Bush Enlists Predecessors in Aid Drive

President Bush on Monday called on every American who could to contribute to organizations aiding victims of the southern Asian earthquake and tsunami, and he named his father and former President Clinton to lead a nationwide fundraising drive.

“I’ve asked the former presidents to solicit contributions both large and small,” Bush said in a brief announcement at the White House, where flags were flying at half-staff in memory of the estimated 150,000 people killed in the Dec. 26 disaster.

“We are here to ask our fellow citizens to join in a broad humanitarian relief effort,” Bush said, as his father, former President George H. W. Bush, and Clinton stood behind him. He added: “I ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so.”

The fundraising drive will appeal to corporations and foundations as well as individuals.

Relief workers continued to work their way toward the most remote villages, and a United Nations official said fatalities could grow “exponentially” in Sumatra, the Indonesian island where most of the victims are reported to have died. Indonesian officials Monday increased the official death toll in their country to more than 94,000.

“What will be the final toll, we will never know, but we may be talking tens of thousands of further deaths in this area,” U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said. He said disease would add to the deaths.

Relief supplies have reached hubs such as Bangkok, the Thai capital; the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo; and Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, and are flowing into the most severely hit areas, said James Kunder, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development. With as many as 5 million people across southern Asia believed to be without homes or food, the growing relief efforts encountered new challenges.

U.S. military personnel flying missions from warships and small airports such as that in Banda Aceh in Sumatra said deliveries of water and food to parts of the island were hampered by a lack of accurate maps: The quake and tsunami had rearranged the topography of the west coast, altering landmarks.

“The pilots basically are flying down the coast looking for clusters of people, because they have nothing else to go on,” Marine Lt. Col. Andrew Wilcox said.

In some parts of Indonesia’s Aceh province, supplies were dropped from the air because washed-out roads and bridges made land access impossible, Kunder said.

U.S. military helicopter pilots also were picking up small groups of survivors if they had room after delivering supplies, ferrying them to hospitals and aid centers in Banda Aceh.

In a trip showcasing U.S. concern, Secretary of State Colin L. Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president’s brother, arrived in Thailand to begin assessing the relief efforts. They added Sri Lanka to an itinerary that already included stops in Phuket, Thailand, and Banda Aceh. They also will attend an international donors conference in Jakarta on Thursday.

In Bangkok, Powell downplayed reports that up to 5,000 Americans may still be missing, saying that a large number of them were probably travelers who simply had not been in touch with loved ones.

“My own judgment is this number will go down as people surface,” Powell said. As of Monday, 15 Americans had been confirmed dead.

To assist the international relief effort, the amphibious assault ship Bonhomme Richard and two other warships arrived in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Sumatra, joining the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln and its battle group. The Navy has deployed eight warships and 35 helicopters to bring a variety of items, including instant noodles and body bags.

“You’ll be seeing more and more equipment and vehicles coming in over the next few days,” said Wilcox, who was working out of an Indonesian air base in the Sumatran city of Medan. In addition to the 6,500 personnel on the Lincoln, there are 7,000 on the other ships. Most of the U.S. forces are arriving from Japan.

The burgeoning relief is requiring tremendous coordination between the Indonesians and the military forces of the U.S. and other countries providing assistance.

“You have 11 countries operating here,” said Air Force Capt. Duane Gray, who also was working at the Medan air base. “You don’t know who is bringing what, so it is kind of rough.... We don’t always know what people need. One day we’ll bring in water and they’ll say they need food.”

Officials in Banda Aceh reported seeing signs that the situation was beginning to stabilize.

“In the beginning, they were saying: ‘Water, water, water. That’s the most important.’ Now they have gotten themselves more organized with the distribution of water, and they are telling us, ‘Rice is the most important,’ ” said John Packer, a U.S. Agency for International Development worker in Medan.

A Times reporter accompanied an aid delivery Monday to the town of Lamno, one of hundreds of isolated settlements on the west coast of Aceh province. Navy pilots flying an anti-submarine helicopter delivered about 30 parcels of food.

The copter flew from Banda Aceh over the jagged mountains that separate the coast from the rest of the province. From the air, the extensive damage wreaked by the tsunami was apparent. Up and down the coast, the waters had obliterated villages. In many cases, the land was scoured of houses and other structures, leaving only concrete foundations.

Navy pilots touched down in Lamno for less than five minutes. The chopper landed on a road with water on both sides. More than 50 people, most of them children, gathered to watch.

Crewman Nathan Minear unloaded the boxes of food and bags of wheat onto the road, and the helicopter took off. Moments later, the inhabitants rushed to get to the food.

Some residents of Banda Aceh complained that their government was reacting too slowly and said they were depending on U.S. help. Azhar, a stocky 42-year-old man whose pharmacy was destroyed, walked to a small storefront lighted by a single dangling bulb to buy a bar of soap. He said the Americans should focus on restoring electricity.

“First electricity, then water, then communications,” he said. “The U.S. should send aid directly to the people. What is Indonesia doing? It gave only three helicopters to this area. There are so many choppers from other countries.”

In Sri Lanka, there were unconfirmed reports of tens of thousands of corpses remaining to be discovered in the island nation’s northeast, which is controlled by the Tamil Tiger rebels. In the south and east, health concerns were rising as hospitals reported cases of cholera and diarrhea, evidently caused by contaminated water. Rain forced as many as 40,000 people to relocate their refugee camp.

There also were reports that relief trucks were being looted or hijacked. Sri Lankans in Galle complained about the slow pace of the aid effort. “Nothing has arrived,” said Nayani Chandimala. “Politicians are the same everywhere. It’s just talk.”

Chandimala said the local government representative was playing favorites with aid.

“He distributes among his friends first,” she said as she waited at the side of the road for an aid shipment to pass. Others said the Sri Lankan government needed to concentrate on rebuilding people’s houses, lives and livelihoods rather than simply providing short-term relief.

At the White House, officials said there was no specific dollar amount or timetable set for the Bush-Clinton fundraising drive. Press Secretary Scott McClellan said he expected the former leaders to travel around the U.S. on speaking engagements.

After the announcement of the fundraising effort, Bush, First Lady Laura Bush and the two ex-presidents visited the embassies of the nations that had suffered the most fatalities -- Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand -- to pay their respects.

Bush was criticized last week for waiting until Wednesday, three days after the tsunami, before speaking publicly about the catastrophe. A day later, he named Powell and Gov. Bush to head a delegation to the region. Bush also quickly increased U.S. aid to $350 million.

By turning to his two immediate White House predecessors on his first day of work after an eight-day vacation at his Texas ranch, Bush sought to further dispel criticism that his initial response to the devastation was tepid.

Clinton, interviewed on CNN, was asked about criticism that Bush had been slow to respond.

“In pledging $350 million in government aid and sending those military helicopters to Aceh to deliver those life-saving supplies to the Indonesians,” Clinton said, “and in promising that we would do more through the government if need be -- I don’t see how he could have done more. I think that right now we are just where we need to be.

“And we shouldn’t be looking back,” Clinton added. “We should be looking forward.”

McClellan suggested that the U.S. pledge might exceed $350 million. “The United States will be in it for the long haul, will be in it long after the media attention fades away,” McClellan said.

Hundreds of millions of dollars in private U.S. donations have poured in to help the tsunami victims. By Monday, the contributions had reached such a volume that the websites of some charities, including Oxfam America, crashed temporarily, according to wire services.

At the U.N., Secretary-General Kofi Annan said he was impressed that pledges of aid from governments and institutions had surpassed $2.5 billion. But he also warned that, judging from experience, it was likely that not all of the pledges would be fulfilled.

“I will not be surprised if we do not get all of the money. This is the history we live with,” he said, citing the experience after the 2003 earthquake in Bam, Iran. Of the $1.1 billion pledged, only $17.5 million was delivered.

Chen reported from Washington and Farley from the United Nations. Times staff writers Tyler Marshall and Mark Mazzetti in Washington, Mark Magnier in Sri Lanka, Paul Richter in Thailand, Richard C. Paddock in Lamno, Don Lee in Banda Aceh and Barbara Demick in Medan contributed to this report.