There’s a really good animated map showing the tsunamis.
Fahim works with three Indians, all of whom either live along the east coast of India or who have relatives that live along the east coast. They’re all fine as well, but they’ve said that the body count in India is 15,000, not the report 4 or 5 thousand. The death tolls are still behind the times, but to what extent?
I’ve also just read at this web site
Some of the country’s 200 islands cannot be contacted.
Male is protected by a special artificial barrier and yet it’s flooded and destroyed. The other islands have no protection – there are thousands of these islands with thousands of people, including tourists, and there’s no form of communication to even let them know what is happening. We fear there may be thousands dead, including fishermen and divers.
Somalia – that’s Africa – is thought to have hundreds dead. It’s officially affected at least 2 continents.
There are many isolated villages that have not yet been reached. The extent of the dead is still not known. It could still rise sharply.
And that’s before the epidemics hit.
Another aspect of this is the economic one. Many of the people who live along the coast in Sri Lanka are fishers. Their boats are destroyed, many of them are killed, and the local economy is destroyed. Sri Lanka is already a third world country, still not quite recovering from 2 decades of civil war that killed 65,000 people. The economy here is not great. And it just took another beating.
Similar situations exist in India, Thailand, the Maldives, and other places affected.
I found a page that talks a bit about different organizations set to help out in south Asia.
This morning, I head over to the church to help package and distribute food and clothing and other items.
