Posted on 12/29/2004 7:02:20 AM PST by SJackson
Rescuers combing the beaches of Thailand affected by Sunday's Tsunami today said they feared that the 4,000 people still missing in the country will not be found alive - the only hope was for "individual miracles", said one. The official death toll was this today confirmed to be 1,657 of which 473 are foreigners, the interior ministry's department of disaster prevention and mitigation said. Some 43 Britons are confirmed to be among the dead.
However, 4,086 Thais and holidaymakers are missing - including 2,000 Scandinavians, of which 1,500 are from Sweden alone.
Rescuers across the south coast of Thailand and its islands are desperately attempting to find survivors, help the injured and recover bodies. Somboon Sukhumkhampee, a doctor at Takuata Hospital near the tourist resort of Khao Lak beach, where police confirmed that 1,500 bodies were recovered, said: "I have not slept for two days. It is the worst destruction I have ever seen in my years as a doctor."
An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to survivors on the island resort of Phuket. Jets from France and Australia were among the first to touch down at the island's airport. Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden planned similar flights.
In Britain, foreign secretary Jack Straw today held talks with Thailand's foreign minister, Surakiart Sathirathai. They discussed plans to send forensic experts out to the disaster zone to help identify British victims. The official figures for British fatalities in Thailand currently stands at 43.
Mr Straw said in some cases the bodies may have to be brought back to the UK for identification.
"There are extra difficulties about that which is one the reasons police are sending out forensic experts to Thailand and also to Colombo to help wherever possible with positive identification in those countries," he said.
Some 30 rescue workers from Sweden, Germany and Taiwan were helping Thai authorities and local volunteers comb the worst-hit areas as bodies were still washing up on several beaches three days after the waves struck.
The French foreign minister, Michel Barnier, flew into the Thai resort island of Phuket today bringing aid and a team of psychiatrists to help traumatised families. "There are people here whose families have been amputated, decimated and we have to help these people psychologically," he told reporters.
On the ground, a shortage of equipment, heat and the fear of aftershocks were hampering the search, said Col Arun Khaewwathi, chief of Takua Pa district, north of Phuket. He said sniffer dogs were needed to help locate bodies covered by debris.
Sweden's foreign minister, Laila Freivalds, said: "We fear that many of [the missing] will not be found."
"We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Jean-Marc Espalioux, chairman of the Accor hotel group, which owns the Sofitel hotel on Khao Lak, just north of Phuket island, from where 200 tourists are still missing. The hotel was destroyed by the waves, which were nearly three storeys high.
Fears are also emerging about the long term impact of the disaster on Thailand, a country heavily dependent on its income from the 12 million tourists who visit every year.
Some 1.2 million foreigners are likely to cancel their trips to Thailand, costing the industry around 30 billion baht (£400m), according to the Association of Thai Travel Agents.
Losses will affect local Thais who run the beach-side businesses such as watersports rental companies, masseuses and restaurants, the entire Thai economy and some international airlines, hotels and restaurants with interests in the area.
"We're finished. There are no tourists, there are no fishermen," Teeraphon Pramong, the owner of a seafood business north of Phuket told Associated Press. His pier was wiped out, his suppliers are dead and the luxury resorts of Khao Lak have been so devastated that some may never be rebuilt, he said.
Thailand's tourism and sports minister, Sonthaya Khunpluen, estimated that some 200,000 employees in the tourism sector, the country's top foreign exchange earner, were expected to lose their jobs due to the disaster.
The tsunami rolled in just days after the Thai government trumpeted tourism's success in 2004, citing an increase of 20% over the previous year and 384 billion baht in income despite the outbreak of bird flu and Muslim terrorism in southern Thailand.
Meanwhile, widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away by - the torrents.
The prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, earlier denounced the thieves as "despicable good-for-nothings" preying on people's suffering, and authorities said any caught would face the maximum punishment.
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