The Death Toll Rises to 150,000

The tally of tragedy keeps rising in South Asia’s tsunami:

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) – Some 150,000 people are now known to have been killed by Asia’s tsunami, U.N. officials say, as helicopters and elephants are used to find and feed survivors and shift the rubble of razed towns.

Aid workers on Monday struggled to help thousands huddled in makeshift camps on Indonesia’s northern Sumatra island, where the tsunami claimed two-thirds of its victims eight days ago, and to reach remote areas after roads and airstrips were washed away.

"The current death toll … what we operate with are the confirmed people who are identified as dead … is around 150,000," said U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland.

"There are many, many more who have disappeared or who are missing or who are for us nameless as of this stage. And it is particularly in the Sumatra coast."

In other words: the toll is going to keep going up.