80,000 and counting

Reeking corpses rotted in the tropical sun on Wednesday and many who escaped death from one of the worst tsunamis in history fought for surv...

Reeking corpses rotted in the tropical sun on Wednesday and many who escaped death from one of the worst tsunamis in history fought for survival against thirst and disease. Rescuers scoured remote coastlines for survivors as the death toll touched nearly 80,000.

Peter Rees of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said he would not be surprised if the deaths crossed 100,000 when “we know what has happened on the Andaman and Nicobar islands.’’ The federation currently puts the death toll at 77,828, making it one of the world’s worst natural disasters. The UN mobilised its biggest relief operation amid fears that cholera and diarrhoea could worsen the death toll. The WHO said five million people lacked the essentials of food, water and sanitation to survive.

Buddhist monks handed out rice and curry to survivors in Sri Lanka and aircraft dropped food to isolated Indonesian towns. In Thailand, more than 1,800 bodies were recovered from Khao Lak beach, where more than 3,000 people may have died.

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Indonesia suffered the biggest number of victims, with 45,268 known to be dead, although the toll could rise to 80,000 in Aceh alone. President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono spoke of ‘‘frightening reports’’ from Aceh. Troops and rescue crews reached the town of Meulaboh on Aceh’s west coast, to find dead bodies and rubble.

In Sri Lanka, where the death toll topped 22,400, Hambantota, a tourist haven on the southern coast, was wiped out. Sri Lankan Army soldiers were still pulling hundreds of bloated bodies out of the mangrove behind the town. ‘‘The people were washed away and trapped in the roots,’’ an officer said. Each new tide loosens hundreds more corpses to add to the over 2,500 that were buried outside what remained of the town. —Reuters

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