Bush hikes relief to $350 million

JAKARTA, Indonesia — President Bush on Friday increased the U.S. financial contribution for victims of the Indian Ocean tsunamis to $350 million — 10 times the previous pledge toward the emergency effort to funnel food, water and medicine to about 5 million people in South Asia and parts of Africa.

The U.S. contribution, which followed complaints that the Bush administration had not acted more quickly and generously, pushed worldwide government donations to more than $1 billion. Lifesaving aid from dozens of countries, however, was often bottled up in hangars and warehouses far from refugees huddled in makeshift shelters along devastated coastlines in hardest-hit Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

The official death toll neared 122,000 people in 12 countries from Indonesia to Somalia that were struck by Sunday's earthquake and fast-moving tsunami.

And Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said the toll could be approaching 150,000 throughout the affected area. "The vast majority of those are in Indonesia," he said Friday.

President Bush, in a statement issued Friday in Crawford, Texas, where he was vacationing, said: "The disaster around the Indian Ocean continues to grow both in size and scope. Our contributions will continue to be revised as the full effects of this terrible tragedy become clear."

The president said the new funding level was based on "initial findings of American assessment teams on the ground."

At the United Nations, Secretary General Kofi Annan discussed funding details Friday with Secretary of State Colin Powell. "Things are looking up" on the fund-raising front, Annan said. But he added that the relief operation would require a massive effort. "We're going to need major logistical support — airplanes, helicopters and air controllers to assist us (to) move the produce and goods as quickly as possible so that we don't have bottlenecks."

Powell said that the new commitment would deplete U.S. funds for disaster relief and that the White House would seek additional funding from Congress.

Powell said he discussed with Annan plans to accelerate the delivery of food, shelter and care to the entire region.

"The need is great, and not just for the immediate relief but for long-term reconstruction," said Powell, who is traveling to the afflicted region Sunday with the president's brother, Florida Republican Gov. Jeb Bush, to assess the situation. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., said he will visit Sri Lanka and India next week.

Meanwhile, the gargantuan relief effort continued in the devastated Indian Ocean basin.

Indonesia

Indonesia's health minister said the estimate of 80,000 deaths in Aceh province on westernmost Sumatra island could rise to 100,000. Officials in Indonesia and in Sri Lanka, where about 28,000 people were believed killed, said the true death toll probably would never be known. India, with 7,763 confirmed deaths, and Thailand, with 4,560 dead, also reported that thousands of people were still missing.

Deseret Morning News graphicTsunami's mounting tollRequires Adobe Acrobat.