Asian Tsunami Disaster

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Tsunami man survives week at sea

An Indonesian man has been found floating on tree branches in the Indian Ocean, eight days after a devastating tsunami struck the region.
Rizal Shahputra, 23, said he was initially swept out to sea with other survivors and family members, but that one by one they drowned.

He was rescued on Monday by a passing container vessel.

He was taken to Malaysia where officials said he was in good condition - he survived eating floating coconuts.
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Wednesday, 5 January, 2005, 09:46 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4147937.stm

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Yahoo! News 8:38am Thu, Jan 06, 2005



5 minutes ago World - AP Asia

By NEELESH MISRA and RUPAK SANYAL, Associated Press Writers

JIRKATANG, India - Members of the ancient Jarawa tribe emerged from their forest habitat Thursday for the first time since the Dec. 26 tsunami and earthquakes that rocked the isolated Andaman and Nicobar Islands, and in a rare interaction with outsiders announced that all 250 of their fellow tribespeople had survived.

"We are all safe after the earthquake. We are in the forest in Balughat," Ashu, an arrow-wielding Jarawa, said in broken Hindi through an interpreter in a restricted forest area in the northern reaches of South Andaman island.


According to varying estimates, there are only 400 to 1,000 members alive today from the Jarawas, Great Andamanese, Onges, Sentinelese and Shompens. Some anthropological DNA studies indicate the generations may have spanned back 70,000 years. They originated in Africa and migrated to India through Indonesia, anthropologists say.

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20050106/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_tribe_survives&cid=516&ncid=2337

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Thursday, 6 January, 2005, 10:11 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4151059.stm


Tsunami 'miracle' woman pregnant


An Indonesian woman who was discovered last week after surviving for five days in the Indian Ocean is pregnant, doctors have announced.
Malawati, in her early 20s, knew she was expecting a child but had not told her rescuers because she assumed she would have lost it in her ordeal.

"I'm very glad, very happy," she said on hearing the news, from her hospital bed in Penang, northern Malaysia.

However, her husband - who was swept out to sea with her - is still missing.


Doctors were stunned to discover, on giving Malawati medical checks following her rescue, that she was 18 weeks pregnant.

The foetus was alive and healthy, said Helena Tuanakotta, the Indonesian vice consul in Penang.

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Tsunami Death Toll Rises Above 150,000

58 minutes ago World - AP Asia
Yahoo! News 7:28am, Sat, Jan 08, 2005
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050108/ap_on_re_as/tsunami




By LELY T. DJUHARI, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Two weeks after a tsunami slammed into 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 rose above 150,000.

In a rare positive note, the World Health Organization (news - web sites) said no major disease outbreaks have been reported in the crowded camps where millions have sought refuge after losing everything.

"It is normal after a catastrophe like this nature to have some disease, but they are under control," WHO Director-General Dr. Lee Jong-wook said in Sri Lanka.

The U.N. agency has warned that disease could put as many as 150,000 survivors "at extreme risk"

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The UN says it is optimistic that none of the survivors of the Asian tsunami will lose their lives to hunger.
Jim Morris, head of the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) said he expected food aid to reach almost all survivors within the next seven days.

More than 150,000 people have been killed across Asia. The UN has warned that the toll could rise further as a result of hunger and disease.

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1. Indonesia: 104,055
2. Sri Lanka: 30,513
3. India (inc Andaman and Nicobar Is): 10,001
4. Thailand: 5,288 5. Somalia: 298
6. Burma: 64
7. Maldives: 82
8. Malaysia: 67 9. Tanzania: 10
10. Seychelles: 1
11. Bangladesh: 2
12. Kenya: 1

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4157947.stm

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Animated guide: The tsunami disaster

Thursday, 30 December, 2004, 20:31 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/4136289.stm

UN Chief Calls on Sri Lanka, Rebels to Put Aside Differences After Tsunami

Sri Lankan government refused UN secretary-general's request to visit regions under Tamil rebel control



9 Jan 2005 1721 UTC
http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm

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1-year-old hippopotamus leans to its 100 years old stepmother

7/1/2005, 09:37 GMT+7
http://www.vnexpress.net/Vietnam/Khoa-hoc/2005/01/3B9DA556/

Members of Ancient Tribe Escape Tsunami


Mon Jan 10, 3:07 AM ET World - AP Asia
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/tsunami_india_royal_couple




By NEELESH MISRA, Associated Press Writer

PORT BLAIR, India - The last few dozen remaining members of an ancient indigenous tribe in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands said they raced up a mountain to escape a devastating tsunami — and avoid extinction.

The tribe was once the largest in the region with an estimated population of 10,000 in 1789. The government says only 43 Great Andamanese remain. The tribal king put the number at 50, 10 of whom are his children.

"No one was hurt. Everyone is all right," Jiroki, the king of the Great Andamanese tribe, said from a hospital in Port Blair, the capital of the Indian-administered territories.

Rescuers last week brought the remaining Great Andamanese tribespeople to Port Blair in the wake of the massive Dec. 26 earthquake and resulting tsunami.

"The water was rushing up very fast. It seemed to be following us," his wife, Surmayee, recalled. "We stayed in the forest for five days. There was some rice. We ate that. Then there was nothing, so we went hungry."

Speaking in broken Hindi, India's national language, Jiroki and Surmayee said that when the earthquake jolted their homes in a forest on Strait Island, in the south of the archipelago, they ordered the tribe to flee.

"I am the king. They follow what I say," said Jiroki, wearing a red T-shirt and shorts. "We asked the wireless operator to send a message to Port Blair. But the machine and battery had been flooded by the water. They were spoiled."
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Diary: Awesome task in Sumatra
Howard Arfin is a volunteer and international delegate for the Canadian Red Cross.
He has been helping bury the dead and supplying aid for survivors on the Indonesian island of Sumatra. He reports on his experiences in the first of a series of diary entries for the BBC News website.

Two cruel facts make this disaster response different from all the calamities I've worked on until now.

First, the scale of this tragedy is challenging our skills like never before. Second, the impact on our own Red Cross people here in Indonesia is just heart-breaking.

Our frustrations are palpable. Here we are as Red Cross workers on the front lines, coping with the consequences of this tragedy in every affected country.
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7 January 2005
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4161183.stm

Thailand's Elephants Help Recover Tsunami Victims
By Raymond Thibodeaux, Bangkok
10-January-2005 0801




Recovery and clean-up teams in the worst affected areas of southern Thailand are getting specialized help from unlikely sources: tourist-park elephants.

Two weeks after a tsunami demolished many of the coastal resorts in southern Thailand, as many as 3,500 people are still unaccounted for. Most are presumed dead and buried under mounds of debris left behind by the giant waves. To help find them, Thai authorities have enlisted the help of tourist-park elephants and former stray dogs.

The dogs sift the rubble and hard-to-reach areas for human remains. In areas inaccessible to trucks and cranes, elephants do the heavy lifting. They can clear tons of debris such as cars and toppled walls, enabling aid workers to recover the bodies. So far, elephants have helped recover about 83 bodies.
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http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-10-voa5.cfm

Monday, 10 January, 2005, 18:32 GMT

Thailand tsunami victims exhumed




The bodies of hundreds of tsunami victims are being exhumed in Thailand because of mistakes made in identifying victims immediately after the disaster.
Authorities say some victims quickly visually identified as Thai and buried may have been foreign nationals.

Thailand on Sunday increased by 10-fold the number of corpses listed as having an unknown national origin.

Meanwhile, Indonesia says it has set a two-week deadline for clearing up the main towns affected in Aceh province.

The province, on the northern tip of Sumatra island, was one of the regions worst-hit by the tsunami disaster.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4162529.stm

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U.S. Relief Copter Crashes in Banda Aceh

AP Video - Mon Jan 10, 9:46 AM ET
A U.S. helicopter on a relief mission crashed in a rice paddy 500 yards from the Banda Aceh airport Monday, injuring two servicemen. The U.S. military says there was no evidence it was shot down.

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U.S. Marines Begin Tsunami Relief

AP Video - Mon Jan 10, 2:49 PM ET
Making the transition from hardened soldier to peace-time aid worker, U.S. troops from the 15th Marine expeditionary unit arrived in Galle, Sri Lanka Monday, to help with the tsunami relief effort.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=979

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DNA Samples Taken From Corpses in Thailand

AP Video - Mon Jan 10, 6:41 PM ET
Thai authorities have been digging up hundreds of bodies in order to take new DNA samples from them.There are concerns that foreigners may have been mistakenly identified as Thai nationals in the chaos that followed the tsunami.

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=index2&cid=979

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Disease Threat Grows with Aceh Rains

UN Childrens' Fund vaccinated more than 1,000 children in less than 36 hours to prevent an outbreak of measles
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11 Jan 2005 1401 UTC
http://www.voanews.com/english/portal.cfm

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Tuesday, 11 January, 2005, 03:53 GMT


Tsunami man's two-week sea ordeal

Ari Afrizal's home town of Calang has been destroyed
An Acehnese man swept out to sea by the tsunami has been rescued two full weeks after the wave destroyed his home town.
Ari Afrizal had lived on makeshift rafts and a leaky fishing boat until he was spotted by an Arab container ship at midday on Sunday.

At first Mr Afrizal, 21, feared the ship's crew had not spotted him, but after passing him once it returned and plucked him from the water.

He is the third Indonesian rescued from the open water since the tsunami.
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http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4163587.stm

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11/1/2005, 14:55 GMT+7
http://www.vnexpress.net/Vietnam/The-gioi/2005/01/3B9DA787/

Tsunami image

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Tím Cả Chiều Hoang

tsunami image

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Tím Cả Chiều Hoang

Tuesday, 11 January, 2005, 14:41 GMT
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/beds/bucks/herts/4165273.stm




Elephant dash saved tsunami girl

Amber Mason and Ningnong were devoted friends
An eight-year-old survivor of the Asian disaster has told how her life was saved by a four-year-old elephant.
Amber Mason, of Milton Keynes, Bucks, was riding Ningnong in the Thai resort of Phuket when the devastating waves struck the beach.

As the wave swept in and with water up to his shoulders, Ningnong dashed out of the waves to the top of the beach, carrying Amber to safety.

Back home, Amber said she felt very lucky that Ningnong had saved her.

She said: "I think Ningnong thought something was wrong and was trying to get off the beach.

"Everyone was running out of the sea and my mum began crying because she thought she'd lost me."

Ningnong's owner, realising that seconds were precious, said he had ordered the elephant to run.

Amber's mother, Sam, believes Ningnong had been crucial in saving her daughter.

"If she had been on the beach on her own or with us on the beach, she would never have lived. The elephant took the pounding of the wave," she said.

Ningnong is back on the beach and playing in the waves and as a thank you for saving Amber's life, her family have said they will pay to Ningnong's owner £30 a month.

Thai Authorities Exhume Bodies for Forensic Tests

By Raymond Thibodeaux Bangkok
12-January-2005 1201
http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-12-voa7.cfm




In the haste to bury the dead after the December 26 tsunami, many governments simply buried thousands of victims in mass graves. Now, Thai authorities are digging up many of those bodies for forensic tests to help identify them.

In the days after the tsunami killed more than 5,000 people, Thai authorities ordered the burial of thousands of bodies to avoid the spread of diseases.

In Thailand, the tsunami hit tourist areas packed with tens of thousands of visitors from Asia, Europe and the United States. Up to half of Thailand's victims may be foreigners.

For the most part, Western looking corpses, as well of those thought to have been Asian tourists, were shuttled into refrigerated units and makeshift mortuaries until they could be identified.

WHO: Tsunami Health Risks Remain

By Anjana Pasricha
New Delhi
13-January-2005 1401




The World Health Organization says of Asian countries affected by the tsunami Indonesia is the most vulnerable to disease epidemics. But the agency says there have been no disaster-related disease outbreaks.

The World Health Organization paints a grim picture for Indonesia's remote Aceh Province - the region worst affected by the December 26 tsunami disaster.

WHO South East Asia Coordinator in New Delhi Jay Narain outlined the situation to reporters.

"So there is no health system currently functioning. We have to have these emergency services available there," he said. "Many of the health care workers either they are injured, or they are displaced or some of them have died. Reinforcement from the rest of the country is very, very important."
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http://www.voanews.com/english/2005-01-13-voa17.cfm

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Mosquito sprayers fan out in tsunami zone

Aims to prevent Malaria; Indonesia, rebels pursue permanent truce The Associated Press
Updated: 8:23 a.m. ET Jan. 14, 2005
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Masked workers with mosquito-killing spray guns began moving through refugee camps Friday in tsunami-battered Aceh province, trying to prevent an outbreak of malaria. Indonesia, meanwhile, said it is pursuing a permanent truce with rebels in the area, the worst-hit by the disaster.

While the threat of cholera and dysentery is diminishing because clean water is reaching tsunami survivors in Indonesia, the danger of malaria and dengue fever epidemics is increasing, according to the leader of anti-malaria efforts in the region.

“Short-term, we’re trying to prevent an epidemic,” said Richard Allan, director of the Mentor Initiative, a public health group that fights malaria epidemics. “And it may already be too late.”

The death toll from the Dec. 26 earthquake-triggered tsunami in 11 countries has topped 157,000. Two-thirds of the deaths occurred here in Indonesia’s Aceh province.

Fri Jan 14, 2:19 PM ET World - AP Asia


By DILIP GANGULY, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - The infant dubbed "Baby 81" nurses from a bottle of milk and kicks playfully at a pink blanket as nine desperate, heartbroken women quarrel over him — all claiming he was torn from them by the tsunami.


AP Photo
Slideshow: Asian Tsunami Disaster




One man standing outside the nursery at Kalmunai Base Hospital threatened to kill himself and his wife if they are not given the baby. A woman at the hospital said she would kill the doctors unless she gets him.


The battle over the wide-eyed boy, who appears to be about three or four months old, symbolizes the enormous loss in the Dec. 26 disaster.


Children accounted for a staggering 40 percent — or 12,000 — of Sri Lanka's death toll of nearly 31,000. In all, nearly 160,000 people have died across southern Asia.


The loss is especially keenly felt in Ampara district, where the fight over "Baby 81" is taking place. There were 10,436 people killed in Ampara, the highest in Sri Lanka.


The infant, bruised and covered in mud but otherwise healthy, was brought to the hospital hours after the tsunami struck Kalmunai, a remote town in eastern Sri Lanka that is home to Muslims and Tamils. It was partly cut off after a major bridge was swept away by the deadly waves.


He was given the nickname because his real name is not known and he was the 81st admission that terrible day, officials said Friday. No relatives were with him.
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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=516&e=6&u=/ap/20050114/ap_on_re_as/tsunami_baby81

Health Officials Warn of Tsunami Trauma

Yahoo! News Sat, Jan 15, 2005
1 hour, 23 minutes ago Health - AP
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/ap/20050115/ap_on_he_me/who_tsunami

By MATTI HUUHTANEN, Associated Press Writer

HELSINKI, Finland - Fearful that the southern Asian tsunami may leave millions traumatized, European health ministers urged governments to be mindful of the psychological scars the disaster left behind, especially on children.
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An Acehnese man, right, ties a rope to a woman as he desperately tries to rescue her while being swept by a tsunami Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004 in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia. Both victims later were swept by the strong current and perished. The catastrophe killed more than 106,000 people in Indonesia alone. (AP Photo/Frans Dellian)




Boys who survived the tsunami play volleyball in Seruthur village in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, January 15, 2005. Volunteer groups are organising games like volleyball and other contests to help survivors overcome the trauma of the natural disaster that killed nearly 16,000 people in India. REUTERS/Kamal Kishore

Fri Jan 14,10:28 PM ET
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050115/481/bm10101150325
Health Officials Warn of Tsunami Trauma

11:22 a.m. ET Jan. 15, 2005



BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The United States is eager to end its military tsunami mission as soon as other nations are ready to take over, the U.S. deputy secretary of defense said Saturday. The United Nations began paying survivors in Indonesia to clear rubble.

Indonesia has expressed unease with the number of foreign troops on its territory and wants them out by the end of March.

“As soon as our military folks can pass these responsibilities on to other folks ... and make sure the job gets done, we will be happy,” said Paul Wolfowitz, who was visiting Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

He also said he hopes the U.S. military’s role in the relief mission will be finished well before the end of March.

U.S. said eager to leave Indonesia soon
Wolfowitz says he hopes military will be finished before MarchThe Associated Press

http://www.msn.com

Sun Jan 16, 9:37 AM ET

Tsunami Death Toll Now Exceeds 162,000

1 hour, 33 minutes ago World - AP Asia


By MIKE CORDER, Associated Press Writer

S. Parameshwarie cries after she returned to her destroyed home in Kalmunai, Eastern Sri Lanka, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005. Her daughter Jenita Jeyarajah is one of nine mothers laying claim to a baby dubbed 'Baby 81' brought into the hospital after the tsunami on Dec. 26. The fate of the baby now lies in the hands of the courts, and ultimately a DNA test to determine parentage, say hospital officials.(AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

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http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050116/481/xvt10301161434

Kalpana Mandal, 18, left, waits before her wedding with Sanjay Mistri, 26, unseen, at a government owned school turned tsunami relief camp in Port Blair, India, Sunday, Jan. 16, 2005. Women blew conch shells and ululated while children beat drums and cheered as the first marriage ceremony at a crowded tsunami relief camp got underway Sunday. (AP Photo/Aijaz Rahi)