Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People

AP ^ | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY

[TexKat]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles and killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century.

The death toll along the southern coast of Asia — and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost — steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years.

Signs of the carnage were everywhere: Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through the debris of destroyed houses amid the smell of rotting corpses. Hundreds of prisoners escaped a coastal jail in Sri Lanka.

More than one million people were driven from their homes in Indonesia alone, and rescuers there on Monday combed seaside villages for survivors. The Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas.

Another million were driven from their homes in Sri Lanka where some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters were deployed in relief and rescue efforts, authorities said.

At Thailand's beach resorts, packed with Europeans fleeing the winter cold at the peak of the holiday season, families and friends had tearful reunions Monday after a day of fear that their loved ones had been swept away.

Katri Seppanen, 27, of Helsinki, Finland, walked around barefoot, in her salt water-stained T-shirt and skirt, at the Patong Hospital waiting room where she spent the night with her mother and sister. She had a bandaged cut on her leg.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said a tearful Seppanen, who was on the popular Patong beach with her family. The wave washed over their heads and separated them.

Fifty-eight half-naked and swimming suit-clad corpses lay in rows outside the Patong Hospital emergency room. Three babies under the age of one were among the victims. A photo of one baby was posted on the wall of victims, the little corpse in a nearby refrigerator.

The earthquake hit at 6:58 a.m.; the tsunami came as much as 2 1/2 hours later, without warning, on a morning of crystal blue skies. Sunbathers and snorkelers, cars and cottages, fishing boats and even a lighthouse were swept away.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India each reported thousands dead. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives and Bangladesh.

"It's an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented," said Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa of India's Tamil Nadu, a southern state which reported 1,705 dead, many of them strewn along beaches, virtual open-air mortuaries.

"It all seems to have happened in the space of 20 minutes. A massive tidal wave of extreme ferocity ... smashed everything in sight to smithereens," she said.

At least three Americans were among the dead — two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay. He said a number of other Americans were injured, but he had no details.

"We're working on ways to help. The United States will be very responsive," Clay said.

John Krueger, 34, of Winter Park, Colorado, described being inside his bungalow Sunday on Khao Luk Beach, north of Phuket, with his wife, Romina Canton, 26, of Rosario, Argentina, when the water filled it and blew it apart.

"The water rushed under the bungalow, brought our floor up and raised us to the ceiling. The water blew out our doors, our windows and the back concrete wall. My wife was swept away with the wall, and I had to bust my way through the roof," Krueger said while waiting to talk to a U.S. Embassy official at Phuket City Hall. "It was like being in a washing machine."

Canton was dragged into the ocean for more than an hour until a wave brought her back to land again, with a broken nose and foot scratches all over her body, Krueger said.

The quake was centered 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the Indian Ocean's seabed. The temblor leveled dozens of buildings on Sumatra — and was followed Sunday by at least a half-dozen powerful aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from almost 6 to 7.3, and one aftershock Monday that hit India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The waves that followed the first massive jolt were far more lethal.

An Associated Press reporter in Aceh province saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches. Authorities said at least 4,448 were dead in Indonesia; the full impact of the disaster was not known, as communications were cut to the towns most affected.

The waves barreled across the Bay of Bengal, pummeling Sri Lanka, where more than 4,500 were reported killed — at least 3,000 in areas controlled by the government and about 1,500 in regions controlled by rebels, who listed the death toll on their Web site. There was an unconfirmed report of 500 more deaths on another Web site that provided no details. Some 170 children were feared lost in an orphanage. More than a million people were displaced from wrecked villages.

Devinda R. Subasinghe, the Sri Lanka ambassador to the United States, said the extensive damage will make the rescue effort more difficult. "It's going to take time to figure out access to these areas that have been impacted," Subasinghe said Monday in an interview on CNN. Up to 70 percent of the island's coastline was damaged, he said.

There was sporadic, small-scale looting in the towns of Galle and Matara, and authorities said about 200 inmates escaped from a prison, taking advantage of the chaos after guards panicked and fled when water entered the building.

About 2,300 were reported dead along the southern coasts of India. The private Aaj Tak television channel put the death toll there at up to 3,300, but the report could not be confirmed. At least 431 in Thailand, 48 in Malaysia and 32 in the Maldives, a string of coral islands off the southwestern coast of India. At least two died in Bangladesh — children who drowned as a boat with about 15 tourists capsized in high waves.

In India's Andhra Pradesh state, at least 32 Hindu devotees were drowned when they went into the sea for a religious ceremony to mark the full moon. Among them were 15 children. On Monday, bodies of women and children lay strewn on the sand.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, of that state.

In Cuddalore, in the worst-hit Tamil Nadu state, survivors huddled Monday in a marriage hall turned makeshift shelter, as fire engine sirens whined outside. Broken boats law on the shore near smashed huts with only frail bamboo frames jutting out of the ground.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1964, according to geophysicist Julie Martinez of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

The quake occurred at a place where several huge geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said a 620-mile section along the boundary of the plates shifted, motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water.

Scientists said the death toll might have been reduced if India and Sri Lanka had been part of an international warning system designed to advise coastal communities that a potentially killer wave was approaching. Although Thailand is part of the system, the west coast of its southern peninsula does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.

As it was, there was no warning. Gemunu Amarasinghe, an AP photographer in Sri Lanka, said he saw young boys rushing to catch fish that had been scattered on the beach by the first wave.

"But soon afterward, the devastating second series of waves came," he said. He climbed onto the roof of his car, but "In a few minutes my jeep was under water. The roof collapsed.

"I joined masses of people in escaping to high land. Some carried their dead and injured loved ones. Some of the dead were eventually placed at roadside, and covered with sarongs. Others walked past dazed, asking if anyone had seen their family members."

Michael Dobbs, a reporter for The Washington Post, was swimming around a tiny island off a Sri Lankan beach at about 9:15 a.m. when his brother called out that something strange was happening with the sea.

Then, within minutes, "the beach and the area behind it had become an inland sea, rushing over the road and pouring into the flimsy houses on the other side. The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible — a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before," he wrote on the Post's Web site.

Dobbs weathered the wave, but then found himself struggling to keep from being swept away when the floodwaters receded.

The international airport was closed in the Maldives after a tidal wave that left 51 people missing in addition to the 32 dead.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake along the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica caused buildings to shake hundreds of miles away. The earlier temblor caused no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that struck off Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

[TexKat]

I'm really fired up to send all of our hard earned money over there!

LOL. Whether you or anyone else is fired up or not, the money will be sent there or anywhere else without yours or mine, or anyone elses approval.

I did not receive a phonecall, an e-mail, or any other communication asking me if it was ok to provide aide to Sri Lanka, etc..

Where you contacted?

[Centurion2000]

I have heard this...

They are reporting that the quake ripped a 1000 kilometer hole (about 621 miles) in the earth's crust.

Strange .... but I just read this and for some reason I remember this.

Revelation 9:1 - And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

Revelation 9:2 - And he opened the bottomless pit; and there arose a smoke out of the pit, as the smoke of a great furnace; and the sun and the air were darkened by reason of the smoke of the pit.

[TexKat]

Sri Lanka's sentiments towards our friends the Israelis

Isreal did the God-like thing to do. Sri Lanka rejected Israel's military assistance to set up hospitals, etc., but accepted the supplies.

And it must not be too bad if there were hundreds of Israeli tourist in Sri Lanka.

And guess what those tourist were doing prior to the tsunami.

Having fun and spending mucho money

[Jon Alvarez]

http://www.congress.org

A great tool for contacting public officials...

[TexKat]

After the fact.

[TexKat]

Indonesia Blasts Likely Meteor Shower-Expert

Dec 19, 2004 — JAKARTA (Reuters) - Several loud blasts believed to be caused by a meteor shower echoed across the Indonesian capital Jakarta and nearby towns early on Sunday, startling residents who reported seeing flying objects in the sky.

Police said they had found no evidence that the blasts were caused by bomb attacks. An official from the Indonesian space center LAPAN told the official Antara news agency the explosions were likely to have been caused by a meteor shower.

"It's suspected that a fireball originating from a big meteor entered the earth's atmosphere … This created the explosion," said LAPAN space expert Thomas Djamaluddin.

Police, on high alert after warnings from Western governments of possible terror attacks over the Christmas and New Year period, had said they were investigating the blasts.

"The police have searched throughout the regency and we found nothing to indicate a bomb or meteor," said one officer on duty in Tangerang.

Indonesian air force spokesman Sagom Tambun said there had been no radar readings indicating a meteor.

One caller to El Shinta radio from Bogor, just south of Jakarta, reported seeing a large object hit the earth in the distance.

Western governments, especially Australia, have warned that an international hotel could be targeted for attack, possibly one of the three Hiltons in the world's most populous Muslim nation.

In Washington, the State Department issued a fresh warning late last week for Americans to avoid non-essential travel to Indonesia, saying "the terrorist threat continues and may increase over the December-January holiday period."

"Reports indicate that terrorists are planning attacks against a wide variety of targets," the State Department said.

Police have tightened security across the country.

Islamic militants from Jemaah Islamiah, seen as the regional arm of al Qaeda, have launched bomb attacks in recent years in Indonesia, hitting nightclubs in Bali, the JW Marriott Hotel in Jakarta and the Australian embassy in the capital.

In the worst attack, 202 people were killed in Bali two years when militants bombed two nightclubs. The dead included 88 Australians.

Police have deployed an additional 18,400 personnel for Christmas and New Year to protect churches and entertainment centers across Indonesia. (Reporting by Harry Suhartono, Telly Nathalia and Jerry Norton)

[ruthles]

After 911, as an ESL teacher I started scrutinizing my students, and I'm very suspicious that some of my students from Sri Lanka could be terrorists. Their behavior and attitiudes where anything but congenial, and they also lack much formal education.

[TexKat]

This is a natural color satellite image showing the coastline on the southwestern city of Kalutara, Sri Lanka taken Dec. 26, 2004 at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe) MANDATORY CREDIT: DIGITALGLOBE

This is a natural color satellite image showing the coastline on the southwestern city of Kalutara, Sri Lanka taken Jan. 1, 2004. (AP Photo/DigitalGlobe) MANDATORY CREDIT: DIGITALGLOBE

Karl Nilsson of Lulo, Sweden, poses with a sigh saying his parent and brothers are missing Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004, in Phuket, Thailand. The young boys parents were swept out to sea Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004, when a tidal wave struck their beach hotel just north of Phuket, Thailand. (AP Photo/David Longstreath)

Orlantha Ambrose, 33, is seen in Sri Lanka in October of 2004, in this handout photo provided by Naj Jagendran. Ambrose and her mother Beulah are among the 40,000 people killed in the deadliest tsunami in 120 years. Ambrose took a leave of absence from her job in Los Angeles because she wanted to share her love of violin with poor children in Sri Lanka, her parents' native country. (AP Photo/HO, Naj Jagendran)

[TexKat]

A scientific officer works in the control room of the Kalpakkam Atomic Center at Kalpakkam, around 65 kilometers (41 miles) south of Madras, India, Tuesday Dec. 28, 2004. India's government said Tuesday that the nuclear power plant that was damaged by tidal waves on Sunday in southern India was safe and there was no threat of radiation. (AP Photo/M. Lakshman)

An aerial view of a destroyed village after tidal waves hit following an earthquake near the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. At the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, emergency workers find that 10,000 people were killed in a single town near the epicenter of Sunday's earthquake, and survivors report entire towns inundated by water and starving families surviving on coconuts. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

Buddhist monks and villagers search for the missing along railroad tracks at Telwatte, about 100 kilometers (63 miles) south of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. The massive tidal waves that slammed into Sri Lanka flung a train off its tracks, leaving many of its 1,000 passengers dead or missing, police said Tuesday, while rescuers uncovered thousands of bodies across the country. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

A view of the main bus stand that was destroyed by tidal waves at Galle, Sri Lanka, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. Some 44,000 people are reported dead around southern Asia and as far away as Somalia on Africa's eastern coast, most killed by massive tidal waves that smashed coastlines after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia's coast on Sunday, followed by aftershocks in the region. The death toll in Sri Lanka is more than 18,000. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena)

An aerial view of a flattened village after tidal waves hit following an earthquake near the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. Emergency workers reaching Aceh province at the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island find that 10,000 people were killed in a single town close to the epicenter of Sunday's earthquake. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

[TexKat]

An aerial view of a destroyed and flooded village after tidal waves near the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, Aceh province, Indonesia, Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Dita Alangkara)

[BJungNan]

bump

[TexKat]

Footage:

Sto i bølgen og filmet

[Ryan Spock]

Ping

[TexKat]

Tsunami Kills 800 on Sri Lankan Train

Dec 28, 9:48 PM (ET) By CHRISTOPHER TORCHIA

(AP) Group of Buddhist monks and villagers search for the missing along railroad tracks at Telwatte,...

TELWATTA, Sri Lanka (AP) - The train known as the Queen of the Sea chugged slowly up the sandy, palm-fringed coast of eastern Sri Lanka, carrying hundreds of residents from the capital to visit relatives or enjoy a day at the sunny resorts near the town of Galle.

The train had nearly reached its destination Sunday when the tsunami struck - a wall of water some 30 feet high, enveloping the Queen and lifting its cars off the track into a thick marsh, killing at least 802 people.

In the utter wasteland around this once picturesque area, the train stands out - both as a testament to the force of nature that tossed it off the tracks and as the largest single loss of life on an island that suffered at least 18,706 dead.

The train, which started from the capital, Colombo, Sunday morning had stopped at Telwatta, a village 15 miles from Galle, just before the wave came racing ashore. Many of the dead were local villagers who tried to escape rising waters by climbing on top of the train with the help of the passengers.

On Tuesday, the Queen and the surrounding area were little more than debris. Eight rust-colored cars that lay in deep pools of water amid a ravaged grove of palm trees. The force of the waves had torn the wheels off some cars, and the train tracks twisted like a loop on a roller coaster.

Baggage from the train was strewn along the tracks, and some of the clothing and other items looked new, possibly New Year's gifts for family or friends.

One thousand tickets were sold in Colombo for the train, and rescuers recovered 802 bodies from the train's cars, said military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake.

No relatives claimed 204 of those bodies, so they were buried in a mass grave Tuesday, with Buddhist monks performing traditional funeral rites. They chanted and poured water on the grave to symbolize the giving of merits of the living to the dead.

Venerable Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk and former parliamentarian who presided over the ritual, said he realized some of the dead were of other faiths - the region has a large Muslim community - and a moment's silence was held to honor them.

"This was the only thing we could do," he said. "It was a desperate solution. The bodies were rotting. We gave them a decent burial."

Authorities took fingerprints of the dead so that they could be identified later if possible, he said, but there seemed little possibility anyone would find the time to try.

At a nearby police station, officers laid out about 100 identification and credit cards, as well as drivers' licenses and bank books found at the train site. They included an electricity board secretary, an assistant lecturer at a state research institute of social development, and a student from the University of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka.

"Police told us to come and have a look at this collection of ID cards," said Premasiri Jayasinghe, one of a group of people searching through the documents for those of lost loved ones. He found no sign of the three relatives he lost.

At the train site, a young man wept in the arms of friends as the body of his girlfriend was buried. The distraught man spoke out to his lost sweetheart.

"We met in university. Is this the fate that we hoped for?" he sobbed. "My darling, you were the only hope for me."

The train left Colombo at 7:30 a.m. for Galle, 70 miles to the southeast, a resort with large hotels and beaches sought by weekenders. The water struck at 9:30 a.m.

In was unclear how many people survived the train disaster. Police superintendent B.P.B. Ayupala said the train driver lived. Police and local residents said one survivor was a woman who lost three children when the carriages were flooded. She sought refuge in a Buddhist temple before leaving the area.

Though 1,000 people had tickets, it was not known how many people were actually on the train when it was hit. Ayupala said more bodies could be buried in the watery earth beneath the compartments.

"The people in the village ran toward the train and climbed on top of it," he said. "Then the water level went down" - a telltale sign of the approaching tsunami, which sucks up coastal waters before it strikes. "Ten minutes later, it came back," he said.

For the people of Telwatta, burying the train's dead was part of an attempt to bring back order. The tsunami crushed every building, down to the brick foundations of the houses. Palm trees were snapped into splinters and the site of what was once a school was marked only by a twisted metal playset.

The one-lane road through the area was thronged with traffic jams Tuesday as trucks tried to bring in aid. They were slowed by funeral processions on the side of the road and residents carrying away rubble from what had once been their homes.

[TexKat]

Katastrofen i bilder

More pictures

[Jon Alvarez]

I just hope we don't foot most of the bill...how much aid is China sending? The UN should at least act as the arbiter to make sure the amount of aid sent is somewhat proportionate...but that, of course, is hoping for the UN to make sense. Last thing we need to do is send financial aid to the UN or corrupt organizations...

my letter to the editor:

Regarding the recent tsunami disaster and subsequent relief efforts, I find it ironic to note that when such help is needed, the corrupt and inept U.N. and other countries in the world turn to the good old US of A! The same country often denounced as evil, oil-hungry, and imperialistic.

Well here's a thought; Let's send material aid and manpower, certainly, but not money (which can lead to corruption and misappropriation i.e. UN Food For Oil, The United Way, The 9/11 Funds) and distribute that aid proportionately to those countries that have provided help to America and Iraq during the present War on Terror. After all, our brave troops are forced to carry a disproportionate share of the burden in Iraq due to the apathy and inaction of the U.N. and countries such as India.

I also wonder how many American flags have been set afire in these countries requesting our aid?

[Jon Alvarez]

In Indonesia, a nation of almost 200 million Muslims, the radical fringe is getting increasingly angry with the US and its allies. Anti-US demonstrations have been getting steadily bigger as the US prepares for possible military action over the 11 September attacks on Washington and New York.

[TexKat]

In this photo released by the White House, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004, President Bush speaks with Sri Lankan President Chandrika Kumaratunga from Crawford, Texas on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004. (AP Photo/The White House, Eric Draper, HO)

Aid Arrives; Asia Death Toll Nearly 77,000

By LELY T. DJUHARI, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Cargo planes touched down with aid Wednesday, bearing everything from lentils to water purifiers to help survivors facing the threat of epidemic after this week's quake-tsunami catastrophe. The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island, finding thousands of bodies and increasing the death toll across 12 nations to nearly 77,000.

The international Red Cross warned that the toll could eventually surpass 100,000. The race was on to try to prevent an outbreak of diseases and to curb food shortages among millions of homeless — which the U.N. health agency said could kill as many as the waves and quake.

Sri Lanka said it was getting its first reports of measles and diarrhea. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating 65,000 survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered.

"Even those people who (didn't lose homes) can't get food. Nothing is available," said Father Raja Perera, of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka's second largest city, the hard-hit southern resort of Galle, where refugees from ravaged homes crowded into churches, Buddhist temples and mosques.

Town after town along Indonesia's Sumatran coast was covered with mud and sea water, with homes flattened or torn apart, an Associated Press reporter saw on a helicopter overflight with the military commander of the island's Aceh province. The only signs of life were a handful of villagers scavenging for food on the beach.

Western Sumatra suffered a double blow in Sunday's disaster, shattered both by the most powerful earthquake in 40 years and perhaps the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, which wreaked destruction across a dozen nations.

"The damage is truly devastating," Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said. "Seventy-five percent of the west coast is destroyed and some places it's 100 percent. These people are isolated and we will try and get them help."

The first military teams reached the devastated fishing town of Meulaboh on Sumatra's coast and across the coast they found thousands of bodies, bringing Indonesia's toll to 45,268, according to the Health Ministry's official count. That toll was likely to rise — one official on Tuesday estimated that as many as 10,000 people were dead in Meulaboh alone.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 22,400 people dead, India close to 7,000 — with 8,000 missing and feared dead. Thailand put its toll at more than 1,800. Another 340 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

From East Africa to southern Asia, chances faded of finding more survivors of Sunday's massive, quake-driven walls of water. Tens of thousands of people were still missing. German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder said 1,000 Germans were unaccounted for.

"We have to fear that a number of Germans clearly in the three-digit numbers will be among the dead," Schroeder told reporters. Currently, 26 Germans have been confirmed dead.

"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 more than 2,000 Scandinavians.

In Sri Lanka, reports of measles and diarrhea were beginning to reach health authorities, causing concern of an epidemic, said Thilak Ranaviraj, the government's top official handling relief efforts.

In a field in Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra's Aceh province, bulldozers shoved more than 1,000 unidentified bodies into mass graves. The corpses had been picked off the city's streets as authorities rushed to get decaying bodies into the ground.

"What worries us is the lack drinking water," said Dr. Georg Petersen, the World Health Organization representative in Indonesia. "That means that people might drink contaminated water and they can get sick from waterborne diseases like diarrhea."

Four relief planes arrived in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, 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.

Meanwhile, trucks fanned out across the island nation to deliver bandages, antibiotics, tents, blankets and other supplies to the hardest hit areas, the southern and eastern coast. A dozen trucks left the U.N. World Food Program depot in Colombo on Tuesday. The military said a fleet of 64 trucks packed with rice, sugar, tents and other essentials entered Tamil areas Wednesday

But officials in the east said at least four WFP trucks bound for Tamil areas in the north were forcefully diverted by Sinhalese mobs and low-ranking government officials to predominantly Sinhalese areas. Selvi Sachchithanandam, a WFP spokeswoman, declined to comment on the report.

Sri Lanka has been torn for years by a conflict with separatist Tamil rebels who control parts of the north, demanding independence from the mostly-Sinhalese nation.

Indonesia's military said a navy flotilla was headed to Sumatra's western coast to being him. Supplies — including 175 tons of rice and 100 doctors — reached 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.

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.

[TexKat]

Rescuers look for survivors at Yala Reserve Wildlife Park, 200 kilometers (125 miles) southeast of Colombo, Sri Lanka, Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004. Wild life officials expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the weekend's massive tsunami, indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Summary: Tsunami Deaths by Country

By The Associated Press

At least 76,904 people were killed in 12 countries in southern Asia and Africa from Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami waves, according to official figures. A breakdown of the toll so far:

_ Indonesia: At least 45,268 people were killed, all on Sumatra island, the Health Ministry said. The government has only just begun counting deaths in districts on Sumatra's hard-hit western coast, meaning the final toll will almost certainly rise significantly.

_ Sri Lanka: Some 22,493 killed in government and rebel controlled areas. More than 1 million people were displaced.

_ India: The government said 6,974 deaths have been confirmed, but the toll was expected to climb: A police official said 8,000 people were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located just north of Sumatra; so far, 90 deaths from the archipelago were among the ministry count.

_ Thailand: The government said 1,829 people died.

_ Somalia: At least 100 killed, said Ali Abdi Awaare, environment minister of the semiautonomous region Puntland. A presidential spokesman earlier said hundreds were killed without giving an exact figure.

_ Myanmar: About 90 people were killed, according to reports compiled by international aid agencies.

_ Malaysia: At least 65 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead, according to official reports.

_ Maldives: At least 69 people were confirmed dead.

_ Tanzania: At least 10 people killed, mostly swimmers, said Alfred Tibaigana, police commander in Dar es Salaam.

_ Seychelles: Three killed.

_ Bangladesh: Two killed.

_ Kenya: One killed.

[TexKat]

Could you please update the total of people killed in the title of this thread to at least 76,904.

Thank you