Struggle to deliver vital aid

AID workers yesterday struggled to help thousands huddled in make-shift camps in Indonesia’s northern Sumatra, where two-thirds of the 145,000 killed across the region died, and to reach remote areas after roads and airstrips were washed away.

Three US presidents appealed to the American public to give money to ward off hunger and disease in the 13 countries hit by the killer waves nine days ago.

US helicopters began shuttling injured refugees, many of them children, out of some of the worst-hit parts of Aceh province, where many towns and villages were wiped out.