It is believed that as many as 700 Irish citizens were in the area when the deadly waves struck, and 15 have received medical treatment at local hospitals, according to Catriona Doris of Ireland's Department of Foreign Affairs. The plight of most of the others was unknown as the Echo went to press on Tuesday. None of the reported injuries were life-threatening.

"There are no fatalities so far," said Doris, "but it is peak travel time for the region."

RTE is reporting that between 10 and 20 Irish people are unaccounted for at latest count. Two Dublin women, identified as Eileesh Finnegan and Lucy Coyle, both 27, were traveling separately in the Phi Phi Islands in Thailand and are reported missing.

Early on Tuesday morning four Irish women arrived at Dublin airport from Thailand where they escaped the tsunamis on the island of Koh Phi Phi. They suffered minor injuries.

The main focus for the Irish government is accounting for the missing and providing aid the damaged areas, which Red Cross officials estimate to be in the billions of dollars. Two Irish relief agencies, GOAL and Concern Worldwide, were on the scene Tuesday and preparing to expand their operations.

The Minister of State at the Department of Foreign Affairs, Conor Lenihan, has already announced a special grant of €2 million, doubled from the orginal amount of €1 million, from Ireland's aid budget to provide emergency assistance. The U.S. increased its aid package to $35 million on Tuesday. Its initial contribution of $15 million had been criticized as "stingy" by some United Nations officials.

It was a 9.0 magnitude earthquake that sent rumblings through the ocean floor off the northern coast of Sumatra, in Indonesia, and produced 30-plus-foot tsunami waves that traveled more than 2,000 miles across the Indian Ocean to the Bay of Bengal and Somalia on the eastern coast of Africa. Worst hit were Sri Lanka, the southeast coast of India, and the popular island resorts of Thailand and Indonesia.

To help ease nerves of relatives and friends of those on holiday in the area, the Department of Foreign Affairs is working overtime at phone help lines to handle the influx of calls, which numbered 1,000 in the first 48 hours following the tragedy.

The waves rolled over the region for the busy season between the Christmas and New Year's holidays.

Many tourists on break from work or school are thought to be in the area at the time, and the BBC reported that the bodies of more than 700 mainly foreign tourists have been found at the Thai resort of Khao Lak.

As of Wednesday, there were 26 Britons and 9 Australians confirmed dead, as well as hundreds more missing.

Identification of the dead is expected to be difficult, as many of the countries affected do not require visas to travel there, leaving little for authorities to go by.

Making the process more difficult is a poor communication infrastructure, according to the Department of Foreign Affairs.

"It is quite difficult in some areas," Doris said.

Irish embassies and consular missions in the region are liaising with other embassies in Southern Asia to try to establish if other Irish people are missing.

The Irish ambassador to Thailand, Dan Mulhall, in to the coastal town of Phuket and is setting up a consulate presence to help those nearby.

The minister for foreign affairs, Dermot Ahern, said it could be days if not weeks before a clearer picture emerges of how many Irish people have been affected.

The Department of Foreign Affairs is asking anyone who has confirmed friends or family are alive to tell them so they can keep track of who is still unaccounted for.

"The numbers are difficult to estimate," Doris said. "To narrow them down is very important at this point."

The Department of Foreign Affairs released a statement advising Irish citizens against travel to the area for the near future, until all damages and aid can be sorted out.

Relief agencies on the scene

Aside from the Irish government's pledge of €1 million, Irish aid agencies have been working around the clock to help the victims.

Many of Ireland's non-governmental organizations have staff on hand nearby and are readying teams to travel to the most severely damaged areas.

NGOs have appealed to the public to give generously so that relief can be provided quickly.

GOAL's chief executive officer, John O'Shea, said his group has moved from its base in Calcutta to Tamilnadu, India's most affected state.

GOAL is also sending two teams to Andaman and Nicobar, a chain of low-lying islands off the coast Indonesia that were perilously close to the quake's epicenter. Indian officials said Tuesday that at least 7,000 were now feared dead in the islands, up from the 3,000 originally thought killed.

O'Shea is not sure what aid workers will find once they get there.

"We are going to charter a ship to take the team to the islands, but the jetty is down," he said. "There is great difficulty just in getting there."

GOAL, which has been in India for 27 years, has two pediatricians with the group who are coordinating the excursions.

"More significant is that these are a tribal people," O'Shea said. "It is possible that an entire people could be extinct."

O'Shea expressed concern that problems will arise keeping the attention on the disaster.

"As soon as the cameras move away, the aid moves away," he said.

He said in Europe the situation is being compared to the catastrophic events of Sept. 11, 2001, when cameras allowed the public to see every side of the event.

"The problems now will be whether the international community has the stomach to come to the aid of this region," he said.

O'Shea noted that while many of the areas affected are home to some of the poorest people on earth, they were not the only ones. Indeed, the region is home to some of the world's most exclusive resorts and surrounding islands can be rented for weeks at a time.

"The poorest of the poor and the richest of the rich are all affected," he said.

Concern Worldwide, another Irish-based charity, announced €250,000 have been allocated to respond to the tragedy.

"It's a drop in the ocean compared to the need, however," said Tom Arnold, chief executive of Concern Worldwide.

Concern is also on the scene, having sent an assessment team to the Tamilnadu state as well. Its short-term goals involve partnering with local agencies to get food, shelter, and cooking supplies to as many as 50,000 families.

Concern, which has its Indian headquarters in Orissa, has been able to stay in relatively close contact with other offices and the home base in Ireland.

"We have decent e-mail and communication access," Arnold said. "It's not that difficult to keep in touch."

Foreign Minister Ahern released a statement citing "on behalf of the government and people of Ireland, our deepest sympathy to the countries in Southern Asia affected by the earthquake in Indonesia. In particular, I want to express our condolences to the families and friends of the victims of this tragedy."

Ireland's president, Mary McAleese, has expressed her sympathy to all those affected by the disaster as well.

McAleese said she was greatly distressed by the appalling loss of life and the likelihood of casualty figures continuing to rise, and expressed her "deepest sympathy to the bereaved whose loved ones were taken from them in such sudden and horrific circumstances."

McAleese said it would be the remarkable work of the aid agencies involved that would be needed, given the scale of injury to so many people and the need to provide food and shelter for so many others. Over a million people have been left homeless in Sri Lanka alone.

This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900, and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska, earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey.

The Department of Foreign Affairs' help line can be reached at 011-353-1-4082302. To help, donations can be sent to GOAL at 229 East 120th St., NY, NY 10035, or Concern USA at 104 East 40th St., Suite 903, NY, NY 10016. Information is also available at www.goalusa.org and www.concernusa.org.