Aid agencies on the move, thank god:
Japan sets up crisis center after tsunami kills 10,000 in Asia
Monday, December 27, 2004 at 07:06 JST
TOKYO ? The Foreign Ministry has set up an ad hoc office in the wake of Sunday's tsunamis triggered by a big earthquake that left nearly 10,000 people dead throughout Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and Indonesia, ministry officials said Monday.
The officials said the office is headed by Yoshinori Katori, director general of the ministry's Consular Affairs Bureau.
JThe government is already preparing to send a disaster relief team to Sri Lanka at the request of its government following massive tsunami damage from a powerful earthquake that struck off Indonesia's Sumatra Island.
Japan is also asking the Indonesian government about the need for assistance.
The medical unit is ready to leave Japan for the disaster areas within 48 hours after a request, the officials said.
Ministry officials are checking on the safety of Japanese citizens living in or visiting the affected areas and received a number of telephone inquiries by the families of such people.
There have been no reports of Japanese being killed or going missing, according to the officials.
Japanese tour companies were also busy collecting information on the safety of their customers traveling in the region.
"We have heard that the airport in Pattaya (in Thailand) has been closed," Yoshihiko Iwase of Kinki Nippon Tourist Co in Tokyo said. "We might have customers who change their schedule for year-end trips tomorrow."
The Osaka branch of Thai Airways International said it received calls from customers asking about the schedule of flights for the Thai resort of Phuket and the conditions there. Some have already canceled flight reservations as the quake damaged hotels in the southern Thai island. (Kyodo News)
http://www.japantoday.com/e/?content=news&cat=1&id=323140
Reuters:
Quake, Tsunami Devastate Asia, Over 11,300 Dead
Locals and rescuers carry a girl from the Marina beach after a tsunami hit the southern Indian city of Madras December 26, 2004. At least 390 have been killed after a tsunami triggered by an earthquake hit India's southern coast on Sunday, a federal cabinet minister and officials said. Photo by Stringer/India/Reuters
Reuters
Dec 26, 2004 ? By Simon Gardner
COLOMBO (Reuters) - One of the most powerful earthquakes in a century hit Asia on Sunday, unleashing tsunami waves on coastal areas of Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand, and killing an estimated 11,300 people.
The tsunami waves were triggered by an 8.9 magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, rearing up into walls of water as high as 30 feet as they hit shallow coastlines in south and south-east Asia.
"I heard an eerie sound that I have never heard before. It was a high pitched sound followed by a deafening roar," said a 55-year-old Indian fishermen who gave his name as Chellappa.
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"I told everyone to run for their life."
In Indonesia, raging waters dragged villagers out to sea, flung others inland and tore children from their parents' arms.
One official said more than 4,400 people had died there, while thousands more were missing. A senior army officer said corpses were still caught up in trees when rescue workers stopped for the night.
In Sri Lanka, where the death toll reached 3,500, corpses drifted in floodwaters, while thousands fled their homes and cars floated out to sea. Idyllic beaches were turned into fields of debris. Around 750,000 people were displaced.
"I think this is the worst-ever natural disaster in Sri Lanka," N.D. Hettiarachchi, director of the National Disaster Management Center, said.
In southern India, where at least 3,000 were estimated to have died, wailing relatives gathered around bodies. Beaches were littered with submerged cars and wrecked boats. Shanties on the coast were under water.
In the Thai holiday resort of Phuket, popular with tourists seeking some Christmas sunshine, beaches were devastated.
"I just couldn't believe what was happening before my eyes," Boree Carlsson said from a hotel near Phuket's Patong beach.
"As I was standing there, a car actually floated into the lobby and overturned because the current was so strong," said the 45-year-old Swede.
Thai government officials said at least 392 bodies had been retrieved and they expected the final toll to approach 1,000.
UNABLE TO WARN THEM IN TIME
The earthquake, of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), struck at 7:59 a.m. (1959 EST) off Sumatra.
A warning center such as those used along the Pacific Rim could have saved most of the thousands of people who died, a USGS official said.
Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center in Hawaii, said it had picked up the earthquake but was unable to warn countries in time of the tsunami waves rolling toward their coastlines.
"They were able to make contact but they did not have the proper, I guess, government officials to notify. They'll be working on this for the future," she told CNN.
Sri Lanka appealed to the world for aid, saying 1 million people, or 5 percent of its population, were affected. The global Red Cross launched an immediate emergency appeal.
In India hundreds fled to higher ground with pots, pans and other meager possessions. People carried bodies in hessian sacks to hospitals where dozens of dead already lined the corridors.
Christian Aid emergency officer Dominic Nutt told Reuters more people would be at risk in the aftermath.
"We've had reports already from the south of India of bodies rotting where they have fallen and that will immediately affect the water supply especially for the most impoverished people."
In the Maldives, none of the thousands of foreign visitors holidaying in the beach paradise, was believed to have been killed although some had suffered minor injuries.
In holiday islands off southern Thailand, emergency workers rescued about 70 Thai and foreign divers from the famed Emeral Cave and dozens were evacuated from around other islands. Two Thais were killed at Emeral cave.
Officials said more than 600 tourists and residents were to be evacuated from Ko Phi Phi. The tiny island made famous by the 2000 film "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was flattened.
RING OF FIRE
Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where volcanoes regularly erupt.
The worst affected area was Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, where 3,000 were killed. More than 200 prisoners escaped from a jail when the tsunami knocked down its walls.
The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie Martinez, at the USGS in Golden, Colorado.
The tsunami was so powerful it reached across the ocean to smash boats and flood areas along the east African coast.
A tsunami, a Japanese word that translates as "harbor wave," is usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the earth's crust under or near the ocean.
It is not a single wave, but a series of waves that can travel across the ocean at speeds of more than 500 miles an hour. As the tsunami enters the shallows of coastlines in its path, its velocity slows but its height increases.
A tsunami that is just a few centimeters or meters high from trough to crest can rear up to heights of 30 to 50 meters as it hits the shore, striking with devastating force.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=361176
Aid agencies rush to south Asia
Sun Dec 26, 2004 10:02 PM GMT
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By Robert Evans
GENEVA (Reuters) - Aid agencies around the world are rushing staff, equipment and money to southern Asia where hundreds of thousands of people have been forced to flee after tsunamis pummelled coastal communities.
The tsunamis, triggered by a massive underwater earthquake, hit at least six countries on Sunday, killing more than 11,300 people, officials and local media said. Government officials estimate in Sri Lanka alone, 750,000 people have been left homeless.
Some of the affected areas have had their communications cut. Others are so remote it is impossible to know the extent of the damage.
"This is a massive humanitarian disaster and the communications are so bad we still don't know the full scale of it. Unless we get aid quickly to the people many more could die," Phil Esmond, head of Oxfam in Sri Lanka, told Reuters.
The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was seeking an initial and immediate 7.5 million Swiss francs (3.4 million pounds) for emergency aid funding.
"This is a preliminary appeal. It will be revised after exact needs are evaluated," said Simon Missiri, head of the federation's Asia Pacific department.
Earlier, the federation released one million Swiss francs from its disaster relief emergency fund to get assistance moving to the region.
The United States said it would offer "all appropriate assistance" to Asian countries, with some aid already on its way to Sri Lanka and the Maldives.
The European Union pledged an initial three million euros (2.1 million pounds) and local news agency Belga said Belgium had allocated its own 500,000 euros in emergency aid to be distributed by Red Cross bodies and the EU.
The U.N Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said in Geneva it was making an emergency cash grant of $50,000 (26,000 pounds) to Sri Lanka for relief work and sending an evaluation team to the island on Sunday.
The office said it would decide on help for other affected countries as more detailed information became available. It also offered to act as a channel for cash contributions for immediate assistance.
HEALTH CHALLENGES
The top five areas to be addressed are water, sanitation, food, shelter and health, experts said.
"We've had reports already from the south of India of bodies rotting where they have fallen and that will immediately affect the water supply especially for the most impoverished people," Christian Aid emergency officer Dominic Nutt said.
Christian Aid said it was sending an immediate 250,000 pounds to Sri Lanka and India for relief efforts.
The Red Cross Federation said it would send medical supplies for 100,000 people in Sri Lanka on Monday from Copenhagen, including special medication to treat diarrhoeal disease.
"The biggest health challenges we face is the spread of waterborne diseases, particularly malaria and diarrhoea, as well as respiratory tract infections," the federation's senior health officer Hakan Sandbladh said in Geneva.
The organisation said it would be sending an assessment and coordination team to Sri Lanka within hours, and had on standby several emergency response units specialised on water and sanitation as well as field hospitals.
Titon Mitra, emergency response director for the CARE aid agency in Geneva, said the there areas his group would focus on are Sri Lanka, Indonesia and the eastern coast of India.
"Death tolls are likely to increase over time. I'm sure the numbers will go up," he said.
"What we don't know is the number of people who've been displaced, and what infrastructure has been affected. That's the critical point."
A delegation of three senior Israeli physicians flew out on Sunday night to Sri Lanka, three other doctors are expected to follow. Israeli officials said they would also try to rescue Israelis stranded in Thailand.
-- Additional reporting by Ruth Gidley and Kate Holton in London, Marie-Louise Moller in Brussels; Allyn Fisher-Ilan in Jerusalem; Evelyn Leopold at the United Nations
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200412/s1272563.htm
Where is Australia's response, I wonder?
Hopefully in planning...
