MFAT Tsunami Update 4 At 1900 28 December

1 Red Cross Centre was activated at 1600 today (0800 733 276 = 0800 RED CROSS). It is fielding calls under long-standing arrangements for situations such as this; and MFAT staff are now focusing on the processing of data from those calls and following up on enquiries made previously.

2 At 1900, MFAT Call Centre had around 1000 persons about whom enquiries had been made. Of the over 700 fully-processed enquiries, nearly 70% were about people in Thailand, 12% Sri Lanka, 7% India, and the rest from India, Maldives, Indonesia, Malaysia and other countries. Note: these figures might vary from earlier percentages supplied. Figures from the Red Cross Centre are still to be included but ran to some 50 in the first hour of operation.

3 The Call Centre would welcome receiving information about people for whom enquiries have previously been made and who have since been accounted for and/or returned to New Zealand.