Verbatim

“Any reported death toll would be understated. Whole families are missing. Who would report them?”
SYAIFUDDIN ABDULLAH, oil-company project manager, who lost his sister and brother-in-law in Indonesia’s Aceh province during the Sumatran earthquake

“We worked eight months on this, two shifts per day, 3,000 workers … and it is all gone in five minutes.”
EKASAK THONGTHASAWES, architect and builder of the Sofitel Magic Lagoon in Khao Lak, Thailand

“One of the problems is that if you tell untrained people, ‘Listenthere’s a tsunami coming,’ half of them go down to the beach to see what a tsunami looks like.”
PHIL MCFADDEN, chief scientist at Geoscience Australia, an agency that monitors earthquakes, on the difficulties of issuing tsunami warnings in Indian Ocean countries

“We are getting unprecedented support from all countries. Right now we are unable to handle it.”
TILAK RANAVIRAJA, head of Sri Lanka’s disaster-management team, describing the aid pouring into the country

“It has become clear that what has happened is a catastrophe and tragedy of enormous proportions and will affect Sweden’s daily life for a long time to come.”
GRAN PERSSON, Swedish Prime Minister, mourning the 59 Swedes killed and the 3,500 still missing in Thailand, the largest group of foreign casualties

“Hundreds of thousands of children who survived the massive waves that destroyed their communities now risk getting seriously ill from something as simple as taking a drink of water.”
CAROL BELLAMY, UNICEF executive director, on the health risks facing the affected countries