Rains, floods hamper tsunami relief

Rains, floods hamper tsunami relief

Irwin Arieff, Reuters/United Nations

Heavy rains and floods are holding up efforts to help victims of the Asian tsunami, but the United Nations said on Tuesday that "extraordinary progress" was being made and the total amount of aid pledged had risen to between US$2 billion and $3 billion.

There was a growing threat of diseases such as cholera and malaria which could kill tens of thousands of people, with survivors desperate to find water uncontaminated by seawater and sewage, said health officials from Sri Lanka to Indonesia.

Bottlenecks in the aid pipeline remained, but a top UN official said these were being overcome more quickly than in previous disasters.

The U.S. military announced plans to double to about 90 the number of helicopters it was providing for the aid effort, boosting the capability to supply badly damaged areas where airplanes cannot land.

"We are making extraordinary progress in reaching the majority of the people affected in the majority of the areas. We are also experiencing extraordinary obstacles in many, many areas," UN Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said at a news conference.

He said donations toward disaster relief were growing daily, and "we are somewhere between $2 billion and $3 billion in total pledges," including funds intended for longer term reconstruction.

In Washington, Congress was expected to approve more aid on top of the already announced $350 million U.S. contribution.

"I intend to ensure that aid is flowing as efficiently and effectively as possible," said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, a Republican from Tennessee.

As exhausted doctors, nurses, aid workers and troops continued their around-the-clock operations, world leaders began arriving in Asia ahead of a Jakarta conference on Thursday where the United Nations will launch a major aid appeal.

The toll continued to climb, with around 150,000 confirmed killed and millions left homeless or displaced.

The World Health Organization estimates there are more than 500,000 people injured and in need of medical care across six Asian nations. The United Nations estimates that 5 million people need some kind of aid and 1 million are homeless.

At least a third of those killed were children and there were fears that a "tsunami generation" of children was likely to suffer more than adults in the aftermath of the tragedy.

"We probably underestimated the impact on children," said UNICEF spokeswoman Wivina Belmonte. "Many people are already talking about the tsunami generation."

The main airport in Indonesia's Banda Aceh, a hub for relief flights, was closed to fixed-wing aircraft for much of Tuesday after a cargo plane hit a buffalo, the UN World Food Program reported.

In the devastated town of Meulaboh in Aceh province, effectively cut off for a week and with an estimated 40,000 feared dead, a damaged airstrip was cleared sufficiently for use by small Twin Otter aircraft, enabling medical teams to distribute bandages, dressings and painkillers.

"The casualty rates in Meulaboh defy imagination," said Aitor Lacomba, Indonesian director of aid group International Rescue Committee. "Tens of thousands need immediate assistance there."

When the tsunami hit western Sumatra "it was like a wall of concrete exploding on that coastline," Egeland said.

U.S. amphibious ships arrived off Sumatra on Tuesday and started loading aid via helicopters from Medan, before sailing around Sumatra's northern tip and down the isolated west coast.

In Sri Lanka, the second hardest hit nation with more than 30,000 dead and 788,000 displaced persons in 800 camps, the first of 1,200 U.S. Marines had arrived with helicopters, bulldozers and generators.

Heavy rain again lashed parts of eastern Sri Lanka on Tuesday, flooding camps housing hundreds of thousands.