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| Saturday, 01 January 2005 |
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Tsunami toll 125,000, huge relief effort mobilised BANDA ACEH, Indonesia, Friday (Reuters) Asia's tsunami death toll soared above 125,000 on Friday as millions struggled to find food and clean water and the world mobilised for what is shaping up to be the biggest relief effort in history. U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, calling the disaster that has displaced 5 million people "an unprecedented global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented global response," said a half-billion dollars had been pledged so far. Aid agencies warned a second wave of death from contagious diseases could wash across Indian Ocean areas devastated by Sunday's tsunami. Workers in south India sprayed streets to ward off cholera. "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. Desperate crowds in Indonesia, their faces coverd with masks or handkerchiefs against disease, besieged aid workers delivering food and clamoured for petrol for their vehicles. Aircraft dropped supplies to nearly obliterated towns in Sumatra, an island the size of Florida. The tragedy that has touched all corners of the globe is ushering in a sombre 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 overhwhelmed 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. After one such aftershock on Thursday, the Indian government issued a tsunami alert that sent residents fleeing in panic and halted aid distribution in towns in Tamil Nadu. Residents in worst-hit Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra bolted from their homes for a second night in a row after aftershocks late Thursday night. A tragedy of biblical proportions is bringing together the mostly poor countries along the Indian Ocean rim and their rich counterparts in the West. 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. U.S. President George W. Bush, criticised for a slow reaction to disaster, said he would send a delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell 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. 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. Indonesia's Health Ministry said just under 80,000 people had died in the northern Aceh province that was close to the undersea quake, some 28,000 more than previously announced. Food and medical supplies were stacking up at the airport in the provincial capital Banda Aceh on Friday. 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." |
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