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.