents they'd have had nothing to eat and drink.

It's yet another sign that the scale of the disaster, in an island chain near to the epicentre of the earthquake which triggered last weekend's sea surges, is overwhelming the relief operation.

The authorities have rejected offers of help from international charities, insisting that they are coping.

Some aid organisations believe the real reason they're being kept out is because the area includes a sensitive military intelligence base.

[Darknight]

'Money is the best way to help'

By Irene Peroni

BBC News Website

The response to the tsunami appeal is unprecedented, with £50m donated by Britons and more coming in every hour.

But what will your donation buy, and is money really the best way of helping?

The average donation has increased to £100

Plastic sheeting to shelter one of the five million families who have lost their home costs only £8, while £100 will buy a proper family tent.

But Save The Children says that even 60p can save lives. It will buy 100 water purification tablets, which will provide a family with 100 litres of drinkable water, preventing disease.

As the real scale of the disaster became clear, aid agencies started getting inundated by phone calls from members of the public offering money and help.

What does your money buy?

75p: 10-litre jerry can for collecting and storing water

£5: full kitchen set for a displaced family

£15: clothes and shoes for a child who has lost everything

£35: enough food for a family for a week

£100: zinc sheeting and timber to rebuild two family homes

£400: a hand-held satellite phone for emergency teams to use

£1,750: a generator to provide electricity to an emergency camp

Source: Save The Children

"We've had children coming into our high street shops and giving us their pocket money and pensioners giving us their pension," Pippa Ranger, a spokesperson for Save the Children, told the BBC News website.

She said: "Initially, the average donation was about £20 per person, but now that has gone up to £100 per person.

"Cheques we are getting in the post range from £100-£300, so that's a phenomenal response from the public."

'Worst ever disaster'

People involved in the massive fundraising operation believe the festive season has encouraged people to donate more generously.

A spokesperson for the Disasters Emergency Committee told BBC News: "Many people have been moved by the human tragedy which is unfolding on our screens.

"It really has been one of the worst disasters that the world has ever witnessed, and it's come at a time when many people have been on holiday.

Many people have been moved by the human tragedy which is unfolding on our screens

Donors come from all social backgrounds and donate according to their possibilities - but everybody does so with generosity described by charities as "unprecedented".

"One man called on behalf of his church to take a donation on Sunday to buy a boat and help a community that's been affected," said the spokesperson.

"One telephone bureau had received nine pledges of £5,000 each within a day," she added.

'Money is better'

Many people felt they should be doing more - possibly by travelling to the affected areas to work as volunteers.

But both the DEC and individual aid agencies are encouraging people to help through cash donations which, they say, is by far the most effective way of lending a hand.

"The Red Cross as an agency is asking for cash donations," said a spokesman for the British Red Cross.

Money is more essential than volunteers, charities agree

"If people in the UK want to know how they can help volunteer, we would ask them to contact their local branch by looking it up in the phone book or on our website," he added.

"People who are already there should make themselves known to the nearest agency providing assistance - it would obviously be a local decision whether or not they would take them on," he said.

Some charities, such as Save The Children, are looking for volunteers but say they must have previous humanitarian experience.

Merlin, a UK-based international humanitarian organisation, would like to hear from medical volunteers, while Red R - another relief organisation - is looking for engineers.

Sponsoring children

Members of the public have also contacted charities offering to adopt one of the thousands of children who have lost their parents.

But experts believe the best place for them to recover are in their communities.

Ms Ranger said: "In terms of the Save the Children perspective and also on behalf of the DEC, we would advise that children are best off staying in their communities and in their countries.

"That's the best place for them to recover and get the right support from people who speak their language.

"The best thing to do, again, is to donate money."

The DEC also suggests people contact agencies which run sponsorship programmes, such as World Vision and Action Aid to sponsor a child in one of the affected areas.

[george]

Rescue teams to comb targeted areas for more corpses

BANGKOK: -- Rescue teams will today comb targeted areas to search for more bodies from tsunamis, Health Minister Sudarat Keyuraphan said.

She said rescue workers, having collected more than 4,000 bodies, found it difficult to search for corpses in building wreckages and on remote islands due to insufficient equipment.

She was however confident that the search teams would penetrate into all troubled areas to retrieve remaining corpses, adding that forensic teams were busy identifying the recovered bodies by race and sex.

Non-Thai bodies would not be cremated, she confirmed.

Mrs. Sudarat added that medical teams had been keeping a close watch in the affected areas to prevent the outbreak. She warned that local residents should strictly follow hygienic practices as advised by the ministry.

Psychiatrists and volunteers were dispatched to help victims who were still terrified and depressed, said the minister.

"It will take more than six months to heal the victims' mental condition after they have lost their loved ones and belongings," she concluded.

--TNA 2005-01-01

[Darknight]

Volunteers Cope with Grieving Relatives at Thai Morgue

Reuters

By Darren Schuettler

KRABI, Thailand (Reuters) - "I lost my best friend," sobbed Etyan Alexander as Israeli forensic experts tried to comfort him moments after they found Lincoln Abraham's body amid rows of decaying corpses in a Thai temple.

As bodies from the killer tsunami that struck Thailand are slowly identified, volunteers are battling to cope with the wrenching emotional impact on friends and relatives of the dead and still missing.

"They always have hope, but once the body is found, it's final. It's a shock," said Loraine Burrows, a volunteer at the Krabi Buddhist temple that has become a temporary morgue for 357 bodies taken from nearby Phi Phi Island, one of the worst hit by Sunday's tsunami.

Minutes before they received the sad news, Alexander and fellow Briton David Hannunah had been showing their friend's photo to a Reuters Television crew at the temple.

Nearby, as the two were led away by volunteers, Thai Navy Capt. Athachai Barame was consoling a British father whose missing 22-year-old son was found among the dead.

"I told him he was lucky to find his son, others cannot. We try to comfort them for the loss, but an even greater loss is felt by those who don't have a body," he said.

Several countries have sent counselors and psychologists as part of their aid and rescue teams to Thailand. But the morgue at Krabi did not have one on site, Burrows said.

"My husband died on a beach two years ago. I know what it feels like to lose a loved one," said the teacher who lives in Thailand and joined several colleagues to help at the temple.

"We need psychologists to give them support," said Burrows, who a day earlier was helping a distraught Thai mother whose 25-year-old daughter died on Phi Phi.

"She was throwing her arms around, shouting 'No, No! I wrapped my arms around her to calm her down," she said.

EMOTIONAL BURDEN

The burden is even greater on Thais suffering their country's worst natural disaster, said Marko Cunningham, a volunteer at the biggest morgue in Khao Lak, north of Krabi.

"If this was in a foreign country, there would be some really screwed up people. The Thais don't have a choice like we do. They have to deal with situations that we would not stand for, every day of their lives," he said.

The national disaster center said the death toll in Thailand was now 4,560 dead, at least 2,230 of them foreigners and most of them at Khao Lak.

In Krabi, another 60 to 120 bodies were expected Friday from Phi Phi, made famous by Leonardo DiCaprio's film "The Beach," after workers had drained flooded areas.

Michael Martin, a doctor with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, said the emotional scars, for both survivors and relatives of the dead and missing, would be felt for a long time.

"Unfortunately, it's sort of like the World Trade Center, it seems like you either lived or died," he said, referring to the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States which killed thousands.

"For the people who lived here, I can't imagine the psychological impact in the months to come," said Martin, who was touring hospitals and morgues in the area.

But for those working at the morgue, Burrows says they don't have time to think about their own mental wellbeing.

"If we get caught up in our emotions, we would be of no help to anyone," said the exhausted volunteer. "I don't even know what day it is."

[george]

Foreign survivors begin to return home

BANGKOK: -- Over 100 Britons and other Europeans who survived last week's tsunamis this morning registered their intention to return home on a British Airways flight to London, but some were returning in the knowledge that their loved ones were still missing.

Although the British Embassy in Bangkok has confirmed that 28 Britons died in the tragedy and more than 100 were injured, it admits that the number of missing remains uncertain.

British nationals are being advised to contact the embassy in Bangkok and embassy officials in Thailand's southern affected provinces, including Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang, Ranong and Satun, where 24-hour rescue centres have been established.

Britain has already pledged USD30 million in aid, and will send a team of forensic experts to Phuket, as well as more refrigerated containers to act as temporary morgues.

British officials have praised the Thai government and the Thai people for the way in which they have assisted the British victims of the tragedy.

The Swedish government has also sent an aeroplane to collect its survivors, which will leave Bangkok's Don Muang Airport this afternoon.

However, thousands of Swedes still remain unaccounted for.

--TNA 2005-01-01

[bina]

sense out of chaos:

israeli is sending a commercial boat to sri lanka with provisions, food and medical supplies being collected tonite and the next two days: there are about 11 organizations that are organizing this.... apparently thru red cross as a third party thing (its the muslem/israel problem here )and inter'l organizations; but there is a violent chat arguement going on if its better though to send money rather then supplies to thailand for instance : so am stealing a post from here to stick in there (ynet israel news);

how is the reaction of people in thailand as a whole??? not in the disaster areas?

or are we israelis specifically obssessed with death? every where we go thats all people talk about, the tsunami, and how many dead and how many children etc; israelis here keep asking me how the thai workers are taking it... and i asked the workers and they shrugged me off!!! with: we are from issan doesnt affect us mai sanook!!! to watch t.v. all the time ... israelis think too much.....

is this just deep denial? or do budhist thai deal with death differently??

[SeaVisionBurma]

Any reports from Burma as yet? I know Ranong has had some casualties.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I've just arrived back to the pearl farm a few days ago (on an island due west of Myeik, in the Mergui Archipelago). Astoundingly very little damage around the archipelago, in relation to Thailand's disasters just south of us.

I was actually near Trang when the event happened, had been on a boat around Koh Muk and the Morakaot cave swimming the day before.

Planned to head to Phuket in the evening on 25th but changed plan at last minute.

Our pearl farm suffered some damage, in the form of lines of oysters breaking away. It was worse at other pearl farms further south (Pearl Island, around 90 miles north of Ranong). The village nearest our farm had minor flooding.

The logical explanation would be that the effects of the tsunami were slowed as it approached the outer islands of the archipelago, where the gradual reduction in depth would have taken some of the force out of the approaching energy.

Friend with liveaboards in the area reported that his vessels felt only minor rise and fall in the water, and that his camp on one of the western facing beaches of Pulau Bada saw little effect.

Again - very lucky, but there was relatively minor effects once the tsunami hit the southern and western isles of the Mergui Archipelago.

The only reported casualties were in Kawthoung (for this area) and areas in the Ayarwaddy Delta and the Rakhine coast.

I'm absolutely devastated by the catastrophic effects in other countries, especially Thailand where I was on the day it hit.

BTW, can anyone confirm what happened to people who were in or near the Morakot Cave at Koh Muk on the 26th, as I had only left there on 25th. Is this also referred to as Emerald Cave? Was Pak Meng beach affected?

[mr_lob]

Just spent 2 days helping shift corpses in Takuapa near Khao Lak. 4000++bodies gone through that temple alone already. Can't face going back help again...its just too much. When do we know we have done 'enough'??

[RDN]

Just spent 2 days helping shift corpses in Takuapa near Khao Lak. 4000++bodies gone through that temple alone already. Can't face going back help again...its just too much. When do we know we have done 'enough'??

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Sounds like you need a few days off to get your strength back. Try to recuperate and decide what you want to do when you feel stronger. Well done for all your efforts.

[george]

Volunteers in Phuket help authorities with search and recovery

PHUKET: -- In Thailand's hard hit southern provinces, an army of volunteers has joined the military and police in an astounding array of activities to help with the search and recovery of bodies, following the tsunami tragedy.

Volunteers are warned before dealing with bodies and victim's families that the experience could be difficult for them to bear.

One volunteer coordinator said, "What you're facing is worse, or at least as bad if not worse than any combat faced by any soldier in any war; what you've been asked to do, what you've so boldly offered to do is horrendous."

Volunteers at one temple in Pang Nga province, for example, are helping families identify their loved ones through photographs, translating and walking them through the bureaucratic process.

They help load ice to preserve the bodies and carry them to the refrigerators.

They also help keep foreign forensic experts, such as the team from Australia, supplied with everything they need, from cold drinks to extra masks and gloves.

Coordinating the center is Dr Khunying Porntip.

She has been running around for the past week giving directions to volunteers, military, doctors and forensic teams.

In the process she has hurt her knee and both ankles.

But driven on by the needs around her, Dr Porntip still makes it hard to keep up.

Siriporn Tent and Pramaha Porrakit - a monk from Bangkok - are there to perform grief counseling for victims.

Siriporn Tent, Thammasat University Counseling student, said, "We have to make them understand the situation of the thing that happened to them, get the awareness and accept the situation that happened to her. We have to go talk to them, make them think of the future and make them move on."

Hundreds of other volunteers are helping sort DNA samples and compiling a computerised database on missing persons so families do not have to come looking for their loved ones.

Those who can't volunteer often donate cash.

Scores of Thais have donated money to the center and others across the affected areas everyday out of concern for the victims.

Over 40,000 military and police, forensic teams, and volunteers are on the scene - an army of Thais and foreigners working side by side, thrown together in life as they were in death.

-- CNA 2005-01-02

[Darknight]

Thais Order Kin of Foreigners Away from Morgues

Reuters

By Darren Schuettler

PHUKET, Thailand (Reuters) - Thai police on Monday ordered families and friends of foreigners to stay away from tsunami-hit areas, including Buddhist temples turned temporary morgues where they have searched for missing loved ones.

Police said the move was necessary to allow hundreds of forensic experts to get on with the job of identifying bodies of thousands of Thais and foreigners through DNA samples.

"Friends and family members must refrain from visiting the tsunami-affected locations, temples, mosques, all operational grounds, including DNA gathering sites and autopsy sites," Police Lieutenant Tuaytup Dwibyunsin said in a statement.

"We appreciate your assistance very much, but we have to get organized," he said. "We don't want you risking your lives."

Hundreds of foreigners have scoured temporary morgues in the past eight days, searching for family and friends either dead or missing after the killer waves slammed into Thailand's Andaman Sea coast and islands.

Thailand's national disaster center said 5,046 bodies -- 2,459 of them foreigners -- had been recovered from smashed luxury hotels and fishing villages, a popular destination for sun-starved foreigners during the cold northern European winter.

Nearly 4,000 people are still missing -- a number which dropped from about 6,500 after Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said the list was being reviewed -- including more than 1,600 foreigners, many of them Scandinavians.

While respecting their grief, Tuaytup said the order was necessary to "prevent tampering of evidence and obstructing official gathering of DNA information."

It was addressed to "friends, family members searching for loved ones, foreigners, foreign volunteers and members of the press" and aimed at protecting them from potential disease.

Foreign volunteers must register with the authorities and needed permission to enter restricted areas, it said.

TASK FORCE

The clampdown comes a day after a 19-nation forensic task force was announced to oversee the grisly work of identifying bodies -- mainly through dental records and DNA testing -- which will take many months to complete.

Some bodies may never be recovered or identified, task force leaders said. They said the corpses -- badly decomposed after more than a week in the tropical sun -- were now beyond recognition and families and friends should go home.

Search teams zeroed in on the hardest hit areas on Monday, and Thai and Japanese navy ships scoured the seas for more dead.

Rescue teams expected to finish clearing bodies from Phi Phi island, made famous in the 2000 film "The Beach," after pulling out 50-60 rotting corpses on Sunday, Interior Minister Bhokin Bhalakula told reporters.

Thaksin, eager to rebuild a key part of Thailand's lucrative tourist trade quickly, was to tour Phi Phi later on Monday.

Bhokin said the main search effort continued in Phang Nga province, where thousands of foreign tourists and Thai villagers were swept away from the area around Khao Lak beach by giant waves eight days ago.

"We should clear them from Phi Phi on Monday. Phuket and Krabi have finished and the only work that remains is in Phang Nga," he said, referring to the island of Phuket, one of Asia's premier beach resorts, and the mainland province of Krabi.

"After this, our work will focus on reconstruction," said Bhokin, who hopes to finish the recovery phase of the operation by Jan. 7.

SWEDEN REELING

Sweden, reeling from a disaster that may have claimed 1,000 Swedish lives, pushed for another search of the Andaman Sea coastline by Thai and Japanese navy vessels, Bhokin said. About 70-80 bodies have been scooped out of the water near the Similan Islands off Phang Nga, a naval officer said.

Elephants have also joined the search for bodies in Khao Lak, heading into debris-strewn forests with rescue teams to retrieve corpses where heavy earth-moving equipment cannot go.

"The elephant is like a four-wheel drive. They walk in the forest all their life," said elephant trainer Laitonglian Meepan.

Investment bank JP Morgan said in a research note that the tsunamis had dealt a "hammer blow" to portions of the region's tourist industry.

"Thailand is the severest casualty as some of its prime tourist areas have been devastated by the tsunamis," it said. (Additional reporting by Crispian Balmer and Viparat Jantraprap)

[Darknight]

Foreigners killed in tsunami disaster

Reuters

LONDON, Jan 3 (Reuters) - More than 7,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, were still missing after the Indian Ocean tsunami hit coasts and devastated beach resorts.

Here is a factbox with the number of foreign tourists reported killed or missing in the disaster, based on statistics provided by the countries listed.

It does not incorporate figures provided by Thai officials who say at least 2,402 foreigners have been killed there:

COUNTRY , DEATHS ,---- MISSING

Austria### 6 ---- 490

Australia#### 12 ---- 79

Belgium 6 ---- 80

Brazil 2

Britain 40

Canada 5 ---- 150

China 1 ---- 7

Croatia 1 ---- 9

Czech Republic 1 ---- 90

Denmark 7 ---- 91

Finland 15 ---- 186

France* 22 ---- 99

Germany 60 ---- 1,000

Greece 9

Hong Kong 6 ---- 60

Hungary 20

Iceland 11

Ireland 20

Israel 3 ---- 7

Italy 18 ---- 660

Japan 21

Luxembourg 11

Malta 1

Mexico 15

Netherlands##### 6 ---- 30

New Zealand 1 ---- 302

Norway** 21 ---- 462

Poland 4 ---- 43

Portugal 8

Russia*** 1

Singapore## 9 ---- 12

South Africa 7 ---- 9

South Korea 11 ---- 9

Spain 11

Sweden 52 ---- 2,915

Switzerland# 16 ---- 95

Taiwan 1

Turkey 53

United States 15

=== ===

TOTALS: 370 ---- 7,179

NOTES: * France has a further 560 nationals of whom it is without news. Deputy Foreign Minister Renaud Muselier told France Inter radio the toll could rise "well above" 150.

** Norway says up to 980 Norwegians are still unaccounted for.

*** Russia says it has not been able to make contact with around 50 of its citizens who were in Thailand.

# Swiss Foreign Ministry spokesman says there are 95 cases where there is "practically no hope". There are a further 500 Swiss anaccounted for, of whom 360 in Thailand, 50 in Sri Lanka and the Maldives and 20 in India.

## Singapore has a further 157 uncontactable.

### Austria's 490 missing includes 130 people it presumes were killed in the tsunami. A further 233 people are unaccounted for in Asia and Kenya.

#### Australia says some 1,200 of its nationals are unaccounted for.

##### The Netherlands says some 470 additional people are thought to have been in the general region, but unclear if they were in the disaster areas itself.

[Darknight]

Asia's tsunami death toll hits 150,000 -- U.N.

Source: Reuters

(Adds new U.N. death toll, Egeland quotes)

By Tomi Soetjipto and Dean Yates

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Jan 3 (Reuters) - Some 150,000 people are now known to have been killed by Asia's tsunami, U.N. officials said on Monday, as helicopters and elephants were used to find and feed survivors and shift the rubble of razed towns.

Aid workers 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 Dec. 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?'"

LOGISTICAL NIGHTMARE

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.

ELEPHANTS HELP RESCUERS

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 Jan. 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.

[Kinz]

COUNTRY  , DEATHS ,---- MISSING

Austria### 6 ---- 490

Australia#### 12 ----  79

Belgium 6  ---- 80

Brazil 2

Britain 40

Canada 5  ---- 150

China 1 ----  7

Croatia 1  ---- 9

Czech Republic 1  ---- 90

Denmark 7  ---- 91

Finland 15  ---- 186

France* 22  ---- 99

Germany 60  ---- 1,000

Greece 9

Hong Kong 6  ---- 60

Hungary 20

Iceland 11

Ireland 20

Israel 3  ---- 7

Italy 18  ---- 660

Japan 21

Luxembourg 11

Malta 1

Mexico 15

Netherlands##### 6  ---- 30

New Zealand 1  ---- 302

Norway** 21 ----  462

Poland 4  ---- 43

Portugal 8

Russia*** 1

Singapore## 9 ----  12

South Africa 7 ----  9

South Korea 11 ----  9

Spain 11

Sweden 52 ----  2,915

Switzerland# 16  ---- 95

Taiwan 1

Turkey 53

United States 15

=== ===

TOTALS: 370  ---- 7,179

Just like to correct the figure for New Zealand. There are 3 confirmed deaths and i think about 17 missing in Thailand but not sure about elsewhere.

[george]

Number of missing in Thailand may reduce

BANGKOK: -- The number of people missing in Thailand following the deadly tsunami was likely to fall because some were in hospital, while many foreigners on the list may have flown home, said the Thai foreign minister.

The interior ministry currently lists 3,810 as missing.

"The numbers of missing people could be lower than actually anticipated," said Surakiart Sathirathai. "Some have been treated in hospitals and many have already left the country."

A relaxation of immigration procedures last week, to let hundreds of foreigners who lost passports return home swiftly, has added to the difficulties of making an accurate assessment of the missing, he said.

"We are asking the immigration (authorities) of each country to cross-check the names and details of immigration to make sure who actually did leave the country," he said.

Surakiart said it could also take a long time to identify all victims of the tsunami due to advanced decomposition.

"With the decomposition of bodies it is very... difficult to distinguish even a blonde European and Asian so that's why we need a lot more DNA analysis."

Thailand's confirmed death toll is 5,187 including 2,463 foreigners.

Governments in northern Europe on Monday said they were missing fewer of their nationals than previously feared from the tidal waves in Asia.

--AFP 2005-01-04

[machadinha]

At Indymedia.nl http://www.indymedia.nl/ there is an article with

a lot of additional links to further information. Find it at http://www.indymedia.nl/nl/2004/12/24072.shtml .

The article itself is in Dutch but if you scroll down you'll find tons

of links to articles in English and some other languages (partly

gathered here, thanks people :-) regarding possible funds and grassroots

organizations, as well as news less commonly covered by the mainstream

media.

Good luck everybody.

[sriracha john]

As expected, the inevitable happens and Thai entrepreneurs have their tsunami follow-on. Same as the 9/11 follow-on that occured here:

Thailand's tsunami-hit Phuket island offers gory souvenirs

Mon Jan 17,11:05 PM ET World - AFP

PHUKET, Thailand (AFP) - A macabre souvenir industry is emerging on Thailand's resort island of Phuket, with tsunami VCDs, t-shirts and gory pictures of bloated corpses floating in the sea being snapped up by both local residents and tourists.

The island's tourism industry has been hit by the calamity, which has killed more than 5,300 people, half of whom are Western holidaymakers, but photo shops, bookstores and souvenir shops are doing brisk business.

The largest photo shop in Phuket town centre offers prints of at least 30 different scenes of devastation in the southern coastal provinces battered by the December 26 earthquake and giant waves.

"This is the bestseller," a staffer at the Kodak Express shop told AFP, pointing to a picture showing scores of blackened bodies buried among a large pile of rubble of a collapsed building in Khao Lak.

He said the shop started selling the pictures on the afternoon of December 26, with stocks supplied by local photographers and from navy officers.

"We have sold thousands of copies of these pictures. Business is good because people out there want to see what is really happening on the ground," he said, asking not to be identified.

The prints cost 20 baht (50 cents) each, and are bought by both locals and foreigners, he said, adding that it was a legal business.

Some of the pictures depict scenes commonly seen in newspapers, showing people running from raging waves, the magnitude of destruction along the coastlines and shops submerged in deep water.

Others offer a rare glimpse of the search and rescue work.

One is a picture of officers pulling in a string of dead bodies from the sea during a night operation, and another had bloated bodies of naked foreigners floating face up in the open sea.

Tsunami VCDs and posters in the Thai language are also on sale at the photo shop as well as in bookshops around Phuket.

A staffer at the Seng Ho Bookstore, the largest in town, said their stock of some 100 VCDs, priced at 120 baht (three dollars) each, were sold out to mainly Thai residents.

"I don't know why people are interested to see this sad tragedy," she said, adding that she has not watched a video.

The VCD, apparently produced by an enterprising Thai photographer, is a one-hour production compiling scenes in newspapers and television of tsunami-battered areas, and heart-wrenching interviews with local villagers displaced by the disaster.

T-shirts are also on sale in a local market and shops in Phuket.

A young Thai woman was spotted at Patong beach wearing a black round-necked shirt with a picture of giant blue waves in the front, and a line listing the provinces hit by the tsunamis.

"I bought this at a local market for 99 baht (2.50 dollars). I just want a memory of this painful disaster that had affected Thailand," she told AFP.

[machadinha]

I just got sent this:

TsunamiVolunteer.net (Khao Lak, Takua Pa District, Phang-Nga Province, Thailand):

http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net/

See especially

http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net/action.php

Volunteer Opportunities for Tsunami Disaster Relief in Thailand

For those so inclined.

I was also told there should be a good and lengthy article in today's Bangkok Post's http://bangkokpost.com/ "Outlook" section but I couldn't find it online.

[machadinha]

For the Bangkok Post article about TsunamiVolunteer.net see http://www.bangkokpost.com/en/250105_Outlo...n2005_out10.php . Their deeplinks tend to go down fast, too bad.

The group also has a donations call at http://www.tsunamivolunteer.net/donation.php .

[Spee]

Yesterday I was speaking with a colleague who has a brother working on an oil tanker that makes runs between several ASEAN ports.

He said they were 170 miles offshore from Indonesia and all of the sudden they starting seeing 100's of bodies and various types of furniture, refuse and other debris just floating along in the current.

The ship's captain stopped the vessel and radioed in to various authorities to ask what they should do. The authorities basically told them to take as many pictures as possible, take as comprehensive count as possible, but to not attempt to do any recovery because the bodies were in such bad shape.

It is so sad that these victims will never be identified because of the conditions of their bodies. There was nothing anyone on the ship could do. His brother said that it was just an awful scene.

It also makes one wonder that if this ship found so many bodies so far offshore, then how many more victims are simply lost at sea, never to be seen again. It also goes to show more of the power of the tsunami riptides and the undersea currents.

Positively horrible!