Posted on 12/28/2004 7:08:14 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
The death toll from the tidal waves that struck Southeast Asia has so far risen to over 40,000, but numbers may rise to as much as 50,000.
The highest toll was in Sri Lanka, with 18,700 deaths assumed. In India the number was 4,371, in Indonesia 15,000, and over 1,500 in Thailand.
The toll had been extended to include some 500 deaths along the shores of Somalia, some 4,800 km. away from Sunday's earthquake off Indonesia that sent tsunamis raging across the Indian Ocean.
Other countries reporting included Malaysia with 60 deaths, the Maldives with 43, Myanmar with 90 and the Seychelles with three.
A third of the victims were youngsters, and funerals were held for children and teenagers who could not cope with the fury of the sea. Ted Chaiban, chief for the UNs children's Fund in Sri Lanka, estimated that nearly half the victims there were children.
In Cuddalore, India, the bodies of more than 150 children killed were buried in a mass grave; their weeping, red-eyed parents looking on as a bulldozer filled the hole with sodden earth.
The tides have left million of people homeless, and thousands are still missing.
Morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the catastrophe.
International bodies are making an effort to send aid to the countries as soon as possible. UN Undersecretary - Jan Egeland, who is in charge of emergency relief, said the disaster could be the costliest in history, "probably many billions of dollars."
"We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages and so on that have just been wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone," Jan Egeland, the UN emergency relief coordinator, told reporters.
UN officials said they were worried diseases will spread among the homeless, resulting in an even higher death toll. Eyewitnesses said victims were being buried in mass graves, which may cause further diseases.
The Red Cross is generally concerned about the possible spread of waterborne diseases like malaria and cholera in the affected areas and is sending anti-diarrhea medicine in its aid shipments. The organization said it is particularly concerned about initial reports of destruction of hospitals and other health infrastructure in Sri Lanka.
The German government said it was sending a 12-member team of water supply experts to Sri Lanka Tuesday with mobile water testing and treatment equipment. Tidal waves filled many of the hand-dug wells along the coast of the affected areas with salt water and silt.
The severity of malaria attacks may also increase as people move from their home districts where they have developed immunity to the local version of the malaria parasite, medical officials said.
International agencies are concentrating relief efforts in countries least able to help themselves recover from the unprecedented scope of devastating tidal waves, officials in Geneva said Monday.
"We are concentrating on the governments that have been the first to request assistance and those that are less likely to cope, such as Sri Lanka, Maldives," said Yvette Stevens, an emergency relief coordinator of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
The United Nations, which is coordinating with organizations including the international Red Cross, will have to rely on countries such as India to shoulder much of the burden for their own recovery.
The United Nations' World Food Program appealed Sunday for an initial US$1.5 million to help meet immediate food needs of hundreds of thousands of Tsunami victims. A much larger regional appeal will be launched later this week.
Ping!
Interesting statistic. The expected death toll is 10% of the death toll from the cyclone that hit Bangladesh in the 70's.
This is starting to sound similar to a Biblical disaster.
Still trying to get my mind around this enormous loss and destruction..May God be with those who mourn and those who cannot find their loved ones.
This has definitely hit "Biblical" proportions. A little prayer might be in order for the victims and for all of us.
I am afraid, when all is said and done, the the death toll will far exceed 100,000.
50,000 confirmed by tomorrow. 100,000 suspected total without confirmation. Who knows?
Very sad.
DK
The enormity is mind-boggling.
I fear you are right, when it is all said and done.
Fox news said this could be the largest tsunami since 49 BC.
I believe the tsunami is nothing compared to what will happen to the earth in the near future...
Luke 21:29 He taught them a lesson. "Consider the fig tree and all the other trees.
Luke 21:30 When their buds burst open, you see for yourselves and know that summer is now near;
Luke 21:31 in the same way, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near.
Depends on definition of "largest."
The 1755 Lisbon Earthquake and tsunami seem pretty comparable.
I notice the world didn't end after that one, either.
Amen!
Death toll
Sri Lanka: 17,640
India: 8523
Indonesia: 27,174
Thailand: 1439
Malaysia: 65
Burma: 90
Maldives: 55
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia 100
Tanzania 10
Total: 55,098
I was thinking the same thing last night. crazy stuff is going
Thing is there are assorted wave-cut benches, deposits, etc. of similar large megatsunami that have occured before there were even humans present.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/galleries/149-1.html?SITE=KHOU&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=HOME.html
The face of loss.
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