The latest satellite technology and the internet have played a crucial role in the aftermath of the devastating tsunami which struck the coasts of countries in South Asia and Africa on 26 December.
Photos line a missing persons bulletin board in Phuket, Thailand
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The next day a relatively new charity - supported by the likes of Vodaphone, Cable and Wireless, AT&T, and Alcatel - set up a base in Sri Lanka to help victims contact their families.
With normal phone lines down or simply overwhelmed, Télécoms Sans Frontières is offering free three-minute phone calls by a satellite network which covers 98% of the globe.
TSF, which has just six full-time staff, has since set up another base in Sumatra.
Alongside the photo and message boards on site, the Internet has played a critical role in finding missing friends and relatives.
Hundreds of websites have sprung up enabling users worldwide to upload pictures of those missing, contact survivors, and to identify those who have died.
One innovative website, Flickr.com, based in Hong Kong, automatically compares any pictures uploaded to it with a database of photographs of the victims in Phuket in Thailand (see internet links on the right-hand side of this page).
Other affected areas may follow.
And a record number of people have turned to their home computers to donate money quickly.
In America, Amazon.com took more than US$3 million in aid in the first four days alone after an appeal on its front page.
That is around half the total amount the site raised after the 11 September attacks in 2001.
The Red Cross has had almost three times as many donations made online as on the telephone.
Programmers Kintera, which provides charities with the software to take donations, estimated the worldwide total given online was US$350 million.
That is already 20% of the total amount for 2004.
Two sample sites to help locate people who are missing in the tsunami:
Tsunami donation sites:
Click Online is broadcast on BBC News 24: Saturday at 2030, Sunday at 0430 and 1630, and on Monday at 0030. A short version is also shown on BBC Two: Saturday at 0645 and BBC One: Sunday at 0730 . Also BBC World.
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