Exact count may never be known
By Scott Allen, Globe Staff | December 29, 2004
Counting the dead from this week's tsunamis in South Asia is a logistical nightmare, as relief officials contend with casualties spread across 11 countries, including many remote islands and villages whose exact populations were never officially tallied. Thousands of bodies are probably lost at sea, making them impossible to count, and relief groups say the government of at least one country, Burma, is not being candid about the extent of the disaster there.
The estimated toll from Sunday's enormous waves has climbed from 11,000 in the immediate aftermath to more than 52,000 yesterday, as government officials reached isolated places such as India's Chowra Island -- where two-thirds of the inhabitants are believed to have died.