#228 Postby Matt-hurricanewatcher » Thu Dec 30, 2004 6:47 am
Tsunami death toll tops 87,000
· 80,000 feared dead in Indonesia
· Panic after new wave warnings
· Aid agencies face devastation
Jeremy Lennard and agencies
Thursday December 30, 2004
A foreigner wearing a mask to protect himself from disease walks past pictures of dead tourists at Khao Lak, Thailand. Photograph: Pornchai Kittiwongsakul/AFP/Getty
As the official death toll from Sunday's devastating earthquake in the Indian Ocean climbed to 87,475, panic added to the misery of survivors today as aftershocks triggered warning of fresh tsunamis in India and Sri Lanka.
In Sri Lanka, people climbed onto the roofs of their houses while others fled away from the coastline after authorities used fire engines equipped with loudspeakers to urge residents to move to higher ground. The country's military urged people to be alert, but not to panic, while an earthquake expert said the aftershocks were probably not strong enough to produce tsunamis.
But with neighbouring India ordering an evacuation of coastal areas, instructions that were heard on radios in Sri Lanka, some people did panic.
"There is total confusion here," said Rohan Bandara, a resident of the coastal town of Tangelle. "The aim of all the people is not to see the waves again, so they are leaving."
Cars, vans and motorbikes jammed roads leading away from coastlines. Some people hauled their most valuable possessions stuffed into plastic bags.
"Some people whose houses weren't so badly affected by Sunday's tsunami are also now running toward welfare centres," said Suresh Devaraj, of Trincomalee, another coastal town.
India said it issued its warning after information that several aftershocks in the region had pushed up the water level. An estimated 5.7 magnitude underwater earthquake was recorded at 5.18am local time (2118 GMT yesterday) off the coast of Sumatra. Other tremors were felt in Thailand and Burma.
Jason Ali, a geologist at the University of Hong Kong, said today's seismic activity was around 1,000 times less powerful than Sunday's and probably not big enough to produce tsunamis.
"It's probably going to have negligible impact," he said.
Aftershocks of around magnitude 6.0 have been recorded in the Indian Ocean almost daily since Sunday, but have produced no significant tsunamis.
Aid workers arriving in the region are being confronted with devastation - entire towns and villages razed, and countless people - some of them with cuts and broken bones - searching desperately for clean water and food on streets covered in debris and dead bodies.
With at least 5 million people in need, it is already one of the biggest humanitarian exercises in history, with 60 nations having pledged over $220m (£114.5m) in cash and hundreds of millions more in emergency supplies.
Hundreds of tonnes of medical supplies have been flown to the wider region, but the UN admits only a fraction of the aid has got to where it is needed.
"We are doing very little at the moment," said Jan Egeland, the UN's emergency relief coordinator. "It will take maybe 48 to 72 hours more to be able to respond to the tens of thousands of people who would like to have assistance today - or yesterday, rather."
"I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and the weeks ahead," he added. Some have not eaten since Sunday and now risk infections and diseases such as elephantiasis, cholera, typhoid, hepatitis, bronchitis, pneumonia, malaria, meningitis and haemorrhagic fever.
Indonesia
In Indonesia, the country that bore the brunt of Sunday's earthquake and tsunami, government estimates put the death toll at 47,668. Unicef warned the total could rise to 80,000, with close to a million children in need.
Military helicopter pilots struggled to drop food into isolated villages surrounded by cliffs along the coast of Sumatra, as shortages and the fear of disease spread.
Unicef also estimated that 60% of Banda Aceh, the capital of the devastated Aceh province, was destroyed, with severe damage stretching across its 155-mile coastline. Government institutions have stopped functioning and basic supplies have almost run out, forcing even ambulances to ration fuel.
Countless bloated bodies, many of them young children, remained strewn on the streets and floating in the rivers of Banda Aceh under a tropical sun. Truckloads of bodies were delivered to freshly-dug mass graves, while others were simply swept up into the mountains of debris that clogged the narrow streets.
"Everything here has collapsed," said Brig Gen Achmad Hiayat, surgeon general of Indonesia's armed forces. "Even the government has collapsed. The hospitals, medical services are in disarray."
Sri Lanka
Amid the panic generated by today's tsunami warning, government officials in Colombia said the country's death toll had risen above 24,000. "There are 24,297 dead and 4,589 missing," Alam Meer, deputy director of the social welfare ministry, which is coordinating relief efforts, told Reuters.
With some areas still to be contacted and scores of bodies being washed up on beaches along the south coast, the toll would rise further, he warned.
India
The Indian government said today that 13,230 people were dead or feared dead across the country. In a statement, it said 7,330 were confirmed dead and another 5,900 were missing and presumed dead. All the presumed dead are in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, where rescuers have yet to reach isolated areas.
Ram Kapse, the administrator of the islands, said there may be as many as 10,000 missing. Only about 359 bodies have been found so far, he added. "There's not a single hut which is standing," said Mohammad Yusef, a 60-year-old fisherman from Tea Top village on Car Nicobar, where about 800 survivors from around the islands have taken refuge in a local church.
Mr Yusef said there were about 15 small villages on Car Nicobar's coastline and that all had been destroyed. "Everything is gone. Most of the people have gone up to the hills and are afraid to come down," he said.
The Andaman and Nicobar territories are comprised of more than 500 islands south-east of India's mainland. About 350,000 people live on about 30 of the islands.
Thailand
The country's prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, said today that he feared Thailand's death toll would rise to at least 7,000.
"There are many people listed as missing and we think that 80% of them are feared dead, 20% may have lost contact," he told reporters.
Officials say more than 6,000 Thais and foreigners as missing, while 1,975 are confirmed to have perished.
As Mr Thaksin spoke, rescue and forensic teams from Australia, Japan, Germany, Israel and other countries fanned out across areas of southern Thailand, racing against time to find survivors and identify rapidly decomposing bodies.
Nationals of more than 40 countries were on holiday in six provinces of southern Thailand when disaster struck. They include some 1,500 Swedes, 200 Finns, 200 Danes and hundreds of Norwegians, according to reports from Scandinavian capitals.
"We have to have hope that we'll find somebody," said Ulf Langemeier, the leader of 15 German veterans of earthquake disasters who were using sniffer dogs to comb a wrecked resort with under huge floodlights early today.
Mr Langemeier said there was always a chance of finding survivors trapped under rubble when earthquakes strike on land, but "when waves enter a building you have no chance".
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