Aid Trucks Rolled Into Tsunami-hit Areas

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Aid trucks loaded with food, medicines and body bags rolled into tsunami-hit areas across Asia and aircraft dropped supplies to cut-off villages as a huge relief operation finally swung into gear Friday.
But military flights disgorging tons of emergency supplies at major Asian airports were creating logjams, threatening to hinder one of the world's biggest aid operations.
A lack of fuel was also holding up relief efforts in worst-hit Aceh province on Indonesia's Sumatra island, near the epicenter of Sunday's 9.0 magnitude quake that triggered the killer waves.
The humanitarian catastrophe caused by the tsunami that killed more than 125,000 and left millions without the basics to survive, was stretching the world's ability to respond, said U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan.
U.S. military transport aircraft were landing at Indonesia's northern city of Medan Friday delivering supplies to be trucked to neighboring Aceh province, where perhaps more than 100,000 people died, Indonesia's health minister said Friday.
Aid deliveries to Aceh and many other areas have been hindered in recent days due to lack of fuel, impassable roads and downed bridges. The trucks will take up to 16 hours to reach Aceh's battered provincial capital Banda Aceh.
Australian and New Zealand military aircraft were flying directly to Banda Aceh, delivering troops and emergency supplies and evacuating people.
"The planes are going flat out," Australian army Major Grant King told Reuters at Banda Aceh airport.
"The aid is getting out," he said. "People at the extremities are probably getting it, but there are limitations."
The United Nation's children body UNICEF said emergency supplies of medicines, tarpaulins and hygiene kits to support 200,000 people were headed for Aceh.
But Australian Defense Minister Robert Hill warned that so much aid was now pouring in that airports were straining to cope. Continued ...