The organization has sent six logistics experts and engineers to Indonesia and Sri Lanka and has another 20 ready to go, Tabuteau says. They will run courses on logistics and management.

Engineers Without Borders—USA, sent Dick Herring, an engineer and board member, to Thailand to expand a Santisuk water sanitation project already under way. “We’ll look for ways to adapt our projects, making sure that they’re sustainable,” says Meg Van Sciver, an engineer with the Longmont, Colo.-based group. EWB-USA also is sponsoring three other Thai projects and nine in Sri Lanka, she adds.

In Sri Lanka, "the immediate repair to roads has been completed. There is not a big need for [foreign] engineers," says Colin Homles, the Colombo office head for Scott Wilson Kirkpatrick Co. Ltd. London. "The railroads...have been damaged, but that is a longer term reconstruction issue," he adds. He expects his own project, planning a $700-million expansion of Colombo's port, to be delayed while the government focuses on the disaster.

A team from the Asian Development Bank, World Bank and Japan Bank for International Cooperation on Jan. 10 began a needs assessment for Sri Lanka, aiming to report by the end of January. ADB is focussing on transportation while JBIC looks at power and water supply needs.

The wave hit a 1,000 km of coastline south of Jaffna and up the west side to Chilaw. It destroyed an estimated 75,000 houses and damaged another 25,000. Among other impacts, the wave blocked the main southern coastal highway between Bentota and Matara, either side of stricken Galle, and downed bridges. Japan-based Kumagai Gumi Co. Ltd, which is working on the Colombo to Matar expressway, sent 100 people and heavy equipment to open the road by January 4, says ADB.

Having recently quit Sri Lanka after 25 years, Stockholm-based Skanska Group has offered to help, says spokeswomen Anna Wenner. The company has also contributed $0.5 million towards a "village" for orphaned children. "Quite many employees...