Network anchors are sent to tsunami areas

Just hours after arriving in Indonesia on Monday morning, NBC anchor Brian Williams toured a mass grave site near Banda Aceh, a city nearly wiped out by the Dec. 26 tsunami that took an estimated 150,000 lives across Southeast Asia.

“I don’t think pictures will adequately explain what we’re seeing,” Williams told his bosses in New York.

After a holiday week in which the magnitude of the tsunami disaster became increasingly apparent, networks are scrambling to make up for lost time, dispatching anchors and top correspondents to devastated areas.

Steve Capus, the executive producer of “NBC Nightly News,” said Williams and a crew of 18 are expected to spend the week in Banda Aceh, where Williams will host the program live at 6:30 a.m. Indonesian time.

CBS News anchor Dan Rather also traveled to Banda Aceh for a report that will air Wednesday on “60 Minutes.” He will also host the “CBS Evening News” from the region. And CNN anchor Aaron Brown on midday Monday was en route to Banda Aceh, where he was to help host the network’s prime-time “Special Report: Turning the Tide.”

ABC News dispatched Diane Sawyer to Khao Lak Thailand, where she filed a report for “Good Morning America” on Monday. But Peter Jennings won’t be joining her; the “World News Tonight” host has a severe upper respiratory infection and will anchor from New York.

Network officials said the increase in coverage from Southeast Asia had nothing to do with Secretary of State Colin L. Powell’s trip to the disaster region this week, though they plan to cover that as well.