run Antara news agency. Relief workers reported from Meulaboh district town that there were many villages throughout Aceh's western coastline that were still swamped with water and untouched by rescue workers. Aceh province on northern Sumatra island was at the heart of the coastal devastation, lying within a few hundred kilometers of the epicenter of the undersea quake that set off deadly waves across the Bay of Bengal and as far as East Africa. Massive operations intensified across Aceh province to evacuate dead bodies still trapped under debris or floating in water. Aid deliveries continued, but several survivors were reported to have died from a lack of medical treatment. The Jakarta Post reported from the North Aceh district town of Lhokseumawe that a hospital there could not save one survivor, identified only as Usman, because it ran out of oxygen tanks. "Usman badly needed oxygen because she suffered from respiratory complications after inhaling too much mud when he was swept away by the tsunami," The Jakarta Post quoted a nurse as saying. Alwi Shihab, the coordinating minister for people's welfare, urged humanitarian workers arriving in Aceh to help run hospitals and set up emergency field hospitals in disaster-hit areas. Shihab said a lack of transportation vehicles was hampering the mobilization of doctors and paramedics. "That's the reality in the field. These days the transportation is highly dependent on the Indonesian military and assistance from other countries, though there are a small number moving around individually," Shihab told reporters in Banda Aceh.
