APCEDI ALERT EQ-SSEA #12, 2004: Series of Earthquakes and Tsunamis Devastate Wide Area of South and Southeast Asia

Flash floods play havoc with Sri Lanka relief work
Sydney Morning Herald

January 2, 2005

Flash floods crippled relief work in eastern Sri Lanka yesterday dealing a double blow to tsunami survivors as another 14,000 people were reported missing apart from the nearly 30,000 confirmed dead.

Police delivered 42 bodies of unidentified foreign nationals to a private undertaker and a police morgue.

Special bags had been imported from Australia to help preserve bodies till an identification was made, a spokesman for the undertaker said.

At least 15 tsunami refugee camps were flooded after heavy overnight rains dumped 330 millimetres of water over the coastal region which was the hardest hit in last week's disaster, chief local administrator Herath Abeyweera said.

Abeyweera, who was in Ampara 350 kilometres east of Colombo, said most of the access roads to the coastal district had been cut off by flooding that has also damaged several key bridges.

He said a team of 20 Japanese medical staff was unable to move out to camps that were more than a metre under water while all relief convoys were also held up by the river flooding.

The heavy rain forced 10,000 people out of their homes adding to the problem of caring for 160,000 tsunami refugees in Ampara district, he said.

Several bridges either collapsed or were underwater, cutting off the main access roads to the region, the worst affected by the tsunami.

End Article

Also the largest aftershock since December 26th to hit the region occurred on the 1st:

2005/01/01  06:25:44
5.05N, 92.28E
10.0, 6.5
OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

This was far enough off shore from Sumatra to not cause major damage. Earthquakes of this magnitude do not usually cause major tsunamis but some increased minor wave action could affect local areas of the Sumatra shore. So care should be taken. To keep track of aftershocks monitor the USGS World Earthquake List

Kevin Vang
APCEDI Coordinator
http://www.afap.org/
AFAP Appeal Hotline: 1-800-007-308