Sumatra airport reopens for relief effort

The main airport on Indonesia’s tsunami-battered Sumatra island reopened today after being closed for hours when a relief plane hit a herd of cows on landing.

The crippled jet blocked the runway at Banda Aceh, hampering the world’s still-fragile efforts to get aid to victims of the disaster.

Hospitals in the region overflowed with injured and malnourished survivors.

Global leaders were heading to southern Asia to get a firsthand glimpse of the damage and to hammer out a plan to help the millions of victims of the December 26 earthquake and tsunami.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell – who was in Thailand today – pledged America’s full support.

A donor conference was scheduled in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Thursday.

The confirmed death toll for Asia and Africa stood at 139,410 – almost 100,000 of those in Indonesia but relief workers said they expect the toll to soar by tens of thousands because surveys of Sumatra’s west coast show it was hit a lot harder than previously thought.

Scores of villages have been flattened and in some areas few survivors have been spotted.

But rushing aid to anyone still alive has proved a nightmare, with roads and sea jetties washed away.

The official death toll stood at over 139,400 today. Indonesia has been worst hit with more than 94,000 deaths, Sri Lanka has over 30,000, India nearly 10,000 and Thailand more than 5,000.

Officials expect the toll to keep rising, particularly in Sumatra. Officials across the region said identifying the dead was becoming a tough task with newly found bodies having decomposed in the sun.

“It’s difficult to distinguish a blonde European and an Asian,” Thai Foreign Minister Surakiart Sathirathai said today. Half of those killed in Thailand were foreign tourists visiting the country’s sun-soaked beaches, mostly from Europe.