Dec. 27, 2004
Fox News

Photo: Thai rescuers load empty coffins to be sent to Phuket at Bangkok military airport Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Rescuers converged on beaches and islands Monday to search for survivors of earthquake-spawned tidal waves that devastated idyllic resorts of southern Thailand. The interior ministry said more than 830 people were killed. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — Rescuers piled up bodies along southern Asian coastlines devastated by tidal waves that smashed into nine countries, obliterating seaside towns and killing more than 20,900 people.

Hundreds of children were buried in mass graves in India, and morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the catastrophe.

The death toll mounted sharply Monday, a day after the 9.0-magnitude quake struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean off the coast of Indonesia. It was the most powerful quake in four decades.

The waves sped away from the epicenter at over 500 mph before crashing into the region's shorelines, sweeping people and fishing villages out to sea. Millions were displaced from their homes and thousands were missing.

Officials said the death toll would continue to rise, and the International Red Cross said it was concerned about waterborne diseases.

Sri Lanka said just over 10,000 people were killed along its coastlines, and Tamil rebels said 2,000 people died in its territory, bringing that country's toll to more than 12,000.

Indonesia reported about 5,000 deaths and India 3,000. Thailand — a Western tourist hotspot — said hundreds were dead and thousands missing. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and even in Somalia, 3,000 miles away in Africa.

On the remote Car Nicobar island south of India, Police Chief S.B. Deol told New Delhi Television he had reports that another 3,000 people may have died. If confirmed, that would raise India's death toll to 6,000 and the overall number to 23,900.

Photo: An Acehnese woman tries to identify her missing relatives among bodies of victims of a tsunami that hit following an earthquake in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004. Tidal waves swamped Indonesian towns near the epicenter of Sunday's massive undersea earthquake, killing hundreds of people and leaving bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/str)

"We have ordered 15,000 troops into the field to search for survivors," said military spokesman Edy Sulistiadi. "They are mostly retrieving corpses."

Refugees in nearby Lhokseumawe, many of whom had spent the night sleeping outside on open ground, complained that little or no aid had reached them. The city's hospital said it was running out of medicine.

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu was also hit hard, with thousands of deaths reported. Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa called the scene "an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented."

Nearby beaches resembled open-air mortuaries as fishermen's bodies washed ashore, and retreating waters left behind others killed inland. In Cuddalore, red-eyed parents held a mass burial for more than 150 children. About half of the nearly 400 who perished in the town were youngsters, leaving townspeople in stunned bereavement.

The tsunamis came without warning. Witnesses said sea waters at first retreated far out into the ocean, only to return at a vicious pace. Some regions reported a crashing wall of water 20 feet high.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said Katri Seppanen, who was in Thailand, on Phuket island's popular Patong beach.

Sri Lanka and Indonesia had at least a million people each driven from their homes. Warships in Thailand steamed to remote tropical island resorts to search for survivors as air force helicopters in Sri Lanka and India rushed food and medicine to stricken areas.

Photo: Residents carry a body of a victim after tidal waves hit following an earthquake in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004. Tidal waves swamped Indonesian towns near the epicenter of Sunday's massive undersea earthquake, killing hundreds of people and leaving bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Str)

In Indonesia, villagers near northern Lhokseumawe picked through the debris of their ruined houses amid the smell of decomposing bodies.

One man, Rajali, said his wife and two children were killed and that he couldn't find dry ground to bury them. Islamic tradition demands that the deceased be buried as soon as possible.

"What shall I do?" said the 55-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. "I don't know where to bury my wife and children."

In Sri Lanka — an island nation some 1,000 miles west of the epicenter — about 25,000 troops were deployed to crack down on sporadic, small-scale looting and to help in rescue efforts. About 200 inmates took advantage of the chaos, escaping from a prison in coastal Matara.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake's magnitude was 9.0 — the strongest since a 9.2 magnitude temblor in Alaska in 1964 and the fourth-largest in a century. The quake was more than 6 miles deep and was followed by a half-dozen powerful aftershocks. A 620-mile section of a geological plate shifted, triggering the sudden displacement of water.

Countries around the world were touched. Italy reported 11 of citizens had died; Norway 10; Britain four; the United States and Denmark three each; France, Sweden and Belgium two each; and New Zealand one.

Those numbers would likely rise. Sri Lanka said 72 foreign tourists were killed there. In Thailand, 35 of the dead were identified as foreigners.

President Bush expressed his condolences over the "terrible loss of life and suffering." From the Vatican, Pope John Paul II led appeals for aid for victims, and the 25-nation European Union promised to quickly deliver $4 million.

Aid agencies and governments around the world began pouring relief supplies into the region on Monday. Japan, China and Russia were among the countries sending teams of experts.

Photo: Residents stand on a flooded street after tidal waves hit in Lhokseumawe, Aceh province, Indonesia, Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004. Tidal waves swamped Indonesian towns near the epicenter of Sunday's massive undersea earthquake, killing at least 408 people and leaving bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded, officials and witnesses said. (AP Photo/Str)

Jasmine Whitbread, international director of the aid group Oxfam, warned that without swift action, more people could die. "The flood waters will have contaminated drinking water and food will be scarce," she said.

In Thailand, Gen. Chaisit Shinawatra, the army chief, said the United States has offered to send troops stationed in Japan's Okinawa island to assist. Thailand was considering the offer.

Tsunamis as large as Sunday's happen only a few times a century. A tsunami is a series of traveling ocean waves generated by geological disturbances near the ocean floor. With nothing to stop them, the waves can race across the ocean like the crack of a bullwhip, gaining momentum over thousands of miles.

An international tsunami warning system was started in 1965, after the Alaska quake, designed to advise coastal communities of a potentially killer wave.

Member states include all the major Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America. But because tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka are not part of the system. Scientists said the death toll would have been reduced if they had been.

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