Rescuers give up hope of survivors

Rescuers were today ready to give up hope of finding more survivors in Indonesia’s shattered Sumatra island, one week after tsunamis wrought death and destruction on a massive scale across Asia.

The death toll stood at more than 123,000, and was still climbing.

Officials insisted they were overcoming bottlenecks that were hampering the delivery of aid to the hardest-hit areas. US military helicopters flew biscuits, energy drinks and instant noodles to devastated villages on Sumatra’s west coast.

Elephants were being brought in to help remove debris in the ruined provincial capital of Banda Aceh and in southern Thailand, where resorts were destroyed and thousands killed along a world-famous tourist strip near Phuket island.

Sumatra suffered the double blow last Sunday of both earthquake and tsunami. The island was nearest the epicentre of the largest earthquake in four decades, and was the first place hit by the massive walls of water it sent surging across the Indian Ocean.

Relatives of the many thousands still missing gave agonising descriptions of their loved ones on television today, clinging to hopes they hadn’t been fatally crushed by rubble or taken by the sea.

Officials were pessimistic.

“There is very little chance of finding survivors after seven days,” Lamsar Sipahutar, the head of Indonesia’s search team. “We are about to stop the search-and-rescue operations. If you survived the earthquake, you probably were killed by the tsunami.”

The American military was mounting its largest operation in southern Asian since the Vietnam War, delivering supplies from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln stationed off Sumatra and sending a flotilla of Marines and water purifying equipment to Sri Lanka.

Four Indonesian navy frigates loaded with supplies arrived off the coast of the fishing village of Meulaboh, one of Aceh’s worst-hit spots. About half the town of 40,000 was destroyed.

In India’s devastated Andaman and Nicobar Islands, some villagers said they had still not received any help from outside, despite government claims that aid was reaching all affected sites.

Officials said most of the island’s jetties had been destroyed, making it difficult for boats to dock.

On Bambooflat island, a short ferry ride from the islands’ capital Port Blair, about 2,000 families desperate for food and shelter were waiting for help, and some were growing angry.

“There is no food, no kerosene, no matches, no rice,” said rice farmer J.L. Tak. “Everything is gone and we got nothing from the government.”

S.K. Swami, director of India’s National Disaster Management, said in New Delhi that the country’s search for survivors was continuing, focused on the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago, where nearly 4,000 were missing.

In Sumatra, the official death toll was more than 80,000, but Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supadi said it could reach 100,000. No survivor has been found for three days.

India was insisting there was still hope for survivors, though the search was essentially over in Tamil Nadu state, which bore the brunt of the country’s sea surge.

“About 500 to 600 people are on our missing list, but in due course we will be declaring them dead,” said Veera Shanmuga Moni, a top administrator of Tamil Nadu’s Nagappattinam district.

India’s official death toll topped 9,000 yesterday.

UN officials said they expected the overall tally of death to surpass 150,000, though the final total may never be known. Five million people were homeless.

In Sri Lanka, where almost 30,000 died, flood waters that had added to survivors’ misery receded.

About 2,000 people were evacuated from refugee camps near the island nation’s devastated eastern coast yesterday after days of steady rain triggered flash floods.

They returned to government-run centres, and there were no reports of casualties, police said.

Hundreds of thousands were living in unsanitary camps, but those whose homes escaped serious damage were returning to them.

Health officials said no medical crisis has yet emerged, though getting clean water and sanitation to hard-hit areas was an urgent priority to prevent outbreaks of disease.

“We need water. Our children are sick, they need food and medicine,” said Riswan Ali, a resident acting as aid co-ordinator in the village of Bireun, 60 miles east of Banda Aceh. “Please, help us.”

He said the 18,000 refugees there had gotten only one aid delivery.

Washed out roads, collapsed bridges and fuel shortages have made distribution difficult in Sumatra. Several improvements came yesterday, including the partial opening of Meulaboh’s airstrip, and the clearing of some debris-strewn roads, said John Budd, a UNICEF spokesman in Indonesia.

“I don’t think there’s an issue of starvation,” Budd said. “But there’s a risk of diseases if we can’t resolve water and sanitation issues.”

In Sri Lanka, a World Food Program spokeswoman said she had heard reports of food shortages among survivors due to poor distribution – but not starvation.

Half a dozen aftershocks, the biggest a magnitude 5.9, jolted the islands earlier today.