Aid workers digging out flooded hospital
Worldwide death toll tops 155,000
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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- An international team of relief workers is helping Indonesian troops clear out mud and debris from the remains of a desperately needed hospital in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
The hospital was engulfed by the December 26 tsunami that killed more than 155,000 people.
The provincial capital's only two hospitals are inundated with patients and are turning away many of the wounded.
The team includes U.S. Navy "Seabees," along with Chinese, German and Pakistani relief workers. Australian soldiers have set up a nearby tent field-operating theater and expect to begin performing major surgeries on Sunday.
Patients are still in the hospital's upper floors, which were not as badly damaged. The workers are using movable cabinets and hospital beds to wheel out trash and debris, heaped in a pile outside the front doors.
The majority of the tsunami deaths were in Indonesia -- nearly 95,000, according to the country's health ministry. The figure could jump dramatically since the ministry reported Saturday that 77,000 are listed as missing.
Elsewhere in Banda Aceh, however, there were tentative signs of life returning to a sense of normalcy. Supermarkets opened Saturday for the first time since the disaster, and markets were in full swing, offering fresh vegetables. It could take months, however, for heavy equipment to clear the wreckage left by the massive waves.
With forays into tsunami-ravaged areas uncovering even more death and destruction, world leaders orchestrating aid vowed Friday to overcome logistical and political struggles and get support to those who need it the most.
Some people in the stricken region have complained of confusion and even chaos plaguing relief efforts. With people in desperate circumstances -- thousands struggling to survive -- every hour is critical.
Both U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan and U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell toured the region Friday, a day after a donor conference in Jakarta.
Annan reported destruction as far as three miles inland in some places.
"I have never seen such utter destruction mile after mile," he said, "and you wonder 'Where are the people? ... What happened to them?'"
Powell, in an interview with CNN, said: "No briefing book, no television picture can convey what really happened here."
Despite the scope of the tragedy, Kevin Kennedy, chief of the Humanitarian Emergency Branch in the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said "substantial progress" is being made -- and he reported good news for those struggling in Sri Lanka.
"In Sri Lanka, by this weekend, we will probably have reached every person in need with at least initial food assistance and non-food items," he told reporters at U.N. headquarters in New York.
The death toll in Sri Lanka was near 50,000, and about 900,000 are homeless.
On Saturday, a man was found alive, trapped under the rubble of a seaside shop in the southern Sri Lankan city of Galle. (Full story)
Doctors at Karapitiya Hospital said the man, believed to be in his 60s, was suffering from pneumonia and severe hydration, but would certainly live.
"Miracles do happen," Dr. Chandra Pala Mudanngake said.
Annan visited Sri Lanka on Saturday, but reluctantly agreed to a Sri Lankan request not to visit disaster-stricken areas controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels. (Full story)
But Kennedy said Indonesia's Sumatra island and Aceh province "remain the heart of the crisis and probably where our biggest challenges are at."
Despite round-the-clock efforts, many critical roads remain impassable. And while there are many helicopters operating in the region -- many of them from the U.S. military -- a helicopter can't carry nearly as much food as a truck, he said.
The United States has close to 13,000 military personnel in the region, with 17 Navy ships, one U.S. Coast Guard cutter and about 90 aircraft, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Blackman, who is commanding the relief efforts from Thailand.
Speaking to CNN in Colombo, Sri Lanka, before flying to Nairobi, Kenya, Powell said he spoke with leaders of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in the region who assured him they were able to coordinate different groups flocking in.
"And we have some military people on the ground to help coordinate," he said, noting that the "demand is great."
Upon his return to Washington, he will tell President Bush that he "should be pleased" with the U.S. response, Powell said.
Blackman said the militaries of 11 nations are on the scene -- and he said coordinating them, as well as numerous aid agencies, is one of the United Nations' biggest challenges.
The United Nations is increasing its presence in the region, he said. In Banda Aceh alone, there are 50 international staff with the United Nations, hundreds of national staff, and as many as 200 workers with non-governmental organizations and the Red Cross.
Blackman denied reports that political tensions inside Indonesia and Sri Lanka -- both nations ravaged by civil war for more than two decades -- have hampered aid efforts.
But he acknowledged that there have been "security incidents" in Aceh.
"So far they have not impacted our relief operations, but it's a matter of concern for us," he said. "We'll take appropriate measures to safeguard our staff and our deliveries."
For the time being, there are plenty of funds for all the efforts under way, officials said. Total international pledges have reached $4 billion, and the figure is likely to move higher.
Seven of the world's wealthiest nations -- the members of the G7 -- agreed Friday to suspend debts owed by nations ravaged by the tsunami disaster.
CNN's Atika Shubert contributed to this report.
Copyright 2005 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Associated Press contributed to this report.
