Residents walk past damaged market buildings in Banda Aceh Monday, Dec. 27, 2004.
Aceh province was one of the few places hit by both southern Asia's massive
earthquake and the tsunamis it caused, a double blow that killed thousands and
wreaked so much devastation that separatists fighting a decades long
insurgency called a temporary cease-fire. (AP Photo/ Achmad Ibrahim)
SE Asia Quake/Tsunami
Quake/Tsunami death toll passes 23,000 and continues rising
Surfersvillage Global Surf News, 28 December 2004: - - LHOKSEUMAWE, Indonesia - Rescue workers battled to reach isolated coastal towns Tuesday on the island of Sumatra nearest the epicenter of the monstrous earthquake that sent tidal waves surging through the region, killing more than 23,000. Indonesian officials said they feared the death toll would climb by thousands in their country alone.
So far, Indonesia has confirmed 4,991 deaths, with most of them in Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra. The quake epicenter was more than 6 miles under the Indian Ocean seabed less than 100 miles from the Sumatra coast. Most of the coastal region south of the provincial capital of Banda Aceh had not been visited by government officials or rescue teams nearly two days after the disaster. Late Monday, Indonesian Vice President Yusuf Kalla told the state news agency he believed the toll in his country could climb to 25,000.
"We don't have confirmed data, but I think between 21,000 and 25,000 people (have died), he said, according to the Antara state news agency. Purnomo Sidik, national disaster director at the Social Affairs Ministry, said Kalla's prediction was in line with his ministry's estimates. "Thousands of victims cannot be reached in some isolated and remote areas that cannot be contacted due to lack of communication."
In the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, where rescue efforts were already well under way, the streets were filled with overturned cars and the rotting corpses of adults and children. Shopping malls and office buildings lay in rubble, and thousands of homeless families huddled together in mosques and schools. The minaret of the city's 125-year-old mosque leaned precariously. At least 3,000 people died in the city of 400,000.
The fear of a far higher death toll came as bodies washed up on tropical beaches and piled up in hospitals Monday, raising fears of disease across the 10-nation arc of destruction left by a monster earthquake and walls of water. Thousands were missing and millions homeless. Humanitarian agencies began what the United Nations said would become the biggest relief effort the world has ever seen.
The disaster could be the costliest in history as well, with "many billions of dollars" of damage, said U.N. Undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge of emergency relief coordination. Hundreds of thousands have lost everything, and millions face a hazardous future because of polluted drinking water, a lack of sanitation and no health services, he said.
More than 12,500 people died in Sri Lanka, nearly 5,000 in Indonesia, and 4,400 in India. The International Red Cross, which reported 23,700 deaths, said it was concerned that diseases like malaria and cholera could add to the toll.
Dazed tourists evacuated the popular island resorts of southern Thailand, where the Thai-American grandson of revered King Bhumibol Adulyadej was listed as one of more than 900 people dead. Scores more died in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives. The waves raced 2,800 miles across the Indian Ocean to Africa, killing hundreds of people in Somalia and three in the Seychelles.
Eight Americans were among the dead, and U.S. embassies in the region were trying to track down hundreds more who were unaccounted for.
Sunday's massive quake of 9.0 magnitude sent 500-mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the deadliest known tsunami since the one caused by the 1883 volcanic eruption at Krakatoa — located off Sumatra's southern tip — which killed an estimated 36,000 people.
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Source Yahoo News 08h20 28/12/04
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