Daily Good News

Andaman and Nicobar Islands -- In her frantic flight from the killer waves swallowing up her island, Namita Roy found refuge in a forest.

There she gave birth to a boy who would be named Tsunami.

On another island, 8-month-old Michael Jeremiah slipped out of his mother's arms and sank into the sea until his father saw his toe poke up from the waves and brought him back to life.

The tale of the two babies will become part of the folklore of miraculous survivals of Sunday's catastrophic earthquake and tsunamis.

Death Toll Update

CNN has confirmed that the undersea earthquake off Sumatra and the giant waves it triggered killed more than 140,000 people, and that number is expected to rise.

Deaths by country:

Indonesia: 79,906, with another 3,598 missing.

Sri Lanka: More than 45,000. Sri Lankan officials say 27,229 have died in non-rebel-held areas; 5,240 are missing; 12,482 injured; and 899,408 are homeless.

India: At least 10,000

Thailand: 4,812. Thai prime minister says toll could exceed 8,000. 6,541 are still missing, more than 3,000 of them Swedish tourists.

Malaysia: 66

Maldives: 74

Myanmar: 90

Tanzania: 10

Bangladesh: 2

Somalia: Kenyan media reports hundreds dead.

Kenya: Kenyan media reports one death.

Seychelles: Unconfirmed reports of deaths.

Logistics Becomes Focus of Aid

From Yahoo

Having pledged $350 million to help tsunami victims in South Asia, the Bush administration is focusing on the logistics of getting clean water, food and other supplies to people rebuilding their lives and burying the scores of thousands who perished.

To help coordinate the relief effort, the United States has set up a support center in Thailand. More than 20 patrol and cargo aircraft have been dispatched to carry disaster supplies, Bush said. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln, the Maritime Pre-Positioning Squadron from Guam and an amphibious ship carrying a Marine Expeditionary Unit soon will be in position to generate clean water and support other relief efforts.

An American military cargo jet on Friday brought blankets, medicine and the first of 80,000 body bags to Banda Aceh, the devastated Indonesian city near the quake epicenter. Nine U.S military C-130 transports took off Friday from Utapao in Thailand to ferry supplies to southern parts of Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka, Maj. Larry J. Redmon said in Bangkok.

Death Toll Posts 12/28-31

Death Toll Posts 12/28-31

Satellite Imagery Posts 12/28-31

Satellite Imagery Posts 12/28-31

Updates Post

Please leave a comment here to provide up-to-date news links or information.

What would be especially helpful are first-hand accounts from the affected areas.

Good News

I will try to post at least one piece of good news each day to remind us all that there are good things happening even in the midst of all this tragedy.

Swedish Father and Son Reunited (Source: Yahoo)

A Swedish toddler was reunited with his father Wednesday, days after being found alone in the aftermath of the deadly tsunami that swept Asia.

Hannes Bergstroem was found after the waves subsided Sunday and taken to a hospital on this resort island for treatment. His photo was posted on the Internet Monday.

The two-year-old's uncle saw the photo and claimed the boy Tuesday. On Wednesday the child was reunited with his father, Marko Karkkainen, at a hospital on the southern Thai island of Phuket where both father and son were receiving treatment.

Hannes, his face scratched and pocked with mosquito bites, looked puzzled as his father choked up with emotion.

Despite the joy of seeing one another again, the day was tinged with sadness and anxiety. Suzanne Bergstroem, the boys mother, is still among some 5,000 people missing in Thailand. Nearly 2,000 people are confirmed dead there, and the overall death toll from the tsunami in 11 affected countries is approaching 80,000.

European Death Toll

Sweden said on Thursday more than 1,000 Swedes may have been killed in the Asian tsunami, the worst death toll for any foreign country.

Some 5,000 foreign tourists, mostly Europeans, were still missing four days after the wall of water hit coasts and devastated beach resorts round the Indian Ocean. Germany said more than 1,000 of its citizens were still missing.

Among foreign states, Sweden fears being hardest hit as its people have flocked for years to Thailand to escape long, cold winters. Officials have raised the figure of missing to 2,500 from 1,500.

Tourists from Australia, Canada, Japan, Singapore, South Africa and South Korea were also among the dead.

Nearly 700 Italians, 462 Norwegians, 419 Danes, 263 Finns, 200 Czechs and 294 Singaporean tourists are among those reported missing.

In Norway, where 21 nationals are confirmed dead, Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik said many of the 462 missing in the tsunami may be dead. "

A deputy foreign minister said on Thursday 33 Germans were confirmed dead, while more than 1,000 were missing.

(Source: Reuters)

Death Toll Update

Death Tolls by country: (Source: CNN)

Indonesia: 79,940

Sri Lanka: 24,673, with another 6,589 missing and condered most likely dead.

India: At least 10,000

Thailand: More than 4,000. Thai PM says toll could exceed 7,000.

Myanmar: 90

Malaysia: 66

Maldives: 46

Tanzania: 10

Bangladesh: 2

Somalia: Kenyan media reports hundreds dead

Kenya: Kenyan media reports one death

Seychelles: Unconfirmed reports of deaths

Before and After hi-res satellite images of tsunami zone

BoingBoing sez

Amazing, amazing images of beachfront in Sri Lanka before and after the tsunami hit. Also, hi-res satellite images of the tsunami itself. Snip:

"This is a natural color, 60-centimeter (2-foot) high-resolution QuickBird satellite image featuring the southwestern coast of Sri Lanka. Imagery was collected at 10:20 a.m. local time, slightly less than four hours after the 6:28 a.m. (local Sri Lanka time) earthquake and shortly after the moment of tsunami impact."

Link

Field Report for Andaman, India

The SEEDS field team is now camping in Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. This is the summary of their update:

1. There is no NGO doing relief work in Andaman and Nicobar so far. Only the administration and some small local groups are operating.

2. Nicobar area is worst hit. The people were washed out, and these being islands in the middle of the ocean, many bodies did not wash back ashore. From back calculations (by counting heads and assuming missing persons as dead), the rough estimates of casualties are about 15,000.

3. Nicobar area needs all basic relief support, including food, clothing and temporary shelter.

4. There is no major damage in Port Blair. In fact, the administration is evacuating people from vulnerable areas and bringing them to Port Blair under fear of another tsunami. This is because this region is continuing to have reasonably large quakes, the latest being one of magnitude 6.2 on the Richter scale at about 7 this morning.

5. Four relief camps are being operated in Port Blair by the administration. The administration is acutely understaffed and under-resourced to operate the camps. The Red Cross is trying to move relief material through a chartered flight from Delhi to Port Blair. They too have no advance teams in place, and are unsure of the capacity of the local groups to manage relief distribution.

6. Taking relief from the mainland involves clearances from the central government, and is a cumbersome process. Moving to remote islands also requires government permissions and no NGO can operate in those areas independently.

7. The Administration has requested us to take charge of two relief camps in the vicinity of Port Blair. We will start operating one relief camp with about 2000 persons from the morning of 29 December, and another camp in a day or two. We are rushing backup manpower to the Andamans from our field office in Gujarat. 8. The Administration is talking about long term needs of reconstruction. We will study this need and work on a plan for this after dealing with the immediate priority of life-saving relief.

Source: IndiaSeeds

Snapshot - 2000 GMT

* Death toll close to 60,000; many missing in aftermath of tsunami in Indian Ocean, triggered by an underwater earthquake of magnitude 9.0 off the Indonesian island of Sumatra
* Disease could kill as many people as tsunami, World Health Organisation (WHO) expert says in Geneva
* Indonesia says tsunami death toll 27,174 people
* Sri Lanka says 18,706 dead but may reach 20,000
* India says 11,499 dead, including 7,000 confirmed or presumed dead in India's Andaman and Nicobar islands
* Thailand says 1,516 dead, 1,400 missing.
* Hundreds of foreigners feared dead and hundreds missing around Indian Ocean disaster zone.
* Deaths as far away as East Africa; at least 122 killed by tsunami in Somalia and Seychelles.
* United Nations says there could be epidemics within days
* Rescue, recovery and rebuilding will cost billions of dollars, U.N. relief agency says * Governments and aid agencies pledge millions in aid
* Damage could exceed 10 bln euros -Munich Re reinsurer

Source: AlertNet

Satellite pictures of Tsunami 2004 from India's satellites

http://www.nrsa.gov.in/tsunami2004.pps MIRROR: planetvimal-tsunami2004.ppt Courtesy: National Remote Sensing Agency, Dept. of Space, Govt. of India

Tsunami changes India's coastline

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 (New Delhi):

Latest satellite images show that Sunday's killer tsunami has changed the topography of India's coastline.

The southern part of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands consists of 19 islands known as the Nicobars, in which Great Nicobars, Mancowrie, Car Nicobar and Trinket are prominent.

Nature's wrath

A satellite image of Trinket island, taken on December 21 compared to a latest image shows the destruction the tsunami has done to the island.

Another satellite image taken on December 26 shows that the tsunami waves have swamped the centre of the island almost splitting it in two. Trinket is an island with a majority tribal population.

The satellite pictures show big changes in Chennai as well. Satellite images taken early this year shows Chennai's waterfront - the famed Marina beach.

The Adiyar river can also be seen running through the city.

Source

Latest Site Report from Govt of India

http://www.ndmindia.nic.in/Tsunami2004/sitrep6.htm


Report by S.K. Swami
Director (NDM.I)
Tel: 23092698/Fax 23093750
Mobile: 9811061089
E.mail: skswami@hub.nic.in

Tsunami News and Updates

This is a sublog (Sub Blog) that's part of the SEA-EAT network.

This sublog is dedicated for Tsunami related news updates.