BANDA ACEH, Indonesia : The death toll from the Asia tidal wave disaster surged past 63,000 on Wednesday as rescuers battled to head off hunger and disease epidemics and survivors told terrifying escape stories. Half of the confirmed dead were in the Indonesian province of Aceh, close to the epicentre of the biggest earthquake in 40 years which sparked the tsunami waves that devastated coastal villages and resorts across the Indian Ocean.
Another 22,000 were confirmed dead in Sri Lanka. Thousands of European and American tourists remained unaccounted for and the toll rose with virtually every report from the 10 countries afflicted from Malaysia to Somalia on the African coast. Carol Bellamy, executive director of the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), said children made up a large proportion of the dead. Decomposing bodies and the destruction of sewage disposal facilities sparked fears of a catastrophic outbreak of disease. Scores of planes carrying aid, doctors and emergency experts started arriving in the worst hit countries and the United States added 20 million dollars to its donation to the relief effort. With the United Nations estimating that several billion dollars of devastation had been left, US Secretary of State Colin Powell denied however that the United States had been "stingy" in its contribution. The United States, Australia, France, Russia and other countries sent planeloads of emergency aid. But food and medicine was already desperately short in many stricken regions and Guido Bertolaso, an Italian civil emergency chief who is co-ordinating European Union rescue operations, warned the overall death toll could surpass 100,000. The undersea quake, which hit 9.0 on the open-ended Richter scale, rocked the seabed about 150 kilometres from the Indonesian island of Sumatra island, which has suffered the most deaths. The death toll leapt suddenly as casualties were tallied from Aceh province on Sumatra. Indonesia's health ministry said there were nearly 80,000 refugees in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and the western areas of Meulaboh and Aceh Jaya. The stench of death hung over Banda Aceh as survivors struggled to dig graves in tropical heat. About 2,000 bodies were buried in mass graves, but many rotting corpses remained on the streets. Police in the city of Meulaboh made a plea for help saying that looting had broken out and starvation loomed. "If within three to four days relief does not arrive, there will be a starvation disaster that will cause mass deaths," chief police detective Rilo Pambudi said in an e-mail message released by officials in Jakarta. In Sri Lanka, the toll rose to nearly 18,000 as hundreds of decomposed corpses were pulled from washed out trains, cars and smashed buildings. Mass burials were again staged as mortuaries were unable to cope with the number of bodies piling up. But the Sri Lankan air force airlifted former German chancellor Helmut Kohl who was stranded at a holiday home near the southern resort of Galle. At least 4,000 people were confirmed dead in India's isolated Andaman and Nicobar islands and coastguard officials said the toll on Car Nicobar alone could top 10,000. Police said they had received no word from dozens of islands in the Andaman and Nicobar chain which stretch over 800 kilometres (500 miles) and were close to the earthquake epicentre. In southern India, vultures gathered as survivors grimly buried or burnt their dead. The number of dead passed 8,500 Tuesday. Thousands of foreigners remained missing in Thailand where the official toll was at 1,516 dead. The missing included about 1,500 Swedes, whose government fears they are dead. At least 700 foreign tourists are believed to be among those killed in Thailand. Survivors were evacuated from stricken areas told of the full horror wrought by waves up to 10 metres (30 feet) high that tore babies from the arms of their parents and carried children and the elderly out to sea. Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova escaped being swept away by clinging to a palm tree for eight hours at the Thai resort of Khao Lakuntil until she could be rescued, her publicist said. The 25-year-old Nemcova's British boyfriend was still missing. "People were screaming and kids were screaming all over the place, screaming 'help, help'. And after a few minutes you didn't hear the kids any more," Nemcova told The New York Daily News from her hospital bed in Thailand. She suffered a broken pelvis and internal injuries. In the worst-hit Indian state of Tamil Nadu, fisherman A. Ravi wept as he recalled watching his family, including four children, swept away as his village was flattened. "We went fishing in the early morning and a few hours later the water started swirling around us and suddenly the level went down so sharply we could see the seabed," said Ravi. "Then I saw a huge sheet of water going towards the shore...when I got back I found my village under water and my family gone," he said. Hundreds of rescue ships, helicopters and planes were mobilised to evacuate tourists from wrecked resorts to hospitals already overflowing with the injured and corpses. The UN's chief disaster relief coordinator Jan Egeland said the biggest emergency operation would be needed after the disaster. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed for 44 million dollars in immediate aid. Yvette Stevens, UN Assistant Emergency Relief aid coordinator, said the international aid needed for the Indian Ocean was likely to exceed the previous record UN appeal of 1.6 billion dollars for Iraq last year. But Egeland backed off an apparent attack he made on rich countries on Monday for being "stingy" in their aid donations. The Norwegian official said he had been "misinterpreted" "The international assistance that has come and been pledged from the United States, Europe and countries from the region has also been very generous," Egeland told reporters at the UN headquarters in New York. He said his comments had nothing to do with the tsunami disaster effort. "The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive." With the United States feeling it had been the target of Egeland's comments, the US secretary of state said "The United States is not stingy" and added "We will do more. I wish that comment hadn't been made." - AFPSome News on the Earthquake.....
My grandfather and one of my uncle was @ Phuket,Thailand....Till now ....3 days le...still cannot managed contact dao ta men...i Got a bad feeling...i keep calling and calling but still .....cannot managed to contact......really .........veri sad.......I can't keep myself stop worry....can't keep myself look on brighter side...really cannot....My grandfather and my uncle stay in thailand bangkok 1 year ago.....my uncle was becos of working,he bring his wife and daughter as well my grandfather to bangkok stay....2dae is my uncle birthday...and sad is that he is now missing.....his daughter had went to malaysia penang but had contact back her mum that she is fine.....but sad...my uncle still cannot be contact dao....really sad...
