Tsunami toll nears 24,000

By Mark Magnier and Paul Watson
Los Angeles Times

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — With bodies splayed over once-pristine beaches in Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and other southern Asian countries hit by an Indian Ocean tsunami, the estimated death toll surpassed 23,700 yesterday, and authorities indicated it could double.

Civilians make their way through heavy debris left after a tsunami struck the resort town of Galle, Sri Lanka, early Sunday. The death toll in Sri Lanka alone rose to 12,500 yesterday. Meanwhile, a massive relief effort was launched for the 10 nations hit by the disaster. Elizabeth Dalziel • Associated Press

"We basically saw the town disappear in front of us," said Nick Hanbury, 48, a Briton who was vacationing in the Sri Lankan resort town of Galle when a giant wave struck.

Relief officials launched a massive international aid effort. Although neither the magnitude-9 earthquake beneath the ocean floor nor the resulting sea surge were the largest in history, "the effects may be the biggest ever because many more people live in exposed areas than ever before," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said in New York.

He warned that the cost of the disaster could be in "the many billions of dollars" and appealed to other countries to give generously to forestall disease that could threaten the lives of millions of survivors.

The tsunami struck without warning and took the lives of rich and poor, locals and tourists, even a member of the Thai royal family. Poomi Jensen, 21, the Thai-American grandson of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and a former resident of San Diego, was last seen jet-skiing off the popular Thai resort area of Krabi. His body was found later by rescue workers, Reuters news agency reported.

Other reports said a disproportionate share of the dead appeared to be children, who may have lacked the wherewithal to escape the tsunami.

"Many women and children died because they could not run fast enough," said Jur Mahali, 29, as he stood near a spot in Kadaymani, Indonesia, where he said three children perished. He and his parents escaped by running to high ground.

An Acehnese man carries his relative, one of an estimated 5,000 Indonesians killed in Sunday's tsunami. Indonesia's vice president said the death toll in his country alone could rise to 25,000. Achmad Ibrahim • Associated Press

European tourists began returning home with horror stories. Pat Faragher of London arrived shoeless at Heathrow with her husband, Bill, having survived after a huge wave blasted through the glass door of their hotel room in Sri Lanka.

"We have lost everything — no passports, no papers. All our belongings were swept away," she said. "But we're alive."

The quake struck just before 7 a.m. Sunday, 155 miles southeast of the city of Banda Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. As the sea floor buckled, a colossal surge of water radiated out, reaching the speed of a passenger jet before eventually striking land. Although scientists in the area and around the globe knew of the quake immediately and recognized that it could pose a danger, officials in the region did not warn coastal dwellers, who were taken by surprise.

"Everyone was just taking their normal Sunday morning. You never expect a 30-foot wave to come and destroy you," said Prasad Punchihewa, who works in Colombo for SriLankan Airlines. "It's just devastating, and all this happening to innocent, poor people."

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies put the 10-nation death toll at 23,710, but said nearly 5,000 people were missing and that the number of dead would surely rise. The Swiss-based organization also said that more than

1 million people had been displaced and more than 200,000 had lost their homes.

Authorities in the stricken countries offered their own counts of the dead: 12,500 in Sri Lanka, 7,000 in India, about 5,000 in Indonesia, more than 900 in Thailand, 60 in Malaysia, 43 in the Maldives, 34 in Myanmar, three in the Seychelles and two in Bangladesh. Hundreds were reported killed in Somalia — 3,000 miles from the quake's epicenter.

But Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the toll in his country alone could reach 25,000, Reuters reported.

Eight Americans were believed to be among the dead. Norwegians, Britons, Italians, Swedes, Danes, Australians, Japanese and others also were killed. Israel reported hundreds of its citizens unaccounted for.

The United States dispatched disaster teams — including Navy P-3 Orion aircraft from Camp Smith to help assess damage in remote areas —and prepared a $15 million aid package. The European Union promised to quickly deliver $4 million, and Japan, China and Russia were sending teams of experts.

Water surges through coastal homes in Maddampegama, about 38 miles south of Colombo, Sri Lanka. "You never expect a 30-foot wave to come and destroy you," one Sri Lankan resident said. Gemunu Amarasinghe • Associated Press

Fox said other urgent aid would probably include earthmoving equipment to clear away animal corpses and debris and prevent pools of standing water that could breed disease. Mass inoculations for children also will be needed.

"The aftermath potentially could kill as many people as the tsunamis itself," he said.

To stave off contamination, officials in Cuddalore, India, began burying bodies in pits, foregoing the usual Hindu cremation ceremony. Sri Lankans skipped the time-consuming routine of identifying bodies, instead taking photographs before burying them. Relatives will be asked to identify the bodies from the pictures later.

In Banda Aceh, the area of Indonesia hit hardest by the quake and tsunami, bodies were still lying today by the roadsides and on the grounds of the city's grand mosque. Some buildings collapsed from the quake and many others were crushed by the water that followed. Officials estimated that 3,000 people died in the city, which has a population of about 240,000.

The suffering of thousands of homeless people in India's Cuddalore district grew worse yesterday afternoon when a chilling rain started to fall, part of a slow-moving storm that stirred up the surf and raised fears of more big waves.

That was just one of the many challenges facing those who survived the catastrophe as aid officials sized up the potential for a disease-borne disaster.

"Drinking water for millions (has) been polluted," said Egeland, the U.N. official. "Disease will be a result of that, and also acute respiratory disease always comes in the wake of disasters."

Magnier reported from Colombo, and Watson reported from Cuddalore. Times staff writers Richard C. Paddock in Bada Aceh; Sonni Efron in Washington; Barbara Demick in Seoul, South Korea; Tony Perry in San Diego; Janet Stobart in London; and Christian Retzlaff in Berlin contributed to this report.