BANDA ACEH, Indonesia – A Sumatran fisherman was discovered barely alive under his beached boat Sunday, the first survivor found in three days, but with tens of thousands still missing in crushed seaside settlements and in the flotsam washing the shores of the Indian Ocean rescuers turned full attention to getting food and water to the living.
Today, Indonesia increased its death toll from last week’s devastating earthquake and tsunamis to 94,081, raising the total number of people reported killed in 11 countries in the Indian Ocean basin to at least 137,321. Aid agencies have said the death toll was expected to hit 150,000.
More than a week after the disaster struck the region, Indonesia’s President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono announced plans to work with the country’s neighbors to establish an early warning system.
“Indonesia and other neighboring countries plan to set up an early warning to prevent natural disasters, including earthquake and tsunamis,” Yudhoyono told reporters. “This would be a kind of pre-emptive measure.”
Most of the hardest-hit countries, including Indonesia, India and Sri Lanka had no system in place to warn of the impending disaster as the Pacific Ocean has.
Regional leaders were expected to endorse establishing such a system during a conference Thursday in Jakarta.
The discovery of 24-year-old Tengku Sofyan, who could barely speak and was badly dehydrated, came as relief efforts accelerated across the southern Asian destruction zone. He was sent to a hospital in Banda Aceh, on the northern tip of Sumatra, the hardest hit region where an estimated 100,000 died when the most powerful earthquake in four decades ripped a fault line beneath the sea bed 100 miles off shore and spawned deadly tsunamis.
Witnesses said Sofyan was at sea when the tsunami hit Dec. 26. His boat was tossed onto the beach at Lampulo where he was trapped for a week without food and water. He was the first missing victim discovered alive since Friday.
“He’s in extremely fragile condition, especially mentally,” said Dr. Irwan Azwar, who treated the fisherman.
After a week of digging through rubble, rescue workers said finding more of the missing alive now bordered on hoping for miracles.
“If you survived the earthquake, you probably were killed by tsunami,” said Lamsar Sipahutar, the head of the search team in Indonesia.
In India, which suffered more than 9,000 deaths, officials insisted there was still hope for survivors. But the search was essentially over in Tamil Nadu state, the southern region which bore the brunt of the country’s sea surge. Veera Shanmuga Moni, a top administrator of Tamil Nadu’s Nagappattinam district, said about 600 people on the missing list would soon be declared dead.
Associated Press
A woman receives food and other supplies at a makeshift evacuation camp in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, on Sunday. Most of the survivors are completely dependent on food rations as the devastating tsunamis have completely wiped out their homes.
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