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FL MORRIS / FMORRIS@STARBULLETIN.COM Isle crowds packed a tsunami relief fund-raiser last night at the Aloha Tower Marketplace organized by chef Chai Chaowasaree. The sold-out event raised between $130,000 and $140,000, said an event spokesman.

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Pacific commander plans
to visit devastated region

Adm. Thomas Fargo, the Hawaii-based commander of U.S. military forces in the Pacific, is planning to leave Friday to tour tsunami- and quake-devastated areas of southern Asia.

As of yesterday about 14,450 U.S. military personnel are assisting in relief efforts in Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The effort includes 25 U.S. Navy ships and a Coast Guard vessel, 45 airplanes and 58 helicopters. About 6.6 million pounds of relief supplies and equipment have been delivered to the region.

The hospital ship the USNS Mercy was scheduled to stop at Pearl Harbor today to pick up supplies on its way to the region.

The immediate focus of U.S. efforts is "developing the coordination to make this operation as efficient as possible," Fargo said.

"We have the capacity in the theater. We're developing the coordination to make sure that it is focused specifically on the highest-priority tasks."

ASSOCIATED PRESS Two young women waited under a shelter from the rain yesterday for aid to arrive at a refugee camp in Calang, Aceh province, Indonesia.

But he said it is difficult to predict when the United States will begin withdrawing forces. He noted that the military stayed about 60 days in 1991 during Operation Sea Angel when up to 140,000 people died when a cyclone hit Bangladesh.

"Without a doubt, the devastation in Indonesia is something like we've never seen before," Fargo said in a briefing at Camp Smith yesterday. "In certain locations the tsunami moved as much as four miles inland ... so the devastation is beyond imagination, really. I think you have to see it to really understand it."

Fargo said that for now, insurgencies in Indonesia and Sri Lanka are not hampering the relief effort. "It's something we watch very carefully," he said. "Hopefully this will be an opportunity to help resolve those insurgencies in a positive way."

Most of the U.S. forces in the area are sea-based off the USS Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group and the USS Bonhomme Richard expeditionary strike group.

About 2,487 troops are based on land. Fargo does not expect a much bigger U.S. presence on shore.

"I think that's the right technique, the right procedure and process here," Fargo said. "I think that will be the most effective way to deal with this particular catastrophe, and that's what we're going to do."