A month after, tsunami-hit nations reeling from catastrophe

Tsunami-ravaged Asian countries are still reeling from its massive toll on humanity and a level of destruction. HT Relief Fund

A month after one of the world's worst ever natural disasters, tsunami-ravaged Asian countries are still reeling from its massive toll on humanity and a level of destruction that will take many years and billions of dollars to repair.

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Thousands of bodies are still being pulled from the rubble in Indonesia, hundreds of foreign tourists lie unidentified in mass graves in Thailand, while Sri Lanka and India grapple with the mammoth task of rebuilding their shattered coastal communities.

With the presumed death toll from the December 26 earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra Island and the tsunamis it unleashed on Indian Ocean coastlines topping 280,000, the catastrophe now ranks as one of the worst natural disasters in the past 100 years. It is the deadliest tsunami ever.

In response, the United Nations is coordinating the largest humanitarian relief operation the world has seen, but the tragedy is unremitting.

In the worst hit countries, relief workers are still scrambling to find and bury the dead, get aid to the homeless and launch rebuilding projects.

Reconstruction is a far-off prospect in Indonesia's Aceh province, where the earthquake and tsunamis levelled Banda Aceh, Meulaboh and the rest of its west coast, leaving more than 228,000 people presumed dead.

Each sunrise in the province sheds light on new horrors, with last week about 3,500 cadavers pulled daily from beneath tonnes of debris -- so many that they have stopped officially counting.