TSUNAMI: The Toll Zooms To 225,000

The toll in what is believed to be South Asia’s deadliest tidal wave ever has gone up to 225,000:

JAKARTA, Indonesia – Indonesia’s Health Ministry raised the country’s death toll from the Dec. 26 tsunami to 166,320 on Wednesday, pushing the total number of people killed in the disaster above 225,000.

A Health Ministry statement said the new figure was based on latest reports from the provinces of Aceh and North Sumatra, which were directly in the path of the killer tsunami spawned by a magnitude-9 earthquake the day after Christmas.

The new death toll — a jump of more than 50,000 on the ministry’s last figure — includes many people who were previously listed as missing, a senior ministry official told Reuters.

It’s clear now that by the time this is done 300,000 lives are likely to have been lost. Or even more.