Relief efforts continue against all odds

With the majority of the more than 60,000 confirmed dead so far in Sri Lanka and Indonesia, countries poorly equipped to cope with such a tragedy, aid agencies were struggling to get operations off the ground.

"We're needing to get accurate data so we can plan our response," said Alisdair Gordon-Gibson, of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies Sri Lanka office.

The immediate priority was to assess the scale of the disaster which has steadily grown since a massive earthquake off Indonesia triggered tidal waves that swept across western Asia on Sunday.

Gordon-Gibson said the Sri Lankan Red Cross's 26 branches with up to 100,000 volunteers were mobilised and that foreign assistance had begun to arrive.

In neighbouring India, where thousands also perished, needs assessment is also coinciding with aid distrubution, said Azmat Ulla, head of the IFRC's delegation in New Delhi.

"The greatest challenge is, I would say, timing to know exactly what to do and how to do it fast, especially with remote islands," Ulla said.

While the extent of the relief needs are still being determined, the preliminary data was staggering.

In Indonesia's Aceh province about 80,000 homeless are already staying in shelters, the health ministry said.

Another 80,000 are homeless in India's Tamil Nadu state, the country's government said. The UN childrens' fund put the figure at 100,000 and said the refugees are living in 200 camps set up inside schools, community centres and halls.

In Sri Lanka between 300,000 and 500,000 people may have been displaced and up to one million affected but figures are still unclear, Gordon-Gibson said.