Editorial

Tsunami aftermath

Friday, January 7, 2005

One of the things that makes disaster movies bearable is the notion that viewers go to the climate-controlled safety of a dark theater to witness horrors they believe will never actually occur. So while special effects make the volcanoes, avalanches, floods, earthquakes and towering infernos seem real, they are, in fact, not real at all.

Americans in areas walloped by this year's hurricanes got a taste of the real thing.

And thousands of individuals around the world experience their own tragedies on a small scale year around.

Now comes the reports -- worse with each day of fresh information -- of the loss of life and devastation from a tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Estimates are rapidly climbing past more than 120,000 dead and thousands more still missing.

In addition to the heartbreak and terror of such losses, there is the equally terrible specter of starvation, lack of drinking water and medical care for survivors and homelessness -- all of this plus the ongoing search for the missing.

International relief efforts are underway, but bottlenecks have already formed.

Some of the snafus are bureaucratic, but others are created by the scope of the disaster itself.

Roads for supply trucks to reach the hardest hit areas no longer exist.

Landing strips for airplanes have to be cleared or built. Railroad tracks have been twisted and washed away.

Among all of this chaos are such factors as warding off disease, burying the dead and bracing for still more tidal waves as forecasters predict the possibility of more earthquakes and aftershocks.

For those of us fortunate enough to have only a blast of Arctic air and a blizzard to contend with, the question is repeated over and over:

How can we help?

Listed below are several relief agencies who are working to get needed assistance to the tsunami-ravaged areas.

There are many other organizations providing help as well. Contact your church's national headquarters, for example.

And pray. Pray for the victims, their loved ones and all those who are in any way affected by this terrible disaster.

And pray for those providing assistance, because their task will require divine intervention to be successful.

Want to help?

The following are among the aid agencies accepting contributions for those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia. Contact the individual group for information on how to send donations.

American Jewish World Service

45 West 36th St.

New York, N.Y. 10018-7904

(800) 889-7146

www.ajws.org

American Red Cross

International Response Fund

P.O. Box 37243

Washington, D.C. 20013

www.redcross.org

CARE USA

151 Ellis Street NE

Atlanta, Ga. 30303

(800) 422-7385

www.careusa.org

Catholic Relief Services

P.O. Box 17090

Baltimore, Md. 21203-7090

(800) 736-3467

www.catholicrelief.org

Direct Relief International

27 South La Patera Lane

Santa Barbara, Calif. 93117

(805) 964-4767

www.directrelief.org

Doctors Without Borders

P.O. Box 2247

New York, N.Y. 10116-2247

(888) 392-0392

www.doctorswithoutborders.org

International Orthodox Christian Charities

P.O. Box 630225

Baltimore, Md. 21263-0225

(877) 803-4622

www.iocc.org

International Medical Corps

11500 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 506

Los Angeles, Calif. 90064

(800) 481-4462

www.imcworldwide.org

Oxfam America

26 West St.

Boston, Mass. 02111-1206

(800) 776-9326

www.oxfamamerica.org

Mercy Corps

P.O. Box 2669

Portland, Ore. 97208

(888) 256-1900

www.mercycorps.org

Operation USA

8320 Melrose Ave., Suite 200

Los Angles, Calif. 90069

(800) 678-7255

www.opusa.org

-- The Associated Press