Asian-American Village Daily News

December 29: Asia Tsunami, Quake Coverage

Editor's Note: In order to carry expanded news of developments following this week's disaster in Asia, the editors have determine to delay publication of some of the holiday features previously scheduled for this week, including installments to our readings series on Special Kids and our year-end health focus edition.

Where are the children? A generation of young Asians lost in an epic disaster

By S. SRINIVASAN, Associated Press Writer

CUDDALORE, India (AP) -- The buzz of grim conversation in the darkened morgue was broken by a man's shriek as the small body was lowered on a bed. ``My son, my king!'' wailed Venkatesh, hugging the limp shrouded bundle.

Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, farmer Yusya Yusman aimlessly searched the beaches for his two children lost in Sunday's tsunami. ``My life is over,'' he said emotionlessly.

In country after country, children have emerged as the biggest victims of Sunday's quake-born tidal waves -- thousands and thousands drowned, battered and washed away by huge walls of water that have wiped away huge number from an entire generation of Asians.

``The power of this earthquake, and its huge geographical reach, are just staggering,'' said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. Hundreds of thousands of children who managed to survive in the affected coastal communities now ``may be in serious jeopardy,'' she added.

The U.N. organization estimates at least one-third of the tens of thousands who died were children, and the proportion could be up to half, said UNICEF spokesman Alfred Ironside in New York. He said communities are suffering a double loss: dead children and orphaned boys and girls. ``Our major concern is that the kids who survived the tsunami now survive the aftermath. Because children are the most vulnerable to disease and lack of proper nutrition and water.''

Children make up at least half of the population in Asia. Many of them work alongside poverty-stricken parents in the fishing or related industries in coastal areas, so they were in harm's way when the tidal waves came. Many children from the more affluent families would also have been on the beaches for a stroll or for Sunday picnics.

In Sri Lanka, which suffered the biggest loss of life in the tsunami, crowds had come to the beaches to watch the sea after word spread that it was producing larger-than-normal waves.

Thousands of children joined their elders to see the spectacle. The waves brought in fish. The old and the young collected them. Many waited for more fun.

Then the 15 feet-to-20 feet tidal waves hit the tropical island of 19 million people.

``They got caught and could not run to safety. This is the reason why we have so many child victims,'' said Rienzie Perera, a police spokesman who said reports from affected police stations indicated children made up about half the victims in Sri Lanka.

On Monday, parents wept over the bodies of their children in streets and hospitals across the island, even as some dead children still dangled unclaimed from barbed wire fences.

The scenes of unimagined grief and mourning were repeated across Asia.

``Where are my children?'' wept 41-year-old Absah, as she searched for her 11 missing children in Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city closest to Sunday's epicenter. ``Where are they? Why did this happen to me? I've lost everything.''

On the day disaster struck, Malaysian Rosita Wan recalled watching in horror as her 5-year-old son was gulped by the sea while he swam near the shore at Penang.

``I could only watch helplessly while I heard my son screaming for help. Then he was underwater and I never saw him again,'' said a sobbing Rosita, 30.

About half of the nearly 400 people who perished in Cuddalore in India's Tamil Nadu state were children, leaving the town stunned.

Under Hindu tradition, children are buried instead of being cremated like adults. For the grim task in Cuddalore, two pits, together about half the size of a basketball court, were dug near a river at the edge of this coconut palm-fringed town.

After one couple laid the body of their daughter in the deep pit, a bulldozer shoveled in sand and the little girl disappeared from view. They then stepped aside for others to bury their children, denied any chance for a service or private mourning.

Most of the children, ages 5-12, were buried as they were found -- in their Sunday clothes -- without the luxury of a shroud.

Local officials wanted to quickly finish the burial, and the cremation of adult victims, so they could turn their attention to helping those left alive.

``There will be a time for crying, but that will come later. Now the priority is to shelter those who survived,'' said fisherman Akilan, 28, who lost two nephews when waves struck their house. Akilan uses only one name.

Bodies of young and old lay unclaimed at the town morgue, awaiting identification by relatives. Doctors called them in one by one over a public address system, while vans with wailing sirens brought in newly discovered bodies.

Many emerged from the morgue shaking their heads in silence after failing to identify any of the bodies as that of their loved ones.

Venkatesh, who uses only one name, found his 11-year-old son Suman as his body was lowered on to a gurney.

The 37-year-old man had been in Dubai, where he went three months ago as a construction worker. When his wife called from Cuddalore to tell him their boy was missing, Venkatesh flew home immediately and went straight to the morgue.

There, he found his wife and daughter minutes before Suman's body was brought in.

``I never thought I would only see my son's body,'' cried Venkatesh, refusing even a sip of water.

Within moments, an identification tag was tied to the boy's hand and his body taken inside.

As one of his relatives pulled him away, Venkatesh kept asking: ``How can I go, leaving behind my son?''

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Illinoisans await word on relatives

By MELANIE COFFEE, Associated Press Writer

CHICAGO (AP) -- Dipak Jain first knew something was wrong when his sofa trembled as he was having his morning tea at a beach-front resort in Thailand. Then hours later while he was walking back to his hotel, the dean at Northwestern University's business school stopped in his tracks as a gigantic wall of water came barreling toward the building.

The massive wave filled with broken boats, chairs and tables hit a large lagoon just in front of the hotel, missing the structure.

``When the wave started pouring into the lagoon, it reminded me of Niagara Falls,'' Jain said Monday by telephone from just outside Bangkok.

Jain and his family were among the Illinoisans who were in South Asia when an undersea earthquake caused tsunamis that killed more than 22,000 people in nine countries. At least two Illinois families -- one from Evanston and the other from LaGrange -- were still awaiting word on their loved ones. South Asian groups in Peoria and Bloomington said they had not yet heard whether any family members were affected.

At least one Chicago resident was among the dead. The body of Tamara Mendis was recovered in western Sri Lanka, according to her husband, Pastor Eardley Mendis of Purna Jiwan Mission, a South Asian Lutheran Congregation.

Mendis, 55, was traveling by train with her daughter, Eranthie, 25, when a 30-foot wave crashed into the train and submerged the passengers. Eranthie Mendis tried pulling her mother to safety, but was unsuccessful, Eardley Mendis said.

The Rev. Paul Satkunanayagam, who once worked at Winnetka's Sacred Heart Church, had just finished saying mass near the Sri Lankan town of Batticaloa when waves hit six buildings that housed orphans.

``This water was following them like a snake, trying to catch up with the people, and it finally caught them,'' he told the Chicago Sun-Times.

Jain, dean of the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern, has been in Thailand since Dec. 15 to teach at a school in Bangkok that partners with Kellogg. Jain, his wife, and their three children left Bangkok on Saturday for the island of Phuket.

For the family, Sunday was to be a day of fun at the beach with friends. When Jain felt the earth shake briefly that morning, there didn't seem to be any danger, so the family continued with their plans for breakfast near the beach. Then while returning to the hotel, they saw the tidal wave.

The family was less than 100 yards from the wave, but Jain said they were not in danger of getting swept away because much of the water went into the lagoon.

``We are very fortunate,'' Jain said. ``When you see things like that, you get a very different perspective on life, you see how short life can be.''

Jain's hotel was later evacuated and with the help of a few friends, he and his family flew out of Phuket and to safety in inland Bangkok.

Another family from the Chicago suburb of Evanston is hoping their son was just as lucky.

Ben Abels, a real estate agent who loved to travel the world, was vacationing in Thailand with a friend when a huge wall of water hit their bungalow Sunday on the island of Phi Phi, Abels' brother, Dave Abels said.

His friend escaped the bungalow, was rescued by a helicopter and flown to a hospital in Phuket. She lost her hand and her leg is crushed, but she is expected to survive, Dave Abels said.

Finding out what happened to 33-year-old Ben has been difficult for the Abels. The only information the family has been given came from the sister of his friend and someone who met the friend in the hospital also has e-mailed the Abels family, Bob Abels, Ben's father, said.

``The frustrating thing is that it's so hard to get information,'' Bob Abels said. ``We know the island, we know the resort he was staying at, we know the bungalow number and yet there seems to be no way to get any information from the island.''

Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky has been making telephone calls to federal officials on behalf of the Abels family. She said Monday Ben is not among the Americans whose bodies have been identified and he is not in area hospitals.

The family hopes he is being treated in a hospital and doesn't have identification or he is on the island and has been unable to contact them.

``For all we know he could be helping other people on the beach right now,'' Bob Abels said. ``He would do that if he could and we hope he's able to do that.''

Todd Musburger, a Chicago attorney who is a friend of the Abels family, said it is difficult to accept that the energetic boy he watched grow up and play with his son is among the missing.

``You look at the thousands and thousands of people who are affected and you are swept away by it and then all of a sudden it's in your backyard and it's unbelievable,'' he said, his voice cracking.

Another northern Illinois family is hoping to hear from Aaron Davis, a 30-year-old LaGrange native who moved to Thailand nearly two months ago to teach English. His aunt, Lynn Lacey of LaGrange, said their family hasn't heard from him since Friday.

``We're doing a lot of praying because to see it on television is devastating,'' Lacey said.

Meanwhile, some temples and other organizations such as the Hindu Heritage Center in Peoria and the Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago in Lemont, are collecting donations to help the devastated coastal areas.

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On the Net:

Hindu Temple of Greater Chicago http://www.ramatemple.org/

Hindu Heritage Center http://www.hinduheritage.org/

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Family, friends identify U.S. victims killed in Asia tsunamis

Dec 28 06:51

By CHRIS T. NGUYEN, Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Like many Sri Lankans who live abroad, Dr. Anton Ambrose and his wife, Beulah, traveled to their homeland during the holiday season for rest and relaxation.

This year's trip was to be special because they were also visiting their 33-year-old daughter, Orlantha, who had taken a two-year leave from her job in Los Angeles to teach music to underprivileged kids in her father's hometown.

But the vacation took a terrible turn Sunday when a tsunami rushed through the coastal areas of Sri Lanka, killing Beulah and Orlantha Ambrose. It wasn't known whether Anton Ambrose suffered any injuries.

Friends and family members have identified at least four U.S. citizens who died Sunday in massive tsunamis caused by a 9.0-magnitude quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra. By Tuesday, tens of thousands had died in 10 countries in southern Asia and Africa.

An Ohio couple, also native Sri Lankans vacationing in their homeland, were also killed when the tsunami hit the coastal town they were visiting, their son said.

U.S. officials said eight Americans were among the dead but it was not immediately known if those identified were included in that figure.

As rescue and relief workers in Southeast Asia count the bodies in one of the world's deadliest disasters, friends of the Ambrose family prayed for the wife and daughter of a respected and beloved doctor.

``A lot of people have lost loved ones in this disaster,'' family friend Naj Nagendran, 57, of Thousand Oaks said Monday. ``It's difficult to accept someone is gone.''

The Ambrose family was vacationing at a wildlife preserve when the tsunami struck, relatives and family friends said. Their bodies were recovered and had been brought to Colombo, the capital of Sri Lanka. ``Yes both are dead,'' said Piyanka Weeresingha, who identified himself as a relative of the Ambrose family at Colombo's Hilton Hotel.

From their hometown of Upper Arlington, Ohio, a Columbus suburb, Muttaiya Sundaralingam and his wife, Indirani, left several weeks ago to vacation in Sri Lanka with their daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren.

The younger couple and their children weren't injured because they were visiting Colombo, on the western coast of the island nation, when the giant waves hit the eastern coast, said Ranjan Manoranjan, president of central Ohio's Sri Lankan Tamil Association.

A respected scientist and scholar who retired from Ohio State in 2001, Muttaiya Sundaralingam, 73, was known for his work in determining the structure of nucleic acids and proteins, an area called X-ray crystallography.

Indirani Sundaralingam, 63, was ``a great mom, wife and grandmother,'' said her son, Mohan Sundaralingam, of Upper Arlington.

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Associated Press writers Dilip Ganguly in Colombo, Sri Lanka and Denise Petski and Greg Risling in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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Immigrant communities anxious for word on Southern Asia

Dec 28 03:01

By GILLIAN FLACCUS

Associated Press Writer

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Darshanika Guruge has been waiting by the phone to hear about hundreds of relatives who live in Sri Lanka, the island nation most devastated by the monstrous weekend tidal wave that shook Southern Asia.

So far, the news hasn't been good. At least three members of her and the extended family of her husband, who was the former Sri Lankan ambassador to the U.S., were killed by the tidal wave that crashed into Sri Lanka's eastern coastline -- and more could be dead.

Guruge, of Huntington Beach, has been unable to reach any relatives themselves and pin their hopes on reports that trickle in from family members in London.

``It's horrible. It's the worst nightmare you could imagine,'' Guruge said, breaking down in tears. ``In every house people are missing and we don't know where they are and we aren't hearing from anybody.''

Guruge's grief was reflected in the stories of thousands of South Asians who struggled to reach loved ones in the 10 countries affected by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tidal waves that killed more than 22,000 people.

Hari Chandran, of Lancaster, Calif., spent much of the weekend on the phone frantically trying to reach loved ones on opposite coasts of Sri Lanka.

He eventually learned that his in-laws survived after climbing on the roof of their home, located only 150 feet from the beach in the capital of Colombo. He has had no luck finding his relatives to the north.

``We haven't been able to get through,'' said Chandran, who was planning to gather medical supplies from Sri Lankans in Southern California. ``They had floods only about two weeks ago and were just coming through that when this happened.''

Relief donations have begun coming in to hospitals, temples and community centers. Web sites once used to link immigrants to one another locally have been transformed into pipelines for aid efforts and news about the disaster's toll.

Dr. Wije Kottachchi, a New Jersey doctor helping in the effort, said he was able to reach his wife's brother and learned he had survived.

``He got on top of an iron gate 6 feet high and stood on it until the water receded,'' Kottachchi said. ``He didn't think he was going to make it.''

Even as many tourists canceled visits to the region, some immigrants are booking trips to their homelands to help and search for loved ones.

Abdul Zainuddin, who works for the Indonesian consulate in New York City and hopes to fly to the country in the next few days, said he heard his sister's home in Sigli had been destroyed; he fears she died.

``What can we say?'' he asked.

Frightened for his mother in Colombo, Waruna Buwaneka called her home on Sunday. And called. And called.

``It took me all day to get through,'' said Buwaneka, a computer consultant and leader of the United Sri Lanka Society in New York City. ``I was so relieved when I heard her voice. She and my sister are OK.''

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AP writers Wayne Parry in Newark, N.J., Sarah Karush in Detroit, Verena Dobnik in New York, and Ben Fox and Ryan Pearson in Los Angeles contributed to this report.

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North Dakotans wait for word from loved ones in disaster-stricken

FARGO, N.D. (AP) -- North Dakotans have been struggling to contact loved ones in the area of the tsunami that destroyed seaside towns and killed more than 20,000 people in nine countries in Asia and Africa.

Sam Samaraweera, a Sri Lankan-born chemist who lives in Fargo, dialed his father's phone number in Sri Lanka almost 40 times Sunday before he finally got through to hear his family was OK.

Samaraweera also fielded more than 20 calls from Sri Lankan friends and family during the day, including some from England and the Netherlands, just to get an update or offer support.

``We're trying to check on each other,'' he said.

The mother and sister of one of his relatives were riding a train along the coastline when a wave of water swept up the train. The daughter escaped but the mother was presumed dead.

Sunday was a long day for others who tried to get through battered lines of communication in the aftermath of the disaster.

Asoka Marasinghe, a chemistry professor at Minnesota State University Moorhead, said Sri Lanka had seemed so sheltered from natural disasters.

``The word 'tsunami' is completely foreign to Sri Lankans,'' he said. ``We just don't know what it is.''

Polly Groneman of Wahpeton waited anxiously for a call from her daughter, Judy Benn, who works as an executive director for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Bangkok, Thailand.

Benn had called her mother Saturday night and told her she and her 5-year-old adopted daughter were headed to a resort island off the Thai coast that night.

``Mothers always worry, no matter where their kids are,'' Groneman said minutes before a call from her daughter, who had stayed out of harm's way, finally came around 8 p.m. Sunday.

S. Bharath, a Devils Lake doctor, tried to call his parents in the city of Chennai, on the southeast coast of India.

In the afternoon, Bharath finally heard from his brother, who called from a London airport after successfully getting through to their parents hours after he had left Chennai on his way back to the United States.

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Information from: The Forum, http://www.in-forum.com

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Previous Edition's Headlines

• Tsunami account: Trapped in the eye of the storm
• N Dakotans wait for word from loved ones in Asia
• MI Indian immigrants worry about tidal wave victims
• For Asia's deadly wave, minimal warning -- and too late
• S.C. saxophonist makes music with one hand, lots of heart
• Jobs focus: Disaster management
• Read All

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