Floods add to tsunami misery
Published 9:00 pm Saturday, January 1, 2005
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – After the devastation wreaked by the seas, a deluge from the skies deepened the misery for tsunami-stricken areas Saturday, triggering flash floods in Sri Lanka that sent evacuees fleeing and increasing the threat of deadly disease.
A 5.9 quake rocked Sumatra today, the second strong aftershock on the hard-hit island in two days. But there were no reports of further damage or injury.
The world’s efforts shifted into high gear with global assistance reaching $2 billion with a fresh pledge from Tokyo.
The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunamis that hit a week ago today passed 123,000, and the United Nations has said the estimated number was approaching 150,000. Thailand said it expects its death toll to reach 8,000.
U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan decided to visit Indonesia, the hardest hit nation, where the official death toll stood at more than 80,000, but officials said it could reach 100,000. Annan will attend a conference Thursday in Jakarta on organizing relief.
“We mourn, we cry and our hearts weep to witness thousands of victims sprawled everywhere,” said Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, touring the damage on Sumatra island, which bore the brunt of both the quake and the waves.
A day after President Bush upped the U.S. pledge to $350 million, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Saturday that his country would contribute up to $500 million to relief efforts.
“The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension,” President Bush said in his weekly radio address, announcing a proclamation calling for U.S. flags to be flown at half-staff this week in honor of the dead. Secretary of State Colin Powell was also heading for the region.
But the dollar figures were an abstraction for survivors whose hearts were broken once again by water.
At one refugee camp on the grounds of the airport of Banda Aceh, hundreds of people spent a wet night shivering under plastic sheets. Mothers nursed babies while others tried to light a fire with damp matches.
“With no help we will die,” said Indra Syaputra. “We came here because we heard that we could get food, but it was nonsense. All I got was some packets of noodles.”
The rains pummeling the corpse-littered city were creating the conditions for cholera and other waterborne diseases to spread. Boxes of aid at Banda Aceh’s airport soaked up water, making it difficult for workers loading cartons of water, crackers and noodles onto delivery vehicles.
More amazing stories of survival emerged.
The Indonesian Red Cross in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province, reportedly dug out a survivor from the ruins of a house where he had been buried since the tsunami struck. The rescuers heard Ichsan Azmil’s cries for help. After he was pulled out Friday, he asked for water and was taken to a hospital for treatment of cuts and bruises.
On India’s remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, a woman who fled the killer waves gave birth Monday in the forest that became her sanctuary. She named her son Tsunami.
In eastern Sri Lanka, flash floods forced the evacuation of about 2,000 people already displaced by a tsunami that killed nearly 29,000 people on the tropical island.
Several roads leading to Ampara – one of the hardest hit towns – were flooded, preventing relief trucks from arriving, said Neville Wijesinghe, a senior police officer. Bureaucratic delays, fuel shortages, impassable roads and long distances also blocked supplies.
In addition to the deaths, 5 million people were homeless. The hunt for loved ones dragged on with tens of thousands still missing. Among the missing were about 3,500 Swedes and 1,000 Germans, and hundreds of others from Scandinavia, Italy and Belgium.
