BANDA ACEH, Indonesia: An unprecedented world relief drive to shelter, treat and feed millions of survivors of Asia’s tsunami disaster kicked into high gear yesterday as donations poured in and aid planes and ships – including a US aircraft carrier battle group – rushed to the devastated region. The death toll is expected to surpass the 140,000 mark.

Survivors on the ground grappled with the destruction as the United Nations said US$500 million have been pledged by various nations in aid of the victims

Teams of forensic experts in Thailand packed bodies in dry ice as the government announced its death toll in the tsunami disaster had doubled to more than 4,500 people, almost half of them

foreigners, and hopes faded that more survivors would be found.

In the hardest-hit country, Indonesia, officials began to acknowledge that the death toll might never be known with precision, since towering waves on Sunday swept entire villages – and their inhabitants – out to sea. The country’s official death toll stood at about 80,000, but Health Minister Siti Fadillah Supadi said it could reach 100,000.

“It is very difficult to predict the final toll,” said Dody Budiatman, coordinator of national relief efforts. “We could search in small boats, but considering the numbers it would be very difficult.”

Death counts across the region continued to grow. More than 130,000 people have been reported dead around southern Asia and as far away as Somalia on Africa’s eastern coast, most killed by massive tsunamis that smashed coastlines after a magnitude-9 earthquake off Indonesia’s coast on Sunday. Sri Lanka reported about 28,500 deaths and India more than 7,700. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.