Destruction, rain hamper Asia tsunami aid effort

Indonesia - A week after a tsunami devastated Indian Ocean shores, aid workers and troops battled desperate conditions and the aftermath of torrential rain to bury rotting bodies and deliver relief to survivors.

A multinational force of aid workers, military aircraft and ships brought aid to stricken areas of South Asia, but urgently needed supplies piled up at airports and warehouses, blocked by the destruction of roads, trucks and phone lines.

Seven days after the massive undersea quake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered giant tsunami waves, relief pledges edged toward $2 billion with a death toll of nearly 127,000 expected to rise.

Days of heavy downpours hampering relief efforts in Sri Lanka let up, but they had grounded aid flights for a day and flash floods left the remnants of villages and refugee camps close to the coast cut off from supplies.

Thailand drafted in elephants to help with heavy lifting, and prisoners to join the stomach-churning task of retrieving thousands of bodies strewn along its beaches -- offering them two days off their sentence for each day worked.

After the initial lax response of wealthy countries, the new year brought a generous about-turn with contributions doubling in a 24-hour period. Washington increased its pledge ten-fold to $350 million, while Japan vowed half a billion dollars.

"The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension," said Bush, as Secretary of State Colin Powell and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush prepared to leave for the region on Sunday to help assess the need for future U.S. assistance.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will visit Indonesia, the hardest-hit country, on Thursday and would probably issue a planned world appeal for more relief from there, officials said. -- Reuters

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