Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles, killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century. The death toll in eight nations in southern Asia - and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost - steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years. Signs of the carnage were everywhere. Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through their destroyed homes amid the smell of rotting corpses. Rescuers elsewhere found victims wedged in trees and littering beaches. Some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters searched for victims in Sri Lanka, where more than a million people were driven from their homes. Another million people were reported homeless in Indonesia. Thai navy warships steamed toward outlying islands to rescue survivors, while the Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas.
