Death total now: 114,000 with nearly 80,000 in Indonesia alone.
In light of the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, the capacity of technology’s best and brightest to add to disaster relief efforts was an expressed concern of AnonyMoses here.
Since 5 am Monday, about 2/3rds of my posts have covered breaking news, needs, and groups trying to help with the tsunami relief effort. This will be a comprehensive overview of immediate ways to help, and longterm solutions being devised by tech-heads, along with some history of their work.
The latter deserves attention because well-meaning people around the globe are setting up sites solo, when united efforts are better able to deliver (no knock intended to Arun Balaji; I hope he reads this post and brings his effort to the groups I’ll describe).
Info for Hands-on Volunteers in Stricken Countries
From Alexandra Olson at Salon:
Dec. 29, 2004 | Dead bodies cannot cause disease outbreaks, the Pan American Health Organization said Wednesday, hoping to avert mass burials of tens of thousands of unidentified victims from the tsunami in Asia and Africa.
There is no danger of corpses contaminating water or soil because bacteria and viruses cannot survive in dead bodies, said Dana Van Alphan, an adviser to the organization’s Office of Emergency Preparedness and Disaster Relief.
She said it was important for survivors to be allowed to identify loved ones and urged authorities in tsunami-stricken countries to avoid burying unidentified corpses in mass graves.
“I think that psychologically, people have to be given the chance to identify their family members,” she said. “Whatever disease the person has while still alive poses no threat to public health in a corpse.”
Van Alphan warned, however, that rescue officials handling recently deceased bodies should wear gloves to avoid contact with blood. But she emphasized that any bacteria or virus in the blood would die almost immediately in the open.
The greatest impediment to relief at the moment is transportation into stricken areas. Relief supplies are piling up in some locations, but with roads washed away, moving the relief is the hardest to achieve. (Known relief orgs can move volunteers for free via these India airlines.)
In the comments sections of blogs set up to coordinate info, it’s also clear there’s many willing hands ready to head to the scene, but they’re looking for info on how to achieve that. Helicopters, four wheel drive vehicles and boats are obviously the transportation needed most. Considering the size of the societies involved and their technology at hand, it would seem that India, Thailand, and Indonesia should be working on that first and foremost. And don’t just wait for the governments; if you live within a day’s drive, and have these conveyances, head to the scene and offer to chauffeur. And pack a few 5 gallon cans of petrol or gasoline; supplies of these may be thin in the areas of devastation.
And pack enough food and water for yourself for at least a week. Most hungry people can hold out for a week without food, if they can stay hydrate, so extra water will probably help, too. Cellphones and extra batteries for them would be advisable, too.
Who needs the help most? In pure fatalities and destroyed infrastructure, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives fared the worst. Myanmar/Burma’s repressive government may be shielding its real damages from outsiders, but it’s unlikely amateur relief providers would even want to work there. But faalities alone don’t tell the story. Nearby India and Thailand took serious damages, but so did faraway Somalia, where some estimate 50,000 are homeless. Malaysia, Bangladesh and Tanzania round out the ten with the likely greatest needs, though the top three to seven likely need all the help they can get.
Mark Schapiro of Salon provides the best report on the Maldives that I’ve found.
Major sites for all kinds of info useful to anyone concerned
The top continues to be the hastily organized The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami blog, also called the ‘SEA-EAT’ blog. Check this one often. Though the information ranges all over the place, it’s a vital source.
For Indonesia specifically, try Indonesia Help or SEA-EAT’s last Indonesia-specific post.
For Thailand specifically, SEA-EAT’s post here is a good starting point.
As I noted, SEA-EAT keeps adding useful info like that so check there several times daily. And they publish in the following languages:
German
Spanish
French
Italian
Portugese
Japanese
Korean
Chinese
For India specifically, IndiaTogether also offers useful info, on this page as well. ASHA, an organization dedicated to educating India’s underprivileged children, that has many US chapters, is also doing small-scale relief efforts in numerous villages. They’ve launched ASHA’S Tsunami Relief and Rehabilitation blog. You can leave comments there if you have questions or wish to help.
Info for people wishing to donate money, goods, effort or anything
Quickly assembled charities should be treated with suspicion. Though some are likely aboveboard, scammers abound amid disasters. In addition to the map and casualty list noted here, I offered advice for donors. Pay particular attention to the final link there, to Charity Navigator, as their assessment of the groups involved narrows to seven those that measure up best in their ratings.
Info for people seeking to locate missing people
The SEA-EAT bloggers set up the Tsunami Missing People blog. Ask questions or leave info in the comments, or contact Paolo Di Maio via this form. She’s a London based engineer and publisher who seems to be posting most of the info at the TMP site.
General breaking news sites
Besides SEA-EAT, an older humanitarian relief blog exists. It culls news stories, reports from UN and government agencies, and publishes as ReliefWeb. For the tsunami info, that aggregated info is here. Be sure to check their sidebar links as well.
HEWS (Humanitarian Early Warning System) provides a daily look at natural disaster events occurring globally.
There are several news aggregator sites you could supplement these with. Anything from Google News: tsunami to Indonesia: NewsTrove to NewsTrove: tsunami should provide plenty.
Individuals and Collectives, short and long-term
There’s many an individual blogger covering this. There’s also some collectives with a past record and longer-term goals in this, that extend beyond this disaster. I’ll cover all the most useful ones I’ve found later today, in ‘Tsunami Blogs, Pt. 2′.