»Asia quake death toll tops 13,000«

Tsunami survivor saved after 8 days adrift

An Indonesian man has been rescued by a passing ship after surviving for eight days afloat on an uprooted tree floating in the Indian Ocean.

Rizal Shahputra, 23, from the devastated province of Aceh, lived off rainwater and coconuts that floated by.

Apart from some cuts on his legs, he appeared amazingly healthy when he arrived in Malaysia's western Port Klang aboard a container vessel.

"When I saw him I was very surprised," said Huang Wen Feng, a crew member of the Malaysian cargo ship that picked him up on Monday evening 100 nautical miles out to sea.

"He waved at me, he was standing on what look like a tree."

Rizal said he was cleaning a mosque when the tsunami struck his village.

"Everybody sank, my family members sank. There were bodies around me," he told reporters.

Huang, whose ship was returning from South Africa, said Rizal was healthy when picked up and had normal body temperature despite the ordeal, but he was later sent to hospital for checks.

It was the second tsunami rescue by Malaysian ships.

On Friday, a Malaysian tuna-fishing boat rescued a 23-year-old woman from Aceh who had clung on to the trunk of a palm tree for five days after being swept out to sea.

More than 94,000 Indonesians have been killed by the December 26 tsunami which followed a massive earthquake beneath the sea off Aceh province, in the west of the Indonesian archipelago.

The death toll from the tsunami across Asia is about 150,000.

Tsunami may increase threat to wildlife

A senior member of an international conservation organisation says the tsunami could increase the threat to endangered wildlife in South-East Asia.

Joe Heffernan, from Fauna and Flora International, has been visiting Queensland's Gold Coast.

He says he fears there will be more poaching in the months ahead as dislocated communities struggle to make a living out of ruined forests in Indochina.

Mr Heffernan says the organisation has put its conservation work on hold while it tries to help more than a dozen employees left homeless by the disaster.

"At present we are still evacuating our staff from the most destroyed areas back to some safety in Medan along with their families," he said.

"But I do hope we can regroup quite clearly and look at where we go next and get people out in the field looking at what can be done and what should be done next."

Elephant Helps Save Kids From Tsunami

Carried Children To Safety

Dec 29, 2004 10:00 am US/Central
PHUKET (AP) When Mother Nature unleashed its wrath, a member of the Animal Kingdom stepped in.

A British tourist says she saw an elephant save several children on a Thai beach when the killer waves struck.

The animal had been brought to a beach resort in Phuket to entertain children.

Laura Barnett says the elephant’s keeper hoisted kids up onto the animal’s back, and then walked them off to safety.

Barnett told her tale from London. She and her family escaped the disaster, but the beach where she was staying was destroyed.


(© 2004 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. )

Rising sea levels could undo post-tsunami reconstruction

An Australian think tank says the reconstruction of coastlines damaged by the Asian tsunami must take into account the effect of climate change on sea levels.

Clive Hamilton from the Australia Institute says the billions of dollars in aid committed to the rebuilding effort could be wasted, if infrastructure is rebuilt in the same place.

He says sea levels are expected to rise by almost a metre by the end of this century, and any new buildings should be constructed at least 50 metres back from the existing shoreline.

"It's vital that adequate zones of protection are provided between any new structures, roads, railways, houses and the shoreline and some countries are already preparing for sea level rise by establishing 'no-build' zones close to the current high tide marks," he said.

"Enormously tragic as this tsunami has been, it does provide an opportunity for us to rebuild in those devastated regions in a way that will protect them from sea-level rise in the future."

Appeal launched for tsunami hit industries
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has launched an urgent appeal for $26 million to help rebuild Asia's fishing and farming sectors after the tsunami.

The FAO says money is urgently needed to finance rehabilitation projects over the next six months.

Fisheries and aquaculture are the most seriously affected sectors, with boats and fishing gear lost and fish farms damaged beyond repair.

The UN also says livestock have been killed and that crops were washed away or are dying due to saltwater floods.

The aid package will include seeds, tools and other farm help to re-establish crops, while fishermen will be provided with nets to begin small-scale fishing.

Agronomists have already been sent to affected countries and the FAO will meet Government representatives later today to discuss the appeal.

The Australian Government says its has not been specifically requested to help rebuild the farm and fishing industries, but is monitoring the situation.

Tsunami survivors pick up the pieces

Tsunami survivors are trying to rebuild their shattered lives as aid agencies scramble to reach isolated areas affected by the December 26 tsunami.

Across Indian Ocean coastlines, people are returning to devastated villages and reopening their businesses, still terrified but with nowhere else to go.

"I am scared. I am scared the tsunami will come again and kill us," said Dana Lakshmi after returning to her village in southern India.

"But we have to get on with our lives."

Nearly two-thirds of the 150,000 people killed in the disaster died in Aceh, on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, which was the nearest to the epicentre of the undersea earthquake that caused the tsunami.

In the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, butchers, shopkeepers and restaurant owners have started opening for business again.

"I'm confused about what to do," said Sudirman, a butcher who reopened his off-street meat stall.

"But what I know is we must be able to endure these difficulties, we must go on."

Muhammad Saman, whose small restaurant is sandwiched between a refugee tent city and the destroyed homes that litter the coast, said: "We have to open. If not, many people will starve."

Long haul

Aid workers are warning against complacency, saying much work remains to be done.

United Nations emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland is warning officials they need to be prepared for a long haul.

"I've seen so many times that there is some kind of complacency that we believe that if they get the life-saving assistance we have sort of solved the job," Mr Egeland said.

More than 500,000 people are believed to have been injured and up to 5 million are in immediate need of help.

The World Health Organisation has also warned that the tsunami death toll could double unless action is taken this week to prevent diseases such as cholera and dysentery.

Mr Egeland says the number of dead was far from clear in the Indonesian provinces of Aceh and Sumatra, since many survivors had fled to the hilly and heavily forested interiors.

"I do not think we are even close to having any figures as to how many people have died, how many are missing, how many have been severely affected," he said.

"There may be 200 improvised camps and there could be hundreds of thousands of people there.

"All of our focus now is in trying to reach out to the people of this area."

Governments around the world have pledged more than $5 billion in aid so far and private groups, corporations and individuals another $860 million.

"We will, except for Sumatra and Aceh, be able soon to reach nearly all with the blankets and the tents and the food and the water and the sanitation that they so desperately need," Mr Egeland said.

"What we will not have done is to heal the mental scars."