$500m relief tsunami operation in full gear
(Agencies)
Updated: 2004-12-31 14:18

Aid trucks loaded with food, medicines and body bags rolled into tsunami-hit areas across Asia and aircraft dropped supplies to cut-off villages as a $500 million relief operation finally swung into gear on Friday.

Giant U.S. military transport aircraft were landing at Indonesia's northern city of Medan and disgorging emergency supplies to be trucked to Aceh province, where the death toll stands near 80,000.

Malaysians carry foods and clothes to be supplied for the Tsunami victims across Asia at a temple in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. Government officials in this mostly Muslim country banned firework displays and canceled public concerts and celebrations as a sign of mourning for special prayers nationwide to mark a somber New Year's Eve following the region's earthquake-tsunami disaster. [AP]

The tsunami that hit Asia on Sunday has killed more than 125,000 people in 13 countries. One million people are homeless and at least 5 million are without the basic needs to survive.

Aid deliveries to Aceh and many other areas have been hindered in recent days due to a lack of fuel, impassable roads and downed bridges. The trucks will take up to 16 hours to reach Aceh's battered provincial capital Banda Aceh.

Australian and New Zealand military transport aircraft were flying directly to Banda Aceh, delivering troops and emergency supplies and evacuating people.

"The planes are going flat out," Australian army Major Grant King told Reuters at the Banda Aceh airport on Friday.

"The aid is getting out," he added. "People at the extremities are probably getting it, but there are limitations."

The massive humanitarian catastrophe caused by the tsunami was stretching the world's ability to respond, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

"This is an unprecedented global catastrophe and it requires an unprecedented global response," Annan told a news conference in New York on Thursday.

"Not only are we going to be stretched in terms of manpower and human resources, but we are also going to be stretched financially and technically, and we hope that the response will be sustained across the board," Annan said.

US President Bush, criticized for a slow reaction to disaster, said he would send a delegation led by Secretary of State Colin Powell to Asia on Sunday to assess the need for U.S. assistance. The USS Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier and a flotilla of ships was steaming to Thailand.

ICE NEEDED TO STORE BODIES

The United Nation's children body UNICEF said emergency supplies of medicines, tarpaulins and hygiene kits to support 200,000 people were headed for Aceh.

"We're going to break (the aid) down, so it can be used by a greater number of people for a shorter period of time," said John Budd, UNICEF communication officer in Indonesia.

U.S. military aircraft were also flying into Sri Lanka, where the death toll stands at more than 27,000. Trucks were rolling out to relief camps scattered along the island nation's coastline, but there too flooded roads strewn with debris were hindering deliveries.

In Thailand -- where thousands of rotting corpses, many of them foreign tourists, were stacked in Buddhist temples -- the trucks were not only bringing supplies for the living, but also for the dead.

One aid group alone was sending 1,000 body bags and 4,400 pounds of formalin for preserving bodies at the Thai island resort of Phuket. The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs was providing $50,000 to buy more body bags and formalin.

Thailand's Natural Resources and Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti appealed for an urgent haul of dry ice and refrigerated containers to store thousands of rotting bodies. "Please send refrigerated containers or dry ice to help us store these decomposing bodies," Suwit told a Bangkok radio while he was supervising the search and rescue operations in Phang Nga.

FERRYING DEAD

Many aid workers were still involved in recovering the dead.

UNICEF staff in Trincomalee, Ampara and Batticaloa on Sri Lanka's north and east coasts were ferrying dead and injured to hospitals on Friday -- five days after the tsunami hit.

Aid groups fear that unless they can get emergency supplies, especially water purification systems, to the worst affected areas soon, the spread of disease could double the death toll.

In India, UNICEF had begun moving more than 2,175 water storage tanks, each with a capacity of 110 gallons, to relief camps along the south coast.

Because of the sheer devastation caused by the tsunami, the relief operation must not only cater for immediate medical and food needs, but also for everyday items.

In Sri Lanka, the United Nations was providing 25,000 personal hygiene packs for women and girls and in the Maldives and medical delivery kits for 4,000 expecting mothers.

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