NYT/Reuters: U.N. Says Tsunami Aid Has Reached $2 Billion

[DeepModem Mom]

U.N. Says Tsunami Aid Has Reached $2 Billion
By REUTERS

Published: January 1, 2005

Filed at 12:40 p.m. ET


UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The world has pledged $2 billion in aid for stricken areas in South Asia and U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will probably visit Indonesia next week, a senior U.N. official said on Saturday.

Jan Egeland, the undersecretary-general in charge of emergency relief, the overall donations increased to $2 billion from some $1.2 billion due mainly to a $500 million pledge from Japan, the highest single donation to date. About 40 governments and the World Bank have made pledges.

``We are at the moment recording pledges of $2 billion for emergency phase and recovery phase,'' Egeland told his daily news conference. ``It's the biggest outpouring of relief in such a short period of time.''

He said that was more than all the aid received by the United Nations in 2004 for such places as Sudan's Darfur region and the Democratic Republic of the Congo combined, adding, ``International compassion has never been like this.''...


http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/international/international-quake-aid.html

[nadinbrzezinski]

1. Given that the damage will quickly reach one trillion

Yep I wrote a letter to congress critter after doing some nunmbers.. used to be a disaster manager, it seems in another life

[ckramer]

2. Now the question is

how much of this money could go the hand of victims instead of the middle men.