ASIA (December 28, 2004) – Covenant World Relief is partnering with World Relief International and a number of other disaster relief agencies to respond quickly to needs throughout areas from Thailand to Somalia in the aftermath of a massive tsunami that destroyed virtually everything in its path Monday morning, resulting in the loss of life that is estimated in excess of 50,000 people, according to CNN and the Associated Press.
Families are flocking to makeshift morgues seeking lost loved ones as hundreds of thousands have been left homeless in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand, reports CNN News. The United Nations is asking donor countries to dig deeper, saying this will likely be the costliest disaster ever. “People need help fast,” CNN quotes one man as saying in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where flags were at half-staff. “There’s no power, there’s no petrol, there’s no movement, there’s no support getting through to the injured, and I believe there are bodies that need to be identified and transported out of there. With this heat, sanitation problems will arise.”
A magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday and was centered about 100 miles off the coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island at a depth of about 6.2 miles. The quake triggered massive waves exceeding 30 feet in height, one news source reported.
“By God’s grace, all our people in our mission fields in Pondicherry, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh are safe from the tsunami waves which hit the southern coast,” reports K. Paul Devakumar of the IFCM Covenant Church in India in an email update to David Husby, co-regional coordinator for Asia for Covenant World Mission of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC). “Communications links with our missionaries in these places were totally cut off. Only this morning we could get in touch with them.
“In Pondicherry, the waves came very close to our church,” he continues. “There has been a lot of loss of houses and belongings. We do not have any words as we see the number of dead people who are buried in mass graves. It all happened so quickly. The relief work is going on. Threat and warning of another tsunami in the next 48 hours has brought a lot of fear and anxiety among the people. Please pray. We are trying to mobilize and organize for the relief. It will take months for the people to recover from the calamity and get back to normalcy.”
Covenant World Relief (CWR) is accepting donations to assist the relief efforts, according to Jim Sundholm, director. “In fact, CWR funds are already at work – but we could use more.” A more detailed assessment was provided by Tim Ziemer of World Relief International in an email report to board members.
“Mark Smith, our disaster response division director, was diverted to India on Monday while returning to the U.S. from Darfur, Sudan,” he writes. “He’s presently in Chennai (formerly Madras), on the southeast side of the Indian peninsula. This is the coastline of India that was the most exposed to the direct line from the epicenter of the earthquake that created the tsunamis and which suffered the most damage. Rabi, our national representative, and Mark are doing an initial assessment.
“While still in it’s formative stage (response plan), we plan to focus on India ( reported death toll is at 5,000) and Sri Lanka (12,000),” he continues. “We are proceeding with establishing partnerships that are “like minded”. We will consider their capacity and do our best not to stretch them too far. The ECC (Covenant) disaster funding has enabled us to respond immediately. Without that, we simply would not have been able to do anything until funds came in. Please pray with us that we will honor the Lord as we respond to this very dramatic tragedy. Specifically, please pray for our disaster relief staff because they have been stretched very thin with the ongoing work in Iran, the Carribean and Sudan; and pray that funding will be received to enable us to assist in ways that will honor the Lord.”
Those desiring to donate to the relief effort should direct checks to Tsunami Relief in area of Covenant World Relief, Evangelical Covenant Church, 5101 N. Francisco Avenue, Chicago, IL, 60625. Mark gifts in support of Tsunami Relief. More information will be posted to this online Covenant news report as it becomes available.
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