For families and friends in Bay State, a difficult wait

The phones were down and the e-mail was balky. A day after tsunamis devastated parts of 10 countries, Bay State immigrants were glued to the television news footage of survivors combing through the debris.

While the local chapters of the Red Cross and Oxfam America, a Boston-based international relief agency, began efforts to provide medical and economic assistance in earthquake and tsunami-ravaged parts of Asia, Boston-area residents yesterday, gripped by uncertainty over the fate of family and friends, started their own relief efforts.

"It was not a good Christmas," muttered Chelmsford resident Bevis Peiris, a native of Sri Lanka whose sister lives in an area hit by two tsunamis.

Peiris, president of the Sri Lanka Association of New England, had been on the phone since 5 a.m. yesterday, reaching out to its 200-plus membership and putting together a shipment of food and clothes to be sent out this morning.

Unlike some Sri Lankans and other immigrants, Peiris reached his sister.

"She was preparing food to give to homeless people," he said, relieved. "There are people all over the place with nothing to eat."

By noon yesterday Reading resident Suresh Rajadurai had gone to Bank of America to open an account for his organization, Boston Thamil Association of New England. It was his way of coping with the wait.

"Immediately, I've been trying to reach my aunts and uncles back home," said Rajadurai, 45, whose family lives on Sri Lanka's northeast coast, the hardest hit. Meanwhile, Rajadurai received an e-mail from one of his former classmates from South Asia, "My father was washed to sea," it read.

As per holiday tradition, Rajadurai last week sent clothes and toys to an orphanage in the eastern district of Batticaloa, now a shocking scene of distress. More than 1 million people there were displaced. Rajadurai hasn't heard from the priest who runs the facility. "We hope they are OK," he said. "We were told that water came and within 20 minutes there everything was gone."

Fearing that government regulations will delay efforts to send clothes and other goods to the most devastated parts of Asia, many local organizations, ministries, and neighborhood associations are clamoring for cash donations.

"Cash is so much easier to get over there and buy what's actually needed," said Mark Robinson of the American Red Cross of Massachusetts Bay. The devastation and need is incredibly widespread, said Robinson. So far, the Red Cross and the Red Crescent have set up medical tents and water-purification efforts.

Volunteers from the relief agency Oxfam have been working in Sri Lanka and India for two years and already had infrastructure set up to help the two countries, said Mike Delaney, the group's director for humanitarian response. There are remote areas that are poverty stricken and in need on a daily basis, said organizers.

As of yesterday afternoon, they were able to deliver 60,000 liters of fresh water to the most devastated areas.

"Right now our largest and strongest effort is in Sri Lanka and India," Delaney said. "We are still not sure of all the damage and the impact of lost lives. We were there beforehand, and we will probably stay in these countries for years.

"People are very poor there to start with. Getting the economy rolling again and getting them homes . . . it all cannot be done in three to six months," Delaney said. "They need assistance now and in the next coming years."

Other organizations such as the Boston based Association for India's Development also acted immediately after hearing the news.

"We have very good connection there," said Shrinaath Chidambaram, a spokesman for the group. "We set up a website overnight, and one of volunteers is in India giving us updates."

But in Whitman, pastor Dharma C. Dande of the Indian Christian Fellowship of New England is packing his bags and preparing for a flight next week to Andhra Pradesh and the village of Machilipatanam in India. "It is my duty; I want to help them as much as possible," he said.