The New York Times

DISASTER
Frayed Nerves and Aftershocks Create Panic in Southern Asia
By AMY WALDMAN

Published: December 30, 2004

NAGAPPATTINAM, India, Dec. 30 — Frayed nerves and a slight aftershock created widespread panic throughout southern Asia today, as the Indian government issued a warning of another tsunami along India’s southern coast. In India and Sri Lanka, many fled the beaches in fear of more deadly waves, muddling the relief effort and bringing the recovery of bodies in many areas to a temporary halt.

Three aftershocks that measured just above 5 on the Richter scale ultimately led to officials in India to issue what amounted to a false alarm. The government’s overreaction reflected the sensitivity of Indian officials to criticism that they should have given notice of the tsunami to coastal villages, which in many cases were hit two or three hours after the earthquake on Sunday that devastated much of southern Asia.

The warning came a day after world leaders, including President Bush, promised long-range help to Asian countries as impatience with the pace of relief efforts rose along with the estimated toll from the week’s disaster, which officials said today had surpassed 115,000 dead.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi of Italy called today for an emergency meeting of the Group of Eight to discuss options for aid and debt reduction in the wake of what he called “the worst cataclysm of the modern era,” according to the Reuters news agency.

As American planes and ships moved into place to help on Wednesday, Mr. Bush made his first public comments since tsunamis inundated about a dozen countries on Sunday, reflecting pressure on the vacationing president to appear more engaged in what aid groups are calling one of the worst natural disasters in history.

“These past few days have brought loss and grief to the world that is beyond our comprehension,” he said at his ranch in Crawford, Tex., adding that Washington was prepared to contribute much more than the $35 million it initially pledged.

“We are committed to helping the affected countries in the difficult weeks and months that lie ahead,” Mr. Bush said. He said the United States would work closely with Japan, India and Australia to coordinate relief efforts.

In Washington, two influential Republican lawmakers said today they would introduce legislation in the new Congress for a sizable aid package.

“I think there will be very decisive action early on,” said Senator Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Mr. Lugar, speaking on CNN, said he had drawn up a resolution anticipating “very generous appropriations.”

Mr. Lugar’s House counterpart, Representative Henry J. Hyde of Illinois, said he too is drafting legislation for action early in the new year. “The challenges of coping with suffering on this magnitude are almost unfathomable, and we will act,” Mr. Hyde said in a statement issued by the House Committee on International Relations, which he heads.

Mr. Hyde said a Congressional delegation led by Representative Jim Leach, Republican of Iowa, would visit Thailand and Sri Lanka next week, and that the group’s findings would be important in shaping the aid legislation. Mr. Leach is chairman of the Subcommittee on East Asia and the Pacific.

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell visited the embassies of Thailand and Sri Lanka to offer condolences on behalf of President Bush and the American people and to promise that “we will stand with them in solidarity and do everything we can to assist in this time of tragedy,” as he put it outside the Sri Lankan Embassy.

Meanwhile, Secretary General Kofi Annan cut short his vacation to return to New York to oversee the United Nations’ relief effort, one of the largest in the organization’s history.

Today, Mr. Annan told reporters that world governments had donated $500 million thus far to help disaster victims.

The tsunamis have killed more than 115,00 people in 11 countries throughout southern Asia and Africa, according to The Associated Press. The nation hit the hardest appears to be Indonesia, where roughly 80,000 79,940 were reported killed on Sumatra. There, the greatest devastation appears to have occurred in the province of Aceh, where, Agence France-Presse said, about 45,000 roughly 80,000 deaths have been reported.

In Sri Lanka, nearly 25,000 were reported killed, and in India, the death toll has reached 7,330, according to The A.P.