Posted on 12/29/2004 11:11:44 AM PST by crushelits
Asia Rushes to Bury 63,000 Tsunami Victims
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Workers from Indonesia to India rushed to bury corpses to ward off disease Wednesday as cargo planes touched down with promised aid from lentils to water purifiers — to help the region cope with its tsunami catastrophe. The death toll soared to 63,000.
Chances faded of finding more survivors of Sunday's massive, quake-driven walls of water — probably the deadliest in history. With tens of thousands of people still missing, the toll in nearly a dozen affected countries was sure to climb further.
"We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Chairman Jean-Marc Espalioux of the Accor hotel group said of the search for thousands of tourists and locals missing from beach resorts of southern Thailand — including 2,000 Scandinavians.
Millions were homeless in the disaster, contending with hunger and the threat of disease, which the U.N. health agency said could double the toll.
In the Indonesian island of Sumatra, nearest the Indian Ocean epicenter of Sunday's calamitous 9.0-magnitude quake that triggered the tsunamis, bulldozers prepared to dig graves for thousands of corpses 
lining the streets and lawns of provincial capital Banda Aceh.
With the threat of disease on the rise and few ways to identify the dead, there was no choice but to get the bodies under ground, said military Col. Achmad Yani Basuki.
"We will start digging the mass graves today," he said.
Indonesia's Health Ministry said thousands more bodies were found, raising to about 32,500 the number of confirmed deaths on Sumatra island, the territory closest to the quake that sent tsunami waves rolling across the Indian Ocean.
Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 21,700 people dead, India about 7,000 — with thousands more missing. Thailand put its toll at more than 1,650. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.
Wildlife enthusiasts in Sri Lanka noted their surprise in seeing no evidence of large-scale deaths of animals, suggesting they had safely made it to high ground.
"Maybe what we think is true, that animals have a sixth sense," said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays runs a hotel in the Yala National Park.
Aid groups struggled to mount what they described as the largest relief operation the world has seen,
and to head off the threat of cholera and malaria epidemics that could break out where water supplies
are polluted with bodies and debris.
In Sri Lanka, four planes arrived in the capital bringing a surgical hospital from Finland, a water purification plant from Germany, doctors and medicine from Japan and aid workers from Britain, the Red Cross said.
<> Supplies that included 175 tons of rice and 100 doctors reached Sumatra's Banda Aceh.
But with aid not arriving quickly enough, desperate people in towns across Sumatra stole whatever food they could find, officials said.
Widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's devastated 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.
An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to Phuket and to take home shellshocked travelers. 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.
Along India's southern coast, paramedics began vaccinating 65,000 tsunami survivors in Tamil Nadu state against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, said Gagandeep Singh Bedi, a top government administrator.
"We have accelerated disposing of bodies to minimize the risk of an epidemic. Also, we have started spraying bleaching powder on the beaches from where the bodies have been recovered," said Veera Shanmuga Moni, a top administrator of Tamil Nadu's Nagappattinam district.
The world's biggest reinsurer, Germany's Munich Re, estimated the damage to buildings and foundations in the affected regions would be at least $13.6 billion.
Donations for recovery efforts came in from all parts of the globe.
The governments of the United States, Australia and Japan pledged a combined $100 million while taxi drivers in Singapore put donation tins in their cars and volunteers in Thailand text-messaged aquaintances to give blood to the Red Cross.
In Thailand, rescuers combed the beaches and islands Wednesday for missing tourists and locals swept away by earthquake-powered tidal waves.
Some 30 rescue workers from Sweden, Germany and Taiwan were helping the Thais comb the worst-hit areas as bodies were still washing up on several beaches three days after the waves struck.
Although the toll was expected to soar, a total of 473 foreigners of 36 nationalities were confirmed killed, the Interior Ministry's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation said. Victims included 54 from Sweden, 49 from Germany, 43 from Britain and 20 Americans.
They were among thousands of Western and Asian holiday-makers packing hotels and bungalows during the height of the tourist season when killer waves struck Sunday.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds said "we fear than many of (the missing Swedes) will not be found." Some 1,500 Swedes are missing, 200 Finns, 200 Danes and hundreds of Norwegians, according to reports from Scandinavian capitals.
"It's Bush's fault. Somehow."
Dear God, so much death and destruction. Pls watch over all those lost souls.
It's actually some faults fault. But what they'll do is rename the fault that caused the earthquake that caused the tsunami Bush. That'll come after we're done doling out all the money and supplies to help them recover and rebuild.
I'm not directing this at you, per se, but, I am so sick of that tired old joke.
Don't some of these take a series of shots to provide protection?
"I'm not directing this at you, per se, but, I am so sick of that tired old joke."
At first I thought the posters really meant it when they wrote that it was Bush's fault, until someone explained to me they were being sarcastic. I don't find the expression either sarcastic or funny. It's silly.
...And tired and worn out and old....
I have kids the exact age of the bodies in your photos.
These pics are bone-crushing, stomach-wrenching sad.
Oh I agree with you. It's old and worn out and totally unappropriate on the threads of this disaster. The world is so much bigger than Bush and I doubt all those who have suffered a loss care a wit about our politics right now.
Yep, I'm not one of the band of anti-humor police on all threads on FR, but the "It's Bush's fault" was painfully old and overused months and months ago.
you to?...especially on these threads...
Mark 10:13-16:
13. Some people brought their children to Jesus so that he could bless them by placing his hands on them. But his disciples told the people to stop bothering him.
14. When Jesus saw this, he became angry and said, “Let the children come to me! Don’t try to stop them. People who are like these little children belong to the kingdom of God.
15. I promise you that you cannot get into God’s kingdom, unless you accept it the way a child does.”
16. Then Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them by placing his hands on them.
I guess you missed the Democrats complaining that it was "global warming" hence the Kyoto treaty reference that goes back to Bush.
And what about Democrats calling for Bush, the Christian, to give the $40 million for the inaugural ball to the victims?
And the U.S. being stingy about our donations.
It's political, trust me! The victims don't care but the Liberals and anti-American nations just can't give it up -- even with this tragedy.
Seriously, 100,000 people probably perished in this tragedy and all some people can do is to continue to incite politics into anything? That's pretty damn sad.
Death is horrible. There is still much more to come though.
Disease thrives in this climate and with so much death, we best be ready to hear the numbers. How sad.
I'm in agreement with you. Let's move up and out. Too much is happening in the world to hash and rehash phrases.
I get so sick of hearing jfk's or bc's names connected to anything I could scream! This is about as bad.
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