Source: Yahoo! News

Wire Service: Reuters

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=574&ncid=721&e=2&u=/nm/20041229/wl_nm/quake_aid_dc

On December 29, 2004 Reuters reported, "Buddhist monks gave out rice and curry to grieving tsunami survivors in Sri Lanka and aircraft dropped food to isolated Indonesian towns on Wednesday as Asia's disaster relief operation struggled to kick in. International aid teams landed in devastated villages to restore drinking water in a desperate race to prevent the spread of diseases. But in many remote areas, people said aid was nonexistent three days after a giant wave hit seven Asian nations killing more than 77,000. As the world pledged tens of millions of dollars in aid and sent an international flotilla of ships and aircraft with hundreds of tons of supplies, one of history's biggest relief operations battled with the enormity of the task."