COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists and fishermen in Asia Monday and fears of disease grew as emergency services struggled with rotting bodies from a devastating tsunami that killed more than 23,200 people.
The disaster spared no one. Western tourists were killed sunbathing on beaches, poor villagers drowned in homes by the sea and fishermen died in flimsy boats. The 21-year-old grandson of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej was killed on a jet-ski.
"We have a long way to go in collecting bodies," said Thailand's Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who expected the 866 death toll in his country to go much higher. One Thai official estimated up to 30 percent of the dead were foreigners.
Hundreds were buried in mass graves in India while hospitals and morgues in Sri Lanka and Indonesia struggled to cope with injured and bewildered victims and bloated corpses.
"It smells so bad ... The human bodies are mixed in with dead animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats," said Marine Colonel Buyung Lelana, head of an evacuation team in Indonesia's Aceh province on the island of Sumatra.
Sri Lanka was hardest hit by the tsunami -- a wall of water triggered by the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years with a magnitude of 9.0 that erupted off the northern Indonesian coast.
The death toll in Sri Lanka nearly doubled Monday to 10,200 with 200 foreign tourists feared dead. The final toll could be much higher, even double, officials said.
Other areas worst affected by Sunday's tsunami were southern India, where more than 7,100 were listed dead, northern Indonesia with nearly 5,000 drowned and Thailand's devastated southern tourist isles and beaches.
With at least seven Asian nations and one in East Africa counting the human and economic cost of the tragedy, Western nations pledged aid and geologists asked why warning systems that could have saved thousands of lives were not in place.
CATASTROPHE UNPRECEDENTED
Struggling with destroyed communications, power outages and swamped and debris-strewn roads, emergency workers were shocked by the sheer scale of the catastrophe.
"We are used to dealing with disasters in one country. But I think something like this spread across many countries and islands is unprecedented," Yvette Stevens, a U.N. emergency relief official, said in Geneva. "We have not had this before."
Families around the world anxiously sought news of loved ones on Christmas holidays whose dreams of sunshine in the east were turned into scenes of disaster. Calls from worried relatives swamped hotlines set up by ministries and tour firms.
"Our paradise turned into hell," said American tourist Moira Lee, 28, who was on Patong Beach in Phuket, Thailand.
The earthquake triggered a tsunami of up to 10 meters (33 feet) high, sometimes traveling as fast as an airliner, flattening houses, hurling fishing boats onto roads, sending cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucking sunbathers, babies and fishermen out to sea.
In Sri Lanka alone, 1.5 million people were homeless and authorities in other countries said vast numbers of people had been displaced and had to search for shelter.
Deaths were reported in Bangladesh, Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar and Somalia where 38 people were killed by swollen seas.
Smaller tremors followed Sunday's earthquake, the world's biggest since 1964 and the fourth-largest since 1900.
The tsunami had echoes of another apocalyptic seismic event that originated in Indonesia when the island volcano of Krakatoa erupted in 1883 causing a tsunami that killed 36,000 people.
Indonesian rescue workers pulled hundreds of bodies from treetops, rivers and wrecked homes in Aceh province, desperate to clean up before disease could spread from rotting bodies polluting water supplies.
Typhoid, diarrhea and hepatitis epidemics now pose the gravest threat to survivors, international relief agencies said. Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll in Aceh could rise to 10,000. Deaths were previously put at 3,000.
"I am hoping there are still enough coffins available," said Mustofa, mayor of Aceh's Bireuen regency.
In the city of Banda Aceh, dozens of bodies were scattered on streets, while masses of debris, a mix of mud, ruined trucks and cars, and wood from shattered houses, had yet to be cleared.
FLOWER PETALS ON THE SEA
Hundreds of Indians scattered flower petals at sea and sacrificed chickens to pray for the safe return of those carried away by the sea as aftershocks hit some areas.
While some Indians held on to fading hope, others broke down as they discovered loved ones among the loads of dead ferried to hastily erected open-air morgues and authorities gouged out mass graves to bury bodies already rotting in the tropical heat.
At a hospital in the town of Thazhanguda, a group of women already consoling the mother of one victim broke down when the body of the daughter of another was brought in.
"Anasuya, Anasuya. Talk to me, talk to me, it's your mother," one wailed, hugging the sand- and weed-covered body.
Police say at least 3,000 have died and a similar number are missing in the low-lying Andaman and Nicobar islands close to the quake's epicenter off Sumatra. Coast Guard crews reported flying over hundreds of bodies off India's east coast.
In Sri Lanka, homeless people fearing another wave sheltered in temples, schools and on high ground.
Among those killed in Sri Lanka were nine ***anese tourists who were watching elephants in a park when the tsunami hit.
"The scale of the tragedy is massive ... this is a grave tragedy which we have not been prepared for," Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the BBC.
Weeping relatives scrambled over hundreds of bodies piled in a hospital in the town of Karapitiya, shirts or handkerchiefs held over their noses against the stench of decaying flesh.
"We are struggling to cope. Bodies are still coming in," said Dr H.G. Jayaratne at Karapitiya Teaching Hospital.
Thailand evacuated injured survivors from its southern beaches. Britons, Danes, Swedes, Swiss, Australians, Italians and at least one New Zealander and an American were among the dead on Phuket, where at least 130 people were killed.
On Phuket's Patong beach, hotels and restaurants were wrecked and speed boats rammed into buildings. Many foreign tourists, some evacuated in bathing costumes, were left destitute, possessions and passports lost to the sea.
It emerged that U.S. officials who detected the quake tried frantically to warn Asia the deadly wall of water was on its way but there was no official regional alert system to contact.
Iran Monday sent condolences to Asian countries struck by a tsunami a year to the day after an earthquake killed 31,000 people in the Iranian city of Bam.
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You're only one post away from a federal watch list.
Perhaps the most devastating natural disater of my life. No one will know the exact number of people killed which will sure to climb in the coming weeks. An incredible event as awful as it may be.
Gee, maybe we could use some of that oil-for-food money, oh I forgot it was wasted else where by the U.N. Death toll now near 45,000.
U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid
The Bush administration yesterday pledged $15 million to Asian nations hit by a tsunami that has killed more than 22,500 people, although the United Nations' humanitarian-aid chief called the donation "stingy."
"The United States, at the president's direction, will be a leading partner in one of the most significant relief, rescue and recovery challenges that the world has ever known," said White House deputy press secretary Trent Duffy. But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.
"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become." "There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more." In response to Mr. Egeland's comments, Mr. Duffy pointed out that the United States is "the largest contributor to international relief and aid efforts, not only through the government, but through charitable organizations. The American people are very giving."
Offers of aid have poured in from around the world in the past two days, with the European Union's executive arm releasing $4 million in emergency aid and pledging an additional $27 million. Canada and several European nations "” including Spain, Germany, Ireland and Belgium "” each pledged about $1 million yesterday.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell hinted that the $15 million U.S. offer was only the first installment of a larger aid package to those countries devastated by 30-foot waves triggered by a massive underwater earthquake.
"We also have to see this not just as a one-time thing," he said. "Some 20-plus thousand lives have been lost in a few moments, but the lingering effects will be there for years.
"The damage that was caused, the rebuilding of schools and other facilities will take time," he added. "So you need a quick infusion to stabilize the situation, take care of those who have been injured, get immediate relief supplies in, and then you begin planning for the longer haul."
If that planning calls for significant food aid, the United States might have to scramble.
"Even before the crisis in the Asia-Pacific region and the Indian Ocean, the demands for food aid were stretching capacity: demands in Sudan, demands in West Africa, demands in other areas hit by drought and fighting," State Department spokesman Adam Ereli said.
"So even though we're giving a lot, the demand is very high," he added. "We're going to have to look at, as we move forward, what we can do to meet that demand."
Money and food are not the only types of aid being sent by the Bush administration. The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) also is sending a 21-member disaster-relief team to the region.
Also, the Pentagon has dispatched military patrol planes from the Pacific Fleet. President Bush has written letters of condolence to seven of the affected nations "” Bangladesh, Thailand, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, the Maldives and Malaysia.
Besides the United States, the largest single national donor was neighboring Australia, which offered $10 million and transportation aid.
"Australia will and should give more," Prime Minister John Howard said.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies made an initial appeal of $6.7 million, which the federation says it will probably increase.
Officials from relief agencies, including the Red Cross and other nongovernmental organizations, met yesterday in Geneva to coordinate their efforts. In New York, diplomats from six of the affected nations met with U.N. officials.
The United Nations and other aid organizations have deployed hundreds of disaster-recovery and humanitarian-response teams to the region, and officials warn that the cost of the disaster could quickly reach "many billions of dollars."
"We may only know the full effect of this emergency weeks from now," Mr. Egeland told reporters yesterday at the United Nations in New York. "The disaster affecting Southeast Asia is not the biggest in recorded history, but the effects could be the biggest because more people live in exposed areas than ever before."
The tsunami-ravaged nations are particularly susceptible to epidemics as authorities struggle with thousands of corpses in unsanitary conditions. International organizations and nations including France, ***an, Israel, Kuwait, Hungary and others are sending medical personnel to some or all of the affected countries.
"The principal danger is that of diseases transmitted through water, especially malaria and diarrhea, and infections caught through respiration," said Hakan Sandbladh, a Red Cross official in Geneva.
Groups such as Doctors Without Borders warned that catastrophes tend to help localized illnesses turn into full-blown epidemics.
The destruction of water and sewage pipes, the disruption of vaccination programs and the lack of attention to disease-carrying pests such as rats and mosquitoes exacerbated the risk, they said.
In this situation, the stagnant pools of water created by the tsunami could boost the numbers of mosquitoes and other insects that transmit tropical maladies such as malaria and dengue fever.
"The risk of epidemics is also linked to concentrations of people whose houses have been destroyed," said Pauline Horrill of Doctors Without Borders.
Meanwhile, Agence France-Presse reported that a tsunami alert system in Hawaii that warns Pacific countries about devastating tidal waves detected the earthquake that led to the destruction across Indian Ocean nations.
But the absence of an alert system in Asia meant the information could not be sent out fast enough.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's (NOAA) Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, established in 1949 after a huge wave killed more than 150 people in Hawaii, issued a bulletin at 3:14 p.m. local time or 8:14 a.m. in the affected area, when it detected an earthquake off Indonesia.
The NOAA's information bulletin said there was a possibility of a tsunami near the earthquake's epicenter, but that no destructive threat existed in the Pacific. The huge tidal waves instead swept across the Indian Ocean, killing people in 10 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
There is speculation now that the death toll may hit 45,000!!!! The devestation is impossible to fathom, I watched some news footage which broke my heart, as the water was rushing back into the ocean you could see people swimming with all their might being swept back out to sea, and I am not talking about 4 or 5, there looked to be 100's just within the cameras range.
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The Tazman aka Martin Price
Proud father of a Devil Dog
First off, this is one hellish nightmare that these people are facing now. I can be a bit of a hard-a$$ when it comes to natural disasters since they are, after all, natural. Humans have to make the best of what they've gotten. But this is absolutely terrible. I find it indescribably painful to imagine myself wading through pools of stagnant water, searching for my wife's bloated corpse among the filth and rot of the beach. All I can say is that I hope more rescue teams and aid can go now to save more lives later.
Quote:
U.N. official slams U.S. as 'stingy' over aid
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But U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.
I may not say here what I'm feeling right now. [:@] How dare they turn an international disaster area into a stage for criticizing American international aid. Especially after Oil-for-Food. These kinds of people aren't worth the water and salts they're made off.
1st: Not one penny of my tax money had better go to those $%^&*@# in Somalia. They killed AMERICAN soldiers, and I haven"™t forgotten. Let them make it on their own.
2nd: We are stingy? The United States gives the most help in the entire world. This is just a UN SOB trying to make a good case why the UN, and not the citizens of the US, should be running our country. I don"™t see any other nation in the world committing as much humane resources or otherwise in Iraq, Afghanistan, or Pakistan as the US has.
3rd: Where was the "śinternational community"ť on 9/11. Granted I don"™t want their military on our shores, but I would accept their money willingly. Did we get $15 million dollars of aid from anyone?
4th: If you live on a volcano, you"™re eventually going to be burned (fact of life). If you live near the ocean, you"™re going to get wet (fact of life). If you live in the artic circle, it"™s going to snow (fact of life). These types of disasters happen all the time. If they don"™t want to be killed, they need to live elsewhere.
Most of the other nations in the world are always complaining about how wrong America is, then turn right around and ask us to foot the bill for them in the same breath. Now I care plenty about my fellow man, but I HATE hypocrites. All those nations with anti American agendas, how much are they giving? Let them pay for this. Why isn"™t the UN accusing them of being stingy? If we have to foot the bill, then the UN had better side with us in the future.
When I hear a reporter say, "ś$15 million doesn"™t seem like much,"ť well give me $15 million; it isn"™t so much. I can put it to GOOD use.
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There's no such thing as truth, only perception
I would say that my "attitude" is typical of someone who continues to see his neighbors put there lives in danger, and then sees those same neighbors spit upon.
I would say that my "attitude" is typical of someone who beleives that I actually own something, and that I am actually paid for something.
I would say that my "attitude" is typical of someone who wants a better life for the next generation, and realizes that the only way to achieve this is via sacrifice.
I would say that my "attitude" is typical of someone who lost loved ones in WWII, saving those in the middle east, just so they can exercise the freedom, given to them by Americans, and kill Americans.
Typical of "most Americans", no. Most Americans are way to liberal from where I sit.
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There's no such thing as truth, only perception
I would say that my "attitude" is typical of someone who continues to see his neighbors put there lives in danger, and then sees those same neighbors spit upon.
Please give specific details of how your "neighbors" put their lives in danger
WOW 100,000 dead
