Tsunami toll could reach 100 000

As many as 80 000 people may have died in the Indonesian province of Aceh alone, it emerged on Wednesday as the death toll across the Indian Ocean rim continued to rise. The western coast of the northern province was devastated by a combination of tsunamis and the earthquake which triggered the waves.

No village was untouched and, in many areas, every building was razed. All that survives of the region’s fishing fleets are the odd upturned boat and piles of wreckage.

Asked how many people had died in Aceh, Michael Elmquist, the UN’s humanitarian affairs coordinator in Indonesia, said: “I would say we are probably talking about somewhere in the order of 50 000 to 80 000 people.”

The official death toll in Indonesia stood at more than 45 000 last night. Across the region it had reached 77 000. But this figure is expected to continue to rise as information comes in from areas which have been cut off, such as India’s Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Peter Rees, operations support chief for the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said: “I would not be surprised if we are over 100 000 dead.”

Thousands of local people are thought to have been killed when their bamboo homes were destroyed and many remote fishing villages are yet to be reached, though reports indicate severe damage.

In Sri Lanka, reports of measles and diarrhoea were beginning to reach health authorities, causing concern of an epidemic. Clean drinking water was in short supply on the island, where more than 22 000 people have died. Logistics remained a nightmare, with the government and rebels who control regions in the north and east accusing one another of failing to do enough.

The UN has warned that as many people could be killed by diseases as perished in Sunday’s disaster. On Thursday it said up to five million people in the region had been left without basic essentials.

Five days after the disaster, there was still confusion over how many people had died on the Andaman and Nicobar islands. Indian officials said 3 000 had “gone missing” and were presumed dead. So far, though, they had recovered only 306 bodies.

Aceh province in Sumatra was the most severely affected area. A military spokesperson, Major General Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin, said navy ships full of emergency supplies were heading towards Meulaboh, where a third of the population — about 40 000 people — was feared dead.

He said: “We have very sketchy information about how many died there and the extent of the devastation. We’re having extraordinary problems communicating there.”

About 3 400 people have been buried in the town, but there were still many corpses littering the streets.

In Banda Aceh, burying the dead began in earnest yesterday. More than 1 000 bodies were buried unidentified in mass graves.

“We have to do this because of the smell and the health concern,” the acting Aceh governor, Azwar Abu Bakar, said.

Survivors told harrowing tales of the moment the tsunami, up to 10 metres (33 feet) high, struck towns and resorts, sucking people into the sea, surging through buildings, sweeping cars from roads and smashing a train off its rails.

“The water was just too strong,” said Surya Darmar, lying on an army cot outside the emergency ward of a military hospital in Banda Aceh yesterday, covered in cuts and with a broken leg. “I held my children for as long as I could, but they were swept away.”

Long queues for petrol started to form in the town as people tried to leave. “We are afraid of more earthquakes and tsunamis and catching disease,” said Muhammed Fachri.

“And there’s practically nothing here to eat, so there’s no reason to stay. The situation is really bad.”

Aid has started arriving in Aceh in larger quantities. Six Indonesian Hercules transport aircraft and three from the Australian military yesterday shuttled non-stop between Aceh and the city of Medan, 450 miles to the south.

Little of the aid is reaching those who need it, however, because the necessary distribution systems are not in place, a foreign aid worker said. “The coordination needs to be improved — and quickly.”

Strong aftershocks continue to rock southeast Asia, with five earth tremors of a magnitude 5.6 or greater in the past 24 hours, the US Geological Survey said on Wednesday.

South African survivors recount ordeal

Tsunami survivors sobbed and broke down when they met their families at Johannesburg International airport on Wednesday after arriving on a mercy flight from Phuket, Thailand — and praised two young South Africans who coordinated the rescue effort.

The confirmed number of people killed in Sunday’s earthquake and tsunamis neared 81 000 on Wednesday, amid warnings the true toll could be far higher.

The bodies of the four dead South Africans were aboard the flight, arranged by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), Discovery Health and Netcare in conjunction with the Department of Foreign Affairs.

According to the SAJBD, they were identified as Morris Isaacson, Roy Fitzsimmons, Daphne Coetzee and Dolores Ribeira.

Looking tired and drained, 14-year-old David Bernstein told reporters at the airport: “All I can think about is the people back there. I would go back there in a moment to help them.”

Bernstein and his mother, father and sister all survived the tsunami while on holiday in Phuket.

The men coordinating the rescue effort, Daniel Treisman (23) and Gavin Pearl (25), are both members of the SAJBD who were holidaying on Phi Phi island when disaster struck.

They went to every hospital bed and every morgue on Krabi and Phuket islands to trace South Africans.

They also set up an SMS campaign to ensure South Africans went to the airport in Phuket for the rescue flight.

The two, looking shell-shocked and exhausted, were modest about their efforts.

“We were asked to do a job and we just went ahead and did it,” said Pearl.

The aircraft landed in Johannesburg shortly before 3pm on Wednesday.

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Aziz Pahad told reporters that more flights could be sent to Thailand if the disaster management committee deems it necessary.

He said an estimated 24 South Africans are still missing in Thailand.

Six severely injured South Africans are still in a Bangkok private hospital, it was confirmed on Wednesday.

Among them is Gaby Baron, girlfriend of Paul Sender, one of the South African tourists still missing in Thailand.

Initially feared dead, Baron is actually “alive and well” in Bangkok, said SAJBD Gauteng chairperson Zev Krengel. Also safe in Bangkok are Gary and Ilana Sweidan, he said.

They were among three South African men and three women airlifted out of Thailand by an International SOS air ambulance on Monday, said its regional general manager, Dr Ian Cornish.

Teams on the ground in Phuket are continuing their search for the rest of the missing South Africans — thought to include Avadya Berman and Nicki Liebovitz.

However, time is against them, with a mass cremation of the dead scheduled for Saturday amid fears of the increasing threat of disease with no space left for bodies in mortuaries.

Victims break down

Many of those on the rescue flight broke down crying when they were reunited with their families in Johannesburg.

Among the injured on the plane were seven members of the Panaino family. Worst injured among them was seven-year-old Chane, who was released from intensive care in Phuket on Tuesday after sustaining head injuries.

Her father and grandfather had been missing, feared dead, but “popped up” at the Krabi relief centre on Tuesday, dazed and bewildered after being airlifted from Phi Phi island, said Krengel.

A Pretoria man with serious chest injuries was in a stable condition, but would be evacuated to Unitas hospital in Centurion on arrival in the country, said Netcare 911 CEO Dr Ryan Noach.

Piet Britz spent most of Wednesday waiting at Johannesburg International airport for his brother-in-law, Paul Bester (74), sister Bessie (74) and their five-year-old granddaughter Junke, who spent three hours waiting for medical help in a mountain refuge on Phuket after the tsunami hit on Sunday.

Paul was knocked down by a tree and Junke injured a leg, he said.

Paradise turned into hell

“It’s a miracle that we survived and I survived by one second,” said 14-year-old David Bernstein.

Bernstein, his mother, father and sister, all survived the tsunami while on holiday in Phuket.

Explaining how close he was to death, Bernstein said when he was escaping the floods, his shoe was sucked away by the rising water.

“This was paradise turned into in hell,” he added.

Bernstein heaped praise on the Thai people for their generosity and love.

“They sheltered us, gave us food when their country was facing a disaster,” he said.

His mother, Mandelle, said she had woken at 4am on the morning of the disaster and had a feeling that something was wrong.

“I lay in bed feeling ice cold and I said to myself, ‘I can’t die yet, my children still need me.'”

Like most survivors, the Bernsteins sought refuge in the mountains.

Bernstein said: “Although we were higher, and able to watch the waves as they came, we still felt unsafe.”

Mandelle shared the same sentiments, saying she felt sad that the Thai people had to stay there after a disaster while the South Africans were able to go home.

While talking to Mandelle, another survivor in her twenties passed in a wheelchair. Mandelle said she and another South African had taken care of the woman, who had bruises on her face and legs.

Christine Malan (46), a neighbour of tsunami victim Daphney Coetzee, who was from Witpoortjie on Johannesburg’s West Rand, said she was happy that Daphney’s husband and two sons had survived but sad about her death.

Ian Coetzee and his sons, Dean (12) and Michael (9), arrived in South Africa with the body of their mother on Wedneday.

“It’s just unbelievable. We are still in disbelief,” Malan said as she and her two sons waited for three hours to meet the Coetzee family at the airport.

Her son, 16-year-old Nicholas Malan, said: “It’s unreal. We can’t believe that Daphney is gone forever. It’s sad to think that the boys will now grow [up] without their mother at this age.”

Cobus Malan (14) said: “We never though it could happen to someone we know and we have been watching Sky News until late at night.”

‘Run, water come’

Certain phrases — “up mountain” and “run, water come” — will forever stay with a South African man who survived the tsunami in Thailand.

“I can recount the experience second by second because it will always be in my mind,” said Les Venter on Wednesday.

But he added: “I don’t think I would like to have shared a disaster with anyone but the Thais.”

Speaking to reporters at the airport after being rescued from Phuket, Venter said: “The first thing I want to do when I get home is hug my family.”

Venter was on holiday with his family in Phatang on Phuket when the massive tsunami hit the Indian Ocean coastlines in south-east Asia.

The Venter family, including wife Elbie, daughter Nicole (14) and a friend, had earlier felt the earthquake.

“Have I lost my mind or is the bed moving?” Elbie asked, before tragedy struck.

The family were able to run from the massive waves up a nearby mountain, although they were separated from their daughter during the flight.

“She was taken in by a Thai family and then an English family,” Venter said, adding that they were eventually reunited.

The family, along with thousands of other refugees, spent the night on a mountain.

“People were running all night,” Venter said, explaining that false rumours of more killer waves created havoc.

Venter said his family is in shock and they will have to undergo trauma counselling. He was, however, full of praise for the Thai people.

“I don’t think I would like to have shared a disaster with anyone but the Thais.”

He said the Thais had opened up their homes to the stranded holidaymakers.

“They were facing devastation, yet they were prepared to care for you,” he said, adding that he would like to go back to Thailand.

“Not soon, but yes, I’d go back. Right now I’m not even going to go to Durban in a hurry,” he said.

Where to contribute in SA

The South African Department of Foreign Affairs on Wednesday made a public appeal for relief organisations and private individuals who wish to make contributions to the aid effort to contact the Foreign Affairs Relief Coordinating Centre at 012 351 1520/1560/1466. — Sapa-AFP, Sapa, Guardian

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