Global Relief Efforts in Indonesia and India

KWAME HOLMAN:

The full magnitude of the destruction from Sunday's massive earthquake and ensuing tsunamis still is being revealed today, as the Indian Ocean sweeps back to shore more of the bodies it claimed. And as rescue teams finally reach more remote regions, like the Aceh Province on Indonesia's Sumatra Island, the death toll climbs.

This is what a tsunami wave looked like as it swept through Banda Aceh, the capital of the province. Outlying regions of Aceh are even worse off. 75 percent of this fishing village of 40,000 is destroyed. Relief camps like this one on the eastern coast of Sri Lanka are springing up all over the Indian Ocean rim. They're housing people who have nothing left and nowhere to go. In Galle, Sri Lanka, a doctor warned of a new wave of problems from disease.

DOCTOR:

It will be mostly diarrhea, acute gastroenteritis and pneumonia. Those will be the most important things.

KWAME HOLMAN:

In Cuddalore, India, a worker sprinkled disinfectant over the ground to destroy disease-carrying germs; 56 teams of paramedics fanned out today over the devastated Tamil Nadu state to vaccinate and care for more than 65,000 refugees.

Parts of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands were completely devastated, with some 8,000 people still missing and feared dead. At this Indian relief camp there was enough food to go around, but the people were in desperate need of building supplies.

MAN (Translated):

We need building materials, temporary sheds, corrugated sheets, rafters, cement, for rehabilitation of people. There is enough food here.

KWAME HOLMAN:

In Washington today, the general in charge of the U.S. Military's aid effort in the region explained the American plan.

LT. GEN. JAMES CONWAY:

Three disaster relief assessment teams are either in place or moving into place. The first arrived in Thailand this morning, a second will arrive this afternoon in Sri Lanka, and a third will arrive tomorrow in Indonesia. Their task, of course, will be to make immediate assessment as to the nature and the scope of the impact of the disaster.

KWAME HOLMAN:

Aid shipments began arriving today in the Maldive Islands, where at one time two- thirds of the land was submerged by the tsunami. And aid agencies around the world continued to mobilize, packing up shipments of health kits and basic supplies destined for the region.

GWEN IFILL:

Now, two independent television news reports from near the epicenter of the quake. Correspondent Dan Rivers is in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

DAN RIVERS:

This was the moment of impact in Bandah Aceh. This staggering footage, taken by a family on a second floor apartment as the sea swallowed their town. (Crying) Terrified, the family thinks they will surely die. Somehow they escaped. Four days on, this is the scene in the port area, perhaps one of the most devastated sectors of this crippled town.

We picked our way through with our guide, missing persons posters pinned to upturned trawlers. It was surreal, obscene, stranded boats, the twisted wreckage of a once-thriving fishing community. In the town center, corpses are being pulled by the hundreds from the ruins of Bandah Aceh. There is a nauseating stench everywhere, death and decay at every turn. The army is ferrying in troops, but they're facing apocalyptic destruction, entire neighborhoods razed to the ground. Like many, this man has lost everything: His home, his family. Nothing left?

TARMIZI ARIFIN, Survivor:

I have nothing left.

DAN RIVERS:

Nothing at all.

TARMIZI ARIFIN:

My house has been destroyed… everything…

DAN RIVERS:

Destroyed?

TARMIZI ARIFIN:

Yes.

DAN RIVERS:

Reporter: If you want a graphic illustration of the sheer power of this tsunami, have a look at this. This trawler was smashed a mile and a half into the center of Bandah Aceh. The locals say the tsunami was 60 feet high. Those that survived are trying to clear the streets, but so far there is apparently little outside help.

Banda Aceh is now in acute crisis. They are desperate for basic supplies. The destruction is relentless, street after street utterly destroyed, survivors stupefied by this carnage. In some places only dogs survived, waiting in vain for their owners. But out of town the horror of all those deaths is concentrated at one place: lorries streaming in, carrying body after body.

GWEN IFILL:

Next, a report from the Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar. The correspondent is Martin Geissler.

MARTIN GEISSLER:

Set aside from the outside world by geography and choice, the Andaman and Nicobar islanders have resisted change for centuries. Now life here will never be the same again. Whole communities have been washed away.

This is Kar Nicobar. It's almost impossible for foreigners to get here. Islands like this are so remote it's been difficult to fully assess the damage until now. These islands are so close to the earthquake's epicenter that even if there had been an early warning system, it would have made no difference. The waves hit here within minutes.

The islands themselves are scattered over 1,000 kilometers, and that geography is proving a real problem to the relief effort. Several islands remain completely cut off. No contact has been made with them, and officials here concede they have no idea what's become of the thousands of people who live on them.

For those who have been rescued, a refugee center has been set up in Port Blair, the tiny capital of these islands; 1,500 were there when we visited, but more are arriving all the time. Relatives search desperately for the name of a loved one on the admissions board. It's safer for them to camp outside here. Significant tremors are still being felt every day. The people cling to what little they have left; many have nothing. What has happened to the island?

MAN:

The island is totally destroyed.

MARTIN GEISSLER:

Reporter: They don't know what to do now. Everything is gone. This refuge may only be open for a few more days, but most have no homes to go back to, and these are the lucky ones.