On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 23:05:29 -0700, Kevin S. Wilson >
wrote:

>On Fri, 31 Dec 2004 00:12:29 GMT, Harry Demidavicius
> wrote:
>
>>On Thu, 30 Dec 2004 14:57:23 -0800, "Ol' Hippie"
> wrote:
>>
>>>No fault to be laid my friend. This is a very stressful time,
>>snippage
>>
>>I rather believe the initial responses by our Governments appeared
>>miserly as nobody realized the extent of this largest Natural Disaster
>>in several centuries. I noticed a lot of rapid Course Corrections
>>after the true extent became known; I don't believe we've seen the
>>last of them yet.
>>
>Yep. The World Health Organization is projecting that in the aftermath
>deaths from disease and famine will exceed the 116,000 deaths so far
>directly attributable to the tsunami/quake.

The 116K figure is just the number of corpses recovered, Kevin. It
does not include fishermen, divers, back packers who have just
disappeared, as well as whatever mayhem transpired on the lesser
islands in Indonesia and Thailand. I should not be surprised the
figure start to approach 200K when the names of these missing
individuals are factored in. Then will come the inevitable epidemics.

I haven't been tracking America's financial efforts but did read that
the US Navy has dispatched a number of ships to the affected areas to
act as relief platforms for the survivors. This is alone is a
significant gesture.

Australia is up to 60 million and has a couple of ships en route as
does Singapore who popped for 90 million.

Canada has sent planefulls of supplies and donations should break
through 70 million today. The Gov'ts of Canada, Alberta, & BC have
coughed up 58 million of that; plus the feds are matching all personal
and corporate donations made prior to 14 Jan.

I believe the World's response with materials, medical and disaster
relief expertise etc etc is admirable despite the inane musings of the
UN Bureaucrats; the biggest hindrance now is the logistics of
delivering to the places where this is needed.

HAD