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January 2, 2005

Tsunami aid now $2B; new floods hit Asia

Topics: Southeast Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

The world's response to the tsunami-stricken region continues to increase, as does the misery.

- AP via San Angelo Standard Times.
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -- A day after President Bush upped the U.S. pledge to $350 million, Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi announced Saturday that his country would contribute up to $500 million to relief efforts. The increased aid came as a deluge from the skies deepened the misery for tsunami-stricken areas, triggering flash floods in Sri Lanka, prompting evacuees to flee and increasing the threat of deadly disease.

(click image to enlarge - Residents assist in extracting a partially-damaged auto rickshaw from the debris of a house at a fishermen's colony hit by tsunami in Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Saturday, Jan. 1, 2005. At least 122,993 people are reported dead around southern Asia and as far away as Somalia on Africa's eastern coast, most killed by massive tsunamis that smashed coastlines after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia's coast on Sunday. The death toll in India is 8,955. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan)

A magnitude 5.9 aftershock jolted Sumatra as the world's aid efforts shifted into high gear in ways big and small: elephant convoys working in Thailand, global assistance reaching $2 billion with a fresh pledge from Tokyo, and aid-bearing American helicopters touching down in Indonesia to the joy of tsunami survivors.

The confirmed death toll from the quake and tsunamis that hit a week ago Sunday passed 123,000, and the United Nations has said the estimated number was approaching 150,000. Thailand said it expects its death toll to reach 8,000.    Continue reading...

Posted by Hyscience at January 2, 2005 12:09 AM

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• Tsunami aid now $2B; new floods hit Asia - Jan 02, 2005