Disaster hits home for Vegas families

David Kihara

Tuesday, Dec. 28, 2004 | 11:19 a.m.

Anyone wishing to provide donations for those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia can send them to the following agencies:

247 W. 37th St., Suite 1201

New York, NY 10018

(212) 967-7800

www.aah-usa.org

45 W. 36th St., 10th Floor

New York, NY 10018

(800) 889-7146

www.ajws.org

9-11 Fund

12501 Old Columbus Pike

Silver Spring, MD 20904

(800) 424-2372

www.adra.org

1501 Cherry St.

Philadelphia, PA

(215) 241-7000

www.afsc.org

International Response Fund

PO Box 37243

Washington, DC 20013

(800) HELP NOW

www.redcross.org

PO Box 17090

Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

(800) 736-3467

www.catholicrelief.org

27 South La Patera Lane

Santa Barbara, CA 93117

(805) 964-4767

www.directrelief.org

PO Box 2247

New York, NY 10116-2247

(888) 392-0392

http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org

11500 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 506

Los Angeles, CA 90064

(800) 481-4462

www.imcworldwide.org

P.O. Box 630225

Baltimore, MD 21263-0225

(877) 803-4622

www.iocc.org

P.O. Box 2669

Portland, OR 97208

(800) 852-2100

www.mercycorps.org

8320 Melrose Ave., Ste. 200

Los Angles, CA 90069

(800) 678-7255

www.opusa.org

Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund

54 Wilton Road

Westport, CT 06880

(800) 728-3843

www.savethechildren.org

Alawala Subhuthi received the first call from his homeland of Sri Lanka announcing that thousands had died in a massive flood at 1 a.m. Sunday, and the phone calls didn't stop until at least noon later that day.

The calls were at times tragic, such as when he learned that a woman identified only by her last name of "Madawala," who lived in Las Vegas for years until a few months ago, had disappeared while on vacation with her family in Sri Lanka and was assumed dead.

But Subhuthi also received news from friends in Sri Lanka that his parents, two brothers and sister had survived and were seeking shelter outside of the city of Galle, one of the hardest hit cities in the island country.

"This is the biggest tragedy" Sri Lanka has ever experienced, said Subhuthi, the head monk at the Nevada Buddhist Vihara (Temple) in North Las Vegas.

An estimated 44,000 people throughout South Asia and Southeast Asia were killed by tsunamis that were triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake in the Indian Ocean, and the death toll continued to rise today.

Millions of people were left homeless in the immediate aftermath, and thousands throughout the region are still missing.

The earthquake and subsequent tsunamis were so powerful that they reportedly killed hundreds in Somalia, which is more than 3,000 miles from the epicenter.

Sri Lanka, the island country off the east coast of India, reported 18,700 killed, according to the Associated Press. The death toll in Indonesia rose to 19,000 today.

Those deaths, as far away as they seem to many Americans, hit home for Subhuthi and others in the Sri Lankan community in Las Vegas.

At least 400 Sri Lankan families living in Las Vegas gathered at the small Nevada Buddhist Vihara site on Sunday to organize a local relief effort, Subhuthi said Monday.

Subhuthi said members of the Buddhist temple are coordinating donations of non-perishable goods such as canned foods and instant noodles as well as clothes and basic medicines such as Tylenol.

Area Sri Lankans and others have already donated $2,000 for the relief effort, and he hopes thousands more will be delivered in the next few days.

"This is so sad," Subhuthi said. "The families who lost children, or a father or a mother, need offerings, they need support from other people."

Next week a Sri Lankan Buddhist monk based in Riverside, Calif., will pick up the donations from Las Vegas and deliver them to the ravaged island nation, Subhuthi said. The relief effort in the Los Angeles area is also going forward, and monks there have collected at least $8,000, he said.

The United States pledged an aid package of at least $35 million for Asian countries reeling from the tsunamis, and other foreign countries and relief agencies announced that they too would provide aid to the area. Those efforts include the U.K., France, the United Nations and Doctors Without Borders.

Eight Americans were reportedly killed and hundreds more are still missing, according to the Associated Press.

Among those missing is "Madawala," who reportedly lived in Las Vegas for several years with her husband, Joe, and her teenage son, said Subhuthi and several other Sri Lankans gathered at the temple Monday.

Madawala, who moved from Las Vegas to Phoenix with her family several months ago, was reportedly on vacation in Galle with her family when a tsunami overtook the seaside city on Saturday, Subhuthi said.

She was staying in a hotel in Galle and was likely swept away by the giant wave. Her husband Joe reportedly called friends in Las Vegas from Sri Lanka and said his wife was missing and presumed dead, Subhuthi said.

No more information was available regarding Madawala on Monday.

There are many other Las Vegas residents with ties to other Asian countries affected by the tsunamis, including Indonesia, the nation made up of more than 16,000 islands in Southeast Asia.

Widi Sukirya, a chef at the Four Seasons in Las Vegas, came to America nine years ago from Indonesia and immediately called her parents, who live in Lombok, near Bali. Although Lombok was not affected by the tsunami, she has an uncle and a cousin who live in Aceh, an area in the northwest of Indonesia that was hit hard by the quake and flooding.

"We can't contact them because all the phone lines are down," she said. "We haven't gotten any news from anyone in Aceh."

The lack of information is what appears to be the most difficult to cope with, and news from the region is still far from complete.

Wijeratne Thennakoon heard about the flooding in Sri Lanka by telephone around midnight on Saturday.

A native Sri Lankan and a Las Vegas resident for nine years, Thennakoon was at a OneStop Market where he works when his brother, who also lives in the United States, called to inform him of the tragedy.

"It was very scary at first, and we almost cried," Thennakoon said.

He rushed home from his late shift and from 1 a.m. to 6 a.m. he called relatives and friends in America and Sri Lanka to get news about the condition of friends living in Sri Lanka.

Although he has no immediate family living in Galle, he said he has many friends living there and has not slept well knowing that thousands are still missing.

"It was something that happened to everyone," he said.