At the College Park offices of the Association for India's Development, volunteers made signs and fliers to raise awareness about the dire need along the coast of southeastern India, where a towering wall of water wreaked havoc. By yesterday afternoon, the group had raised $44,504 through its Web site, said Priya Ranjan, a coordinator of the relief effort.
"It's a terrible disaster, and the people who have been worst hit are mostly poorer people. Slums have been completely washed out," said Ranjan, one of about 500 volunteers who work with the nonprofit organization in the United States. Indians are one of the largest immigrant groups in the Washington area, with a population of about 46,000, according to the 2000 Census.
Rizwan Mowlana, right, and his son Seyed gather items in the garage of their Gaithersburg home donated by the Sri Lankan community.
(Rich Lipski -- The Washington Post)
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Even as he grieved, Mowlana threw himself into the fundraising effort, too. He quickly drew up plans for a new charity called Asia Relief. By yesterday afternoon, he had booked a Web site and met with lawyers to draw up papers for the organization.
In the short term, he hoped to send aid to victims of the disaster. But he was already thinking about longer-term projects -- specifically, helping to set up an early-warning system for coastal dwellers. Last weekend's tsunami slammed into the worst-affected countries about two hours after they were triggered by a massive underwater earthquake.
"Two hours, in today's terms, is a lifetime," Mowlana said. "But nobody knew."
Although many families received word yesterday about their loved ones, others were enduring an agonizing wait. Communications were still out in some areas hit hard by the tsunami, and it was unclear whether some people in devastated towns had managed to escape.
Sahaschai Musikabhumma, a Thai immigrant in Baltimore, said his daughter was supposed to be in the Thai islands on vacation, but he wasn't sure where she was.
"I tried to call my brother to find information, but nobody has heard anything so far," he said.
At the International Buddhist Center in Silver Spring, monks tried to console immigrants worried about their families.
"Some people here are trying to call Sri Lanka. They can't get the real details" about relatives, said chief monk Bhante Uparatanda. The problem was that no one knew what had happened to many of the people in the worst-hit areas, he said.
"A whole family is gone, and there are no witnesses," he said.
Staff writer Debbi Wilgoren and staff researcher Carmen Chapin contributed to this report.
