SRI LANKA: BURIALS BEGIN AS DEATH TOLL ON SRI LANKA RISES TO MORE THAN 18,700 TWO DAYS AFTER ASIA'S WORST TSUNAMI IN 40 YEARS HIT THE ISLAND

Record ID: 646579

  • Title: SRI LANKA: BURIALS BEGIN AS DEATH TOLL ON SRI LANKA RISES TO MORE THAN 18,700 TWO DAYS AFTER ASIA'S WORST TSUNAMI IN 40 YEARS HIT THE ISLAND
  • Date: 27th December 2004
  • Summary: (W3) KOROLOWELA, 50 MILES SOUTH OF COLOMBO, SRI LANKA (DECEMBER 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 1. MEN CARRYING BODY 0.08 2. SCU/WS: WOMAN CRYING IN FRONT OF BODIES OF HER DAUGHTER AND MOTHER (2 SHOTS) 0.19 3. PEOPLE LOOKING UNDER BLANKET TO SEE WHO THE DEAD IS 0.24 4. FUNERAL IN CHRISTIAN CEMETERY 0.31 5. SON OF DEAD WOMAN CRYING 0.41 6. VARIOUS OF BURIAL (5 SHOTS) 1.20 7. (SOUNDBITE) (Sinhala) NON-GOVERNMENT ORGANISATION (NGO) WORKER, JAYAMPATHI, SAYING: "The first wave came in a fair distance off the shore and the second wave came in further inland. We have no idea what happened to people in this area, there is no way we can even figure out how many people have been killed. We started clearing up, and in the second house we dug we found the body." 1.50 8. PAN OF BEACH 1.58 (W4) POINT PEDRO, SRI LANKA (DECEMBER 27, 2004) (REUTERS) (MUTE) 9. RESIDENTS OF POINT PEDRO SURVEY THE DAMAGED FISHING VILLAGES 2.01 10. LV: ARMED MEN BY THE BEACH 2.06 11. LV: OVERTURNED BOATS NEAR ROAD 2.10 12. MAN WALKING ON BEACH 2.13 13. SCU: SIGN WARNING OF LANDMINES 2.16 14. WS/MV: MORE OF DESERTED BEACHES AND ARMED MEN (2 SHOTS) 2.22 15. WOMAN WAILING IN FRONT OF COFFIN 2.26 16. CLOSE UP OF WAILING WOMAN 2.28 17. VARIOUS OF GRIEVING FAMILIES (3 SHOTS) 2.39 18. WIDE OF HOSPITAL SCENE 2.42 19. INJURED MEN AND IN HOSPITAL (2 SHOTS) 2.47 20. SCU: CHILD IN HOSPITAL 2.49 (W4) KALUTAPA, SRI LANKA (DECEMBER 28, 2004) (REUTERS) 21. WIDE OF TEMPLE 2.54 22. CLOSER VIEW OF EXTERIOR OF TEMPLE 3.00 23. PEOPLE DISPLACED BY TSUNAMI ARRIVING FOR CLOTHES DISTRIBUTED BY RELIEF AGENCY 3.05 24. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE (3 SHOTS) 3.23 25. VARIOUS OF DISPLACED PEOPLE EATING DISTRIBUTED FOOD AT MAKESHIFT EMERGENCY KITCHEN (6 SHOTS) 3.59 26. PEOPLE SORTING THROUGH DONATED CLOTHING (4 SHOTS) 4.24 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
  • Embargoed: 11th January 2005 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: KOROLOWELA, 50 MILES SOUTH OF COLOMBO; PEDRO POINT; KALUTAPA; SRI LANKA
  • Country: Sri Lanka
  • Reuters ID: LVA90JIPL18ONAC7442CTMUHN60I
  • Story Text: Death toll rises in Sri Lanka as burials begin.



    Sri Lanka's government said on Tuesday (December
    28, 2004) more than 18,700 people are confirmed dead two days
    after a tsunami battered the island and officials fear the
    toll will hit 25,000.

    Around 1.5 million people, or 7.5 percent of the
    population, are homeless, many sheltering in Buddhist
    temples and schools in a land where tens of thousands have
    already been displaced by two decades of civil war.

    The stench of death wafted from undergrowth along Sri
    Lanka's main southern coastal road. Little white flags
    fluttered from most houses still standing, a Buddhist
    symbol of mourning. Christians put up black flags and
    Muslims rushed to bury their dead.

    In Korolowela, about 80 kilometres (50 miles) south of
    Colombo, family and friends of Rajani Fernando, a 39 year
    old mother of three, were gathered in their neighbourhood's
    cemetery to bury her. At Pedro Point, in northern Sri Lanka,
    soldiers guarded a beach where land mines had been
    displaced. A sign on a beach warned residents of the danger.

    Foreign visitors along the southern coast were moved by
    the hospitality and kindness of the locals, who opened
    their homes to accommodate those who lost everything.

    And in Kalutapa, in the south, people displaced by the
    tsunami ate hungrily at a makeshift emergency kitchen.

    Others sorted through donated clothes distributed by a
    relief organisation.

    The tsunami was triggered by an earthquake in the
    Indian Ocean on Sunday (December 26), which sent waves up
    to 15-feet high crashing onto Sri Lanka's eastern and
    southern shores, flooding towns and villages and sweeping
    people and cars away.

    Donor nations and aid organisations ferried aid
    supplies to the lush, holiday paradise that explorer Marco
    Polo regarded as the most beautiful island of its size in
    the world.

    Sri Lanka is heavily dependent on its booming tourist
    industry, and economists said the disaster was a major
    setback for the $18 billion economy. The Colombo stock
    market tumbled more than 4 percent as hotel sector shares
    plunged.


  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register