International Assistance
Indian navy medical team arrived in Colombo within hours of the tsunami. Eventually India deployed 14 ships, nearly 1,000 military personnel and several dozen helicopters and airp
land neighbor to help with relief efforts.
A three-ship fleet carrying 2,000 US Marines out of Diego Garcia was sent to Sri Lanka. The Marines were bound for Iraq to assist in the January elections, but the fleet included a dozen heavy-lift helicopters and surgical hospitals, both badly needed in Sri Lanka.
On January 6, 2005, 150 members of the Canadian Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), a Canadian Forces group, arrived in Sri Lanka. The team brought four water purification units and provided medical, engineering and communication services. Another 50 members of the team arrived on January 8. to help the people
Relief efforts were impeded by heavy monsoon rain which washed-out roads and caused freshwater flooding. In most of India the winter northeast monsoon is relatively dry, but in Sri Lanka and Tamil Nadu it blows from Burma across the Bay of Bengal picking up water from the sea.
Read more about this topic: Effect Of The 2004 Indian Ocean Earthquake On Sri Lanka, Aftermath
Famous quotes containing the word assistance:
“Each [side in this war] looked for an easier triumph, and a result less fundamental and astounding. Both read the same Bible, and pray to the same God; and each invokes His aid against the other. It may seem strange that any men should dare to ask a just God’s assistance in wringing their bread from the sweat of other men’s faces; but let us judge not that we be not judged.”
—Abraham Lincoln (1809–1865)