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BANDA ACEH: Hunger and diseases stalked survivors of one of the worst tsunamis in history yesterday even as the world stepped up one of its biggest aid effort yet. "I haven't eaten in two days," said a woman in Indonesia's devastated Aceh province where tens of thousands died. "There is no food here whatsoever. We need rice. We need petrol. We need medicine," said Vaiti Usman.
Reeking corpses rotted in the tropical sun from India to Indonesia and many who escaped death from one of the worst tsunamis in history fought for survival against thirst and disease.
Rescuers scoured remote coastlines around the Indian Ocean for survivors of Sunday's colossal seawater surge triggered by an earthquake that caused an arc of death across southern Asia and may have made the world wobble on its axis.
"I would not be at all surprised that we will be on 100,000 (deaths) when we know what has happened on the (Indian) Andaman and Nicobar islands," Peter Rees of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The federation currently puts the death toll at 85,0000 plus, making it one of the world's worst natural disasters.
In parts of India's Tamil Nadu state, officials gave up counting the dead in their hurry to bury them in mass graves.
The stench of death hung over stricken coastal villages.
The UN mobilised its biggest relief operation amid fears that cholera and diarrhoea could worsen the death toll. The World Health Organisation said five million people lacked the essentials of food, water and sanitation to survive.
In many areas, health experts said the relief operation looked woefully inadequate with shortages of coffins, equipment and medicine, while emergency workers struggled with power outages, destroyed communications and badly damaged roads.
A harrowing race was on for relatives to find loved ones.
One Swedish boy on a family holiday to the Thai resort of Phuket was shown in one news photograph clutching a piece of paper. On it was scrawled: "Missing parents and 2 brothers."
Disease could kill as many people as the tsunami, health experts said as the full extent of the tragedy began to unfold.
"I have lost three brothers, four sisters, and my father is missing," wept 18-year-old Tamil fisherman Rajan Xavier.
Scandinavia and Germany, fond of Asia as a winter refuge, faced the fact that the tsunami had turned the tropical paradise into hell for hundreds of friends and loved ones.
More than 2,000 Scandinavians and about 1,000 Germans were still missing, a full three days after disaster struck. At least 600 Italians were missing.
Primitive tribes on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands were running out of the coconuts they were living on, with whole communities wiped out.
Buddhist monks handed out rice and curry to survivors in Sri Lanka and aircraft dropped food to isolated Indonesian towns.
In Thailand, where thousands of tourists were on Christmas breaks escaping the northern winter, idyllic resorts were turned into graveyards. Near Khao Lak beach,the smell of decaying bodies hung over a Thai Buddhist temple-turned morgue.
"We have only cloth to wrap the bodies in and our bare hands and machetes to retrieve the bodies," Surasit Kantipantukul, a Thai rescuer, said. "We want machinery and boats." Some Thai officials said their lack of equipment was embarrassing. "Our workers have only noses to smell for foul odours," Environment Minister Suwit Khunkitti said.
Survivors told tragic tales of the moment the tsunami struck villages and resorts, sucking holidaymakers into the sea, surging through buildings, sweeping away cars and smashing ships in an apocalyptic rage of destruction.
"The water was just too strong,' said Surya Darmar, lying on an army cot in Indonesia's Banda Aceh with a broken leg. "I held my children for as long as I could, but they were swept away.'
Children could account for up to a third of the dead, one aid official said.
In the midst of tragedy, there were also tales of luck. A 14-month-old Swedish toddler was found wrapped in a blanket on a hill in Phuket, Thailand, by an American couple while in Khao Lak a two-year-old fisherman's son survived for more than two days after being swept into a tree trop.
Indonesia suffered the biggest number of victims, with 45,268 known to be dead, although the toll could rise to 80,000 in Aceh alone, the province closest to the quake's epicentre.
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Key points
On average, an earthquake strikes the British Isles every four days
10% of the world's population live under threat from the 1,511 active volcanoes
There are more tornadoes per square mile each year in Britain than the USA
In Britain, five million people in two million homes live in flood prone areas
Colossal tsunami waves travel across oceans at speeds of up to 500mph (800kmh). Waves hitting coastlines have shifted 20-tonne rocks hundreds of metres inland
Droughts starve the land of nourishment, replacing them with mineral salts
Could natural disasters devastate Britain?
Yes No
If the volcano on La Palma in the Canaries explodes, a 500m high mega-tsunami could engulf low-lying parts of the UK Though some scientists believe it will happen, it's unlikely for the next few thousand years
One of Britain's most severe tornadoes destroyed a church and 600 homes in central London in 1091
Most British houses are now built from brick and are much more sturdy
In 1995, a hurricane doubled back from the Caribbean and hit Britain This UK storm was only the remnants of a hurricane. In order to retain its strength, a hurricane must remain over warm water of 26.5C or above
North-west Wales is one of the most seismically active places in the whole UK. In 1984, a quake registered 5.4 on the Richter scale. Another could hit any day now An earthquake of this magnitude rarely causes severe damage. Quakes above 5 are exceptional in the UK, and there is no proof that another is due soon
Find out why the movements of the Earth's outer crust can cause earthquakes in our guide.
We look at how many active volcanoes there are around the World and find out why they can have such devastating power.
What is the difference between a tornado and a hurricane, where do they hit and why?
Since 1998, flooding has caused more than 30 deaths in Britain, find out where our bad weather comes from.
The world's biggest earthquake off the coast of Chile in 1960 sent tsunami waves crashing across the Pacific Rim up to 10,000 miles (16,093km) away - check out our guide.
Earthquakes
When the Earth moves
Earthquakes are caused by the motion of tectonic plates - individual sections that make up the Earth's surface like panels on a football. Immense strain accumulates along fault lines where adjacent plates meet. When the rock separating the plates give way, sudden seismic ground-shaking movement occurs.
Of course, if we want to know why earthquakes happen, we need to dig a little deeper.
Centre of the Earth
The Earth is made up of three main layers:
# The core is at the centre of the Earth
# The mantle is a mobile semi-molten layer around the core
# The outer-shell of the Earth is called the crust. Scientists call this the lithosphere - it's the part we're on now
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The crust is made up of 12 individual tectonic plates. Below the sea, they can measure three to six miles (4km-9.6km) thick and under land this increases to 20-44 miles (32km-70.8km). Below the crust, radiation from the Earth's core heats the semi-molten mantle to temperatures of over 5000°C.
All fluids when heated - even molten rock - are affected by a process called convection. The makes hot liquid rise to displace cooler liquid, creating a current. Tectonic plates effectively float on the mantle, like croutons in a bowl of super-heated soup. But these plates and constantly moving due to the convection current.
Of course, they creep along very slowly - roughly the same speed your fingernails grow. Even at this sub snail-pace, the effects can be devastating. The combined annual force of earthquakes is equal to 100,000 times the power of the atomic bombs that flattened Hiroshima.
The point where the seismic activity occurs is the epicentre, where the earthquake is strongest. But it doesn't always end there, seismic waves travel out from the epicentre, sometimes creating widespread destruction as they pass.
Japanese earthquake
Japanese earthquake
Earthquakes hit Britain on a fairly regular basis. In fact, there can be as many as three in a week. Luckily, the geology beneath us is stable, and these tremors usually go unnoticed.
Hurricanes and Tornadoes
Tornadoes
With the amount of media coverage dedicated to American storm-chasers, you'd think the US had the monopoly on these twisters. It doesn't. It might come as a shock, but the United Kingdom is actually the world's most tornado-prone nation.
This fact was calculated by the late Dr Fujita of Chicago University. He devised the standard method of measuring tornado intensity. Fujita figured that since Britain has an average of 33 tornadoes every year in an area 38 times smaller than the USA, you're twice as likely to witness a tornado here.
How tornadoes happen
# Warm and cool airstreams collide
# A rotating area of low pressure storm clouds form
# Air within a low pressure front rises, creating a strong upward draught like a vacuum cleaner
# This draws in surrounding warm air from ground level, causing it to spin faster and faster
# These strong air currents can create a vortex - a spiralling funnel of wind - that can reach speeds of 300mph
# Where the funnel touches the ground, it creates a path of concentrated destruction, rarely more than 250m across
Heavy objects, like cars and cows, can be sucked up and flung around like confetti, and houses appear to explode. This is because air pressure within the vortex is extremely low. Inside the building the air pressure is normal, so when the tornado passes over, the air inside the building expands, creating an explosion.
The afternath of an Oklahoma tornado
Tornado in Oklahoma
Wind speeds in tornadoes can vary from 72 to almost 300mph. Fortunately, only 2 percent of all tornadoes have winds greater than 200 mph.
Hurricanes
By definition, a hurricane is fierce rotating storm with an intense centre of low pressure that only happens in the tropics. In south-east Asia they're known as typhoons and in the Indian Ocean, cyclones.
They cause high winds, huge waves, and heavy flooding. In 1998, Hurricane Gilbert produced 160mph winds, killing 318 people, and devastating Jamaica. A tropical storm can only be classified as a hurricane if it sustains wind speeds above 73mph or force 12 on the Beaufort Scale. Each year about 50 tropical storms reach hurricane status.
One of the most powerful of all weather systems, hurricanes are powered by the heat energy released by the condensation of water vapour. However, the conditions have to be exact for a hurricane to form, with the sea's surface temperature being above 26.5°C.
How hurricanes happen
Air above warm tropical water rises quickly as it is heated by the sea. As the air rises it rotates or spins creating an area of low pressure, known as the eye of the storm. The eye can be clearly seen on satellite pictures, and is usually eerily calm.
The hurricane only moves slowly at speeds of 20-25mph bringing torrential rain and thunderstorms and very strong winds. However, they also cause flooding on low lying coastlines with a phenomenon known as a 'storm surge'.
Storm surge
This is caused by the intense low pressure at the eye of a hurricane, combining with the effect of strong winds. The sea rises 1cm for every millibar of pressure - if the pressure is 930 millibar, the sea surge will be about 80 cm. Hurricanes can raise the seas surface by as much as 4m.
The hurricane winds push the surge along in front of its path. When this surge hits low-lying coasts, the effects can be devastating. In addition to the sea surge, flooding can also result from torrential rain falling from the storm clouds.
Once it reaches the mainland, a hurricane may cause widespread damage for a few days, but with no warm water to supply heat, they quickly die out.
Floods and Storms
Floods
Floods can be deadly - particularly when they arrive without warning. Since 1998, more than 30 people have died as a direct result of flooding in Britain alone. Actually, it takes less rain than you'd think to cloud your day.
A mere four inches of water will ruin your carpet. Six inches of fast flowing water can knock you off your feet, and two feet of flood water will float your car. But where does it all come from?
Though Britain is no stranger to bad weather at any time of the year, autumn is the classic time for storms.
This is the time of the year when the two factors that influence our weather are most likely to clash. Warm ocean currents drift up from the Gulf of Mexico, and cold air is coming down from the Arctic. When these opposing temperatures converge, it can create enormous problems.
iceberg
The Arctic
Stormy weather
Low pressure develops on the boundary of warm and cold air - this is known to meteorologists as a 'weather front'. The air here has a natural tendency to rise, and as air rises, it cools. Any water vapour present in the air condenses to form clouds. Consequently, low pressure is generally associated with wet and windy weather.
Low pressure systems have a habit of queuing up over the north Atlantic. Like buses, sometimes one doesn't appear for ages, and then three or more come at once. That happened relentlessly in the UK between September and November 2000.
How floods happen
When rain starts to fall, it drains down from the hillsides into streams, along rivers and out into the sea. That's under normal circumstances anyway. But when rain pours for weeks at a time, the land becomes saturated and Britain's natural drainage system is likely to fail.
The upper reaches of rivers quickly fill and force the excess water downstream. In the lower reaches, water flows slower. Here, the river swells and begins to break its banks. This is entirely normal - flood plains are part of the river's natural defence mechanism.
These low-lying, wide flat areas in the lower reaches of a river provide relief and take up the excess water. It's best not to build on them, though sometimes people do.
All kinds of debris gets caught up in a flood - dead cattle, sheep, trees, gravel. If any of this flotsam gets lodged under a bridge, it creates a dam and backs up the whole system. Once that happens, there are no more chances... unless local residents are insured.
Tidal Waves - Tsunamis
Big waves
Following the world's biggest earthquake off the coast of Chile in 1960, a series of waves created havoc around the Pacific Rim. It caused 56 deaths in Hawaii, 32 deaths in the Philippines, and 138 deaths in Japan - 10,000 miles (16,000km) away.
Tsunamis
A tsunami (pronounced soo-nam-ee) is a chain of fast moving waves caused by sudden trauma in the ocean. They can be generated by earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, or even the impact of meteorites. Tsunamis are what we used to call tidal waves.
They are most common around the edge of the Pacific, where more than half of the world's volcanoes are found. These seismic surges can assault coastlines, often with little or no warning. Rocks weighing as much as 20 metric tonnes have been plucked from sea walls and carried 180m inland.
Wave goodbye
Tsunamis aren't like wind-generated waves that rhythmically roll onto a beach. A tsunami can have a wavelength (ie distance between wave crests) in excess of 60 miles (100km) and there may be an hour between them. They travel at great speeds across an ocean with hardly any energy losses and are barely noticeable out at sea.
Over the deep Pacific Ocean, a tsunami travels at about 500mph (800kph). If an earthquake happened in Los Angeles, a tsunami could hit Tokyo quicker than you could fly between the cities by jet.
As a tsunami leaves the deep water of the open ocean and travels into the shallower water near the coast, it behaves like a normal wave - only with more muscle.
Shallow water slows the tsunami and its height grows. Tsunamis batter the coast with tremendous amounts of energy. They can strip sand from beaches, tearing up trees, and even obliterating whole towns. Some have been known to reach as much as 30m above sea level. Hardly the perfect conditions for paddling.
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