U.S. Still Tracking About 5,000 Unresolved Tsunami Inquiries

American officials were working in early January 2005 to resolve roughly 5,000 unanswered inquiries about U.S. citizens who may have been in tsunami-affected areas of Asia. The State Department had received around 20,000 total queries, and about three-quarters had already been closed.

State Department spokesman Adam Ereli noted that consular staff and partner agencies were actively working to account for the remaining cases. He confirmed that the official American death toll held steady at 15.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, visiting Thailand on 3 January, told journalists that the number of Americans unaccounted for ranged between 4,000 and 5,000. Officials cautioned that the figure may include duplicate entries and people who had simply relocated before the disaster without notifying relatives.

Historical summary. TurkishPress restated this AFP wire report, first published in January 2005, in its own words.