COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — With bodies splayed over once-pristine beaches in Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and other southern Asian countries hit by an Indian Ocean tsunami, the estimated death toll passed 26,000 and authorities indicated Monday that it could nearly double.
Dazed and weeping survivors milled among rows of bloated corpses, trying to identify loved ones. In India, they buried victims in mass graves. In Indonesia, some of the dead dangled from trees, where they had been deposited by 30-foot swells. Huge fishing boats were shoved miles inland, and cars and trucks were pulled out to sea.
"It was hell on Earth to see people floating by. We saw an Australian couple swept away in front of us.... We couldn't do anything," said Sandra Van Wersch, 31, a Dutch tourist in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. "I'm so lucky. We must have had an angel."
Relief officials around the world began mobilizing to provide temporary shelter, clean water and food in afflicted areas. Although neither the magnitude 9 earthquake beneath the ocean floor nor the resulting sea surge were the largest in history, "the effects may be the biggest ever," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said in New York.
He warned that it would take "many billions of dollars" to provide aid and rebuild lost homes and livelihoods, and he appealed to countries to give generously to forestall disease that could threaten the lives of millions of survivors.
The tsunami struck without warning and took the lives of rich and poor, locals and tourists, even a member of the Thai royal family. Poomi Jensen, 21, the Thai American grandson of King Bhumibol Adulyadej and a former resident of San Diego, was last seen jet-skiing off the popular Thai resort area of Krabi. His body was found by rescue workers, Reuters news agency reported.
Other reports said a disproportionate share of the dead appeared to be children, who may have lacked the wherewithal to escape the tsunami.
"Many women and children died because they could not run fast enough," said Jur Mahali, 29, as he stood near a spot in Kadaymani, Indonesia, where he said three children perished. He and his parents escaped by running to high ground.
Near the southern Indian city of Cuddalore, a bulldozer dug a mass grave for 150 young boys and girls as their weeping parents looked on.
