Aftershocks, flooded hospitals, bad roads and a lack of government coordination were some of the factors hampering relief efforts in India on yesterday.
The Indian-administered archipelago of the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Bay of Bengal were jolted yesterday by three earthquakes measuring between 5 to 5.5 on the Richter scale, but casualties were yet to be reported.
It was nearly impossible to deliver aid to many people on the islands because harbors, jetties and runways were damaged. Aerial surveys conducted by the coastguard revealed that parts of some islands were flooded and the water was not receding.
A week after the killer tsunamis struck, information was still emerging on the actual toll in the Andamans. So far, 812 bodies have been recovered. The federal home ministry said 3,754 people are still missing, but police said more than 5,000 people couldn't be traced.
Food, medicine, water and blankets piled up in the Andamans' capital of Port Blair and even in Calcutta on the Indian mainland waiting to be shipped to survivors.
Many voluntary organizations, like Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity, alleged there was little government aid or coordination, the Indian Express newspaper reported. Homeless and angry, people in the islands complained of an acute shortage of food and held demonstrations outside government offices alleging that crates of bottled water were being sent to senior officials for their personal use, the report said.
It also quoted Medecins Sans Frontieres (Doctors without Borders) director Stuart Zimble as saying, "We are handicapped by lack of access."
Yesterday, UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) vans arrived in Nagapattinam, the worst-affected town in southern India's Tamil Nadu state where the overall death toll rose to 7,397.
In Nagapattinam alone 5,525 died. The government said the nationwide toll was now 8,942, with 3,874 people still missing.
Over three days, 40 vans were to cover 225 relief camps in Tamil Nadu in the areas of Nagapattinam, Cuddalore and Kanyakumari and parts of the federally-administered region of Pondicherry to help prevent any outbreak of diarrhoea. Health workers distributed oral rehydration salts (ORS), soap, water and leaflets on how to cope with diarrhoea. "Diarrhoea is a child killer, but we can stop dehydration with ORS and good information," said UNICEF's India representative.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese