Rain drenches epicenter of tsunami suffering; Sri Lanka hit with flash flo

[Demit]

--flash floods.

This is AP breaking news:

"Pounding rain drenched the wrecked city of Banda Aceh and aftershocks shook the area Saturday, adding to the misery of homeless earthquake and tsunami survivors and heightening fears of waterborne diseases. Flash floods in Sri Lanka forced evacuations and thwarted aid deliveries.

Worldwide donations to aid those battered by the huge waves that slammed Asian and African nations approached $1 billion, and a steady stream of foreign military aircraft touched down in the epicenter of the disaster, the Aceh province on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Nine U.S. helicopters dropped off supplies at decimated coastal cities -- trying to circumvent the bottlenecks that have seen thousands of boxes of food, medicines, water, tents and blankets stacking up at warehouses with not enough hands to get them to survivors. Officials said they were trying to ramp up distribution as fast as possible.

...

Six days after the earthquake and tsunamis, the confirmed death toll passed 123,000. U.N. humanitarian chief Jan Egeland estimated the number of dead was approaching 150,000."

more at http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2005/01/01/international0459EST0424.DTL


It's just so awful, it takes my breath away.