Tsunami Relief Efforts Continue to Focus on Survivors
The death toll has spiraled past 150,000 with growing concerns for the health of those left behind as lack of clean water and hygiene takes its toll.
Two weeks after the South Asia quake-tsunami disaster devastated coastlines around the Indian Ocean, thousands of bodies were still being pulled out of the mud in remote villages, as the official death toll from the catastrophe continues to rise. Meanwhile, relief agencies warn that disease could put many survivors at extreme risk—possibly doubling the disaster's toll.
According to the Associated Press (AP), aid workers struggled Saturday to reach survivors and provide for their needs. Staggered by the scale of the disaster, aid officials described plans to feed as many as 2 million survivors a day for six months. The cost will be $180 million.
"This truly is the most extraordinary physical natural disaster I have ever seen," World Food Program Executive Director James Morris told the AP after viewing the battered coast. "The damage is overwhelming, the loss of property, the loss of life, injury to people and the risk going forward is enormous."
Get Our Latest News for FREE
World Vision, one of the largest Christian relief and development organizations in the world said that the death toll has spiraled past 150,000 with “growing concerns for the health of those left behind as lack of clean water and hygiene takes its toll.”
Since the disaster struck, World Vision has been on the ground working to provide food water, medical supplies, and shelter to those in need.
On Thursday and Friday, a total of 125 tons of relief supplies from World Vision Canada and World Vision U.S.A. arrived in Indonesia’s capital city of Jakarta. Aid on the flight, which includes pharmaceuticals, emergency food, generators, collapsible water containers, water purification equipment, and clothing for children and adults, will immediately be shipped on to Aceh. World Vision’s relief base established near Banda Aceh airport – staffed with 30 workers – will then distribute the aid.
Meanwhile, WV International President Dean Hirsch, WV Canada President Dave Toycen and WV Indonesia Director James Tumbuan flew to Aceh on Friday morning to confer with WV staff, and officials from OCHA (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs) and the WFP (World Food Program). World Vision reports that the discussion was held to get a better handle on how many people needed help and to determine what kind of help was needed.
Indonesia—whose death toll rose sharply in recent days as teams of rescuers recover bodies from previous inaccessible regions—raised its estimated death toll Saturday by more than 2,700 to 104,055. Many of the previously inaccessible regions are on the western coast of northern Sumatra, close to the epicenter of the magnitude-9.0 quake that triggered last month’s tsunamis.
In India, where the tsunami death toll Monday stood at 10,136 with 5,630 still missing and feared dead, World Vision has so far been able to help at least 26,000 families in the southern states of Andhra Pradesh, Kerela, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu.
Distributions have included items such as food, utensils, blankets, and clothing, while WV staff has also helped provide medical assistance and counseling to survivors.
In Sri Lanka, where more than 30,000 people were killed and 800,000 were left homeless, two relief flights from Africa have landed in Colombo, bringing vehicles and supplies to help in the relief effort. A giant Ilyushin cargo plane left Kenya last Wednesday, loaded with urgently needed 4x4 vehicles and supplies for the post-tsunami rehabilitation. The Zimbabwe chartered flight, carried six hardtop Toyota Land Cruisers, several tons of blankets and plastic sheeting, and clothing donated by the Sri Lankan and Indian communities of Kenya.
World Vision reports that a second flight left Nairobi on Friday, with another six Land Cruisers and more plastic sheeting and blankets. Both flights, and the vehicles and items for displaced people on board them, were funded by World Vision Australia.
Indonesia
Thailand, some 5,300 people are confirmed dead—about half of which were foreigners. Of the six provinces in the southern region of Thailand affected by the tsunami, World Vision Foundation of Thailand (WVFT) has identified the four provinces of Ranong, Phang Nga, Phuket and Krabi as the areas most in need.
World Vision is close to completion of 250 temporary shelters for people living in relief camps. Counseling will also be available shortly. Local agencies, government and volunteers are also working to ensure that the displaced people have access to nutritious foods, fresh water, clean bathroom facilities, clothing, advice and importantly for the children, transportation to a local school and child friendly areas within the camp.
AP reports that about 3,700 are still listed as missing in there.
