My Life and Times

January 2, 2005AID
U.S. Helicopters Speed Pace of Aid for Indonesia RefugeesBy ROBERT D. McFADDEN
Substantial aid finally began reaching desperate refugees in devastated areas of northern Sumatra yesterday as American warships, led by the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, arrived offshore and a fleet of helicopters airlifted critical supplies to stricken towns in Aceh Province.
Flying through pounding rains, a dozen Sea Hawk helicopters from the Lincoln ferried food, water, medicines, tents and other supplies from warehouses at Banda Aceh airport to refugees in decimated Indonesian coastal towns and inland villages that had been virtually cut off when the tsunami destroyed roads, bridges and communications a week ago.
It was the beginning of what was expected to become a steady stream of international aid for Indonesia and a dozen other countries on the rim of the Indian Ocean, where estimates of the dead hovered between 140,000 and 150,000. Serious injuries were believed to exceed 500,000, and the likelihood of epidemics of cholera and other diseases threatened to send the totals much higher.
As the first trickle of supplies broke through, the global relief effort to save an estimated five million homeless survivors of last weekend's undersea earthquake and tsunami was reinforced yesterday when Japan raised its pledge of aid from $30 million to $500 million, the largest contribution so far. Combined with a $350 million pledge by the United States on Friday, this brought the total contributions of more than 40 nations to $2 billion, according to the United Nations. [Page 9.]
The United Nations will begin a new world appeal for money in New York this week, and Secretary General Kofi Annan will arrive in Jakarta on Thursday to convene a meeting of major donor nations to map strategy for the relief campaign. Private donations, which have flooded charitable organizations around the world, are expected to add hundreds of millions to the relief programs.
Prime Minister Tony Blair of Britain, in his first comments on the disaster, said the world faced a long-term relief commitment. "At first it seemed a terrible disaster, a terrible tragedy," he said. "But I think as the days have gone on, people have recognized it as a global catastrophe. There will be months, if not years, of work ahead of us."
President Bush too spoke of a long commitment. "We offer our love and compassion, and our assurance that America will be there to help," he said in his weekly radio address from his ranch in Crawford, Tex. He cited a host of problems - communications, roads and medical facilities damaged or washed out - but promised that help was coming, and, indeed, had already begun to arrive.
Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida, the president's brother, were expected to arrive in the region today with a team of experts to tour some stricken areas and to assess the needs. Their schedule was still being worked out, officials said.
The need is indeed enormous, especially in Aceh Province, where towns and villages were destroyed. Meulaboh, on Aceh's west coast, was flattened, and as many as 40,000 of the 120,000 residents were killed. It lay buried under mountains of mud and debris yesterday as Indonesia's president, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, flew in to see the devastation.
Other firsthand reports of the devastation in Aceh were provided by the pilots and crew members of the helicopters that, from dawn to sunset on New Year's Day, shuttled 25,000 pounds of supplies to refugees. "There is nothing left to speak of at these coastal communities," Lt. Cmdr. Jeff Vorce, a pilot from San Diego, told The Associated Press. He told of a swath of destruction two miles deep from the coasts, with trees mowed down, roads washed away and only foundations where buildings once stood.
Besides airdrops by the American helicopters, fleets of cargo planes from Australia, New Zealand and other nations continued to land at Banda Aceh and Medan, ferrying in tons of supplies. But bad roads, destroyed bridges, a lack of fuel and trucks, and other problems continued to hamper the distribution.
While the Abraham Lincoln and four accompanying ships represented the vanguard of American emergency aid to Indonesia, American officials said seven more vessels led by the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard were steaming west from the South China Sea with more supplies and were expected to be off the coast of Sri Lanka in the coming week, a Pentagon spokesman said.
Military officials said that yet another convoy, six slower-moving ships loaded with food, water, blankets and a 500-bed portable hospital, was en route from Guam, but was not expected to reach the stricken region for about two weeks.
Capt. Rodger Welch of the Navy, representing the operations directorate of the military's Pacific Command, said late Saturday that the American relief mission likely was the largest in the region in at least 50 years. "And we are only beginning this effort," he added.
About 10,000 to 12,000 American military personnel were now involved, mostly aboard the Lincoln and Bonhomme Richard groups. In Sri Lanka, flash floods yesterday forced the evacuation of thousands of people from low-lying areas hard hit by the tsunami, which killed more than 28,700 there. At least 15 camps where 30,000 refugees had been sheltering were evacuated after storms dumped 13 inches of rain over the eastern coastal region.
Weeklong efforts to bury the dead in Sri Lanka and coastal areas of India were winding down, and government and private aid workers said they were turning their attention increasingly to sheltering the survivors in more sanitary refugee camps, while the homes of an estimated one million displaced persons are rebuilt.
"This is where we are going to see a rise in communicable diseases, diarrhea, measles, upper respiratory infections," said David Overlack, a health care specialist surveying camps in Sri Lanka for the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
World Health Organization workers have noted "a slight increase in the reporting of diarrheal illness" in areas of Sri Lanka and Indonesia affected by the tsunami, David Nabarro, an official of the United Nations agency, said in an interview yesterday.
But the increase does not mean an epidemic, he said. There have been no outbreaks of cholera or other diseases, he said, adding that it is too early for such outbreaks to occur.
Aid workers praised Sri Lankan officials and volunteers for their efforts to bury the dead quickly and to place 600,000 homeless people in schools, temples and mosques. An outpouring of donations from Sri Lankans has prevented shortages of food and clothing, officials said.
Jeffrey J. Lunstead, the American ambassador to Sri Lanka and the Maldives, said the first planeload of American relief supplies had arrived in Sri Lanka - plastic sheeting to house 3,600 people and 5,400 cans of fresh water. He said most of the American aid would be aimed at reconstruction, rather than emergency food and medicines.
To that end, American military officials said 1,500 marines and 20 helicopters would be deployed in the next few days to clear debris and aid survivors in devastated areas of Sri Lanka. The first contingent of 200 was expected to arrive today.
Reporting for this article was contributed by Ian Fisher in Sri Lanka, Raymond Bonner and Jane Perlez in Indonesia,Thom Shanker in Washington and Lawrence K. Altman in New York.
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