January 5, 2005
CNN
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The State Department announced Wednesday that 20 more Americans were presumed dead after the tsunamis in southern Asia, while families expressed frustration at a lack of news on those still missing.
State Department officials said that in addition to 16 confirmed American deaths, 20 were presumed dead -- 19 in Thailand and one in Sri Lanka.
"In each of these cases, there is a specific reason to believe the person was in harm's way at the time of the tsunamis," said department spokesman Adam Ereli. He did not provide additional information on those presumed dead.
The 20 were classified as presumed dead based on information from witnesses and others on the scene, he said.
In some cases, family members have found photos on the Thai government's Web site. Officials are attempting to obtain additional corroborating evidence.
Of the 16 Americans confirmed dead, half were in Thailand and half in Sri Lanka.
The powerful tsunamis swept through coastal communities from Thailand to east Africa on December 26, killing more than 155,000 people.
At the beginning of the week, 24,000 inquiries had been received about missing people -- some of them duplicates -- and about 18,000 had been resolved satisfactorily, Ereli said
As of Wednesday, the U.S. list had been cut to 3,500 reports.
"We're now actually eliminating more inquiries than we're getting," Ereli said.
Officials were continuing the process of tracking down citizens, calling their families to obtain additional information, checking phone numbers and e-mails, working with Thai and Sri Lankan immigration officials and making contact with travel services and providers, he said.
Thailand has provided a list of all Americans who entered the country in the 90 days preceding the tsunami there, Ereli said, and officials are awaiting a similar list from Sri Lanka.
Ereli was asked how Sweden and other countries have been able to provide citizens with more concrete information.
"As far as I understand the situation, nobody has 100 percent degree of clarity on exactly where all of their citizens are, including these other countries," Ereli responded. "Now, they might have a clearer picture than we do. But there are still doubts."
It was unclear how many people remain missing. In many cases, hotel records were washed away, but officials have some reports and evidence of Americans staying at resort hotels in the Phuket area.
A senior U.S. official said Wednesday that Secretary of State Colin Powell was growing frustrated with the slow pace of whittling down reports of missing Americans and wanted faster progress.
Powell is leading a U.S. delegation touring the hardest hit regions of southern Asia to survey the devastation from the tsunamis triggered by a magnitude 9 earthquake in the Indian Ocean.
Powell told reporters he was shocked by the devastation he saw during a helicopter tour of the Indonesian province of Aceh. (Full story)
In conversations with some European leaders after visiting Thailand, Powell said there is a need to get dental records and DNA samples from relatives of those still unaccounted for.
The bodies now being recovered are decomposed and bloated, making them hard to identify.
Families wait for news
Frustration is also growing for family members waiting for news of their loved ones, whether they are Americans or from abroad.
"The fact we haven't heard from him ... has got us all very worried," Michael Bernard said on CNN's "American Morning" regarding his brother, Ruel.
Ruel Bernard was last heard from in an e-mail December 21, in which he said he and his girlfriend were in Bali and headed to Sumatra.
While the two were there as tourists, they have a history of doing work in disadvantaged areas and would likely help out if they were able to following the disaster, Michael Bernard said.
But "he normally would have contacted us within a day or two of Christmas," Bernard said.
"I'm doing reasonably well. My mother is doing less well -- she's very upset," he said.
From her home in Howell, Michigan, Karen Foust has scoured the Internet in search of news about her stepdaughter, Angie Foust, who had been vacationing in Thailand with her boyfriend, Luke Scully.
"As time passes it gets hard to even read the e-mails, because you're thinking the worst," Foust said.
Meanwhile, authorities in the United Kingdom issued an appeal Wednesday to friends and relatives who might have forgotten to notify them in case their loved one has returned or contacted them.
"Since the disaster, concerned callers have rung the emergency telephone number to report that they have not heard from a friend or relative they knew was visiting the stricken area," said the statement issued by the Casualty Bureau of Scotland Yard's Metropolitan Police Center.
"Many of these visitors or holidaymakers have safely returned or have contacted friends and relatives to say they are safe and well. The Met is appealing to the original callers to help keep records up-to-date by letting us know of their loved ones' safe return."
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/01/05/missing.americans/index.html