When Jose Ravano's phone rang in Washington, D.C., the Plum native heard his wife, Irene Fraser, in Sri Lanka. Something terrible had destroyed the lagoon on which she lived, sweeping her inland and drowning her neighbors.

	Jose Ravano

She was bleeding and in shock, but had found a phone at the Norwegian Peace Mission.

"She didn't think she was going to make it. She said, 'If it comes again, I am just calling because I love you,' " he said.

When Ravano switched on his television, he realized what had nearly killed his wife, a relief worker with Save the Children. And he knew he would be called to return to Sri Lanka, where he once cared for refugees from the civil war.

Today, Ravano begins the 29-hour journey to become relief coordinator for CARE in Sri Lanka. Yesterday, he visited the North Side warehouse of the Brother's Brother Foundation, which transports relief and development supplies. There he learned that an international transportation company in Moon, Panalpina, had offered to take two shipping containers of supplies to Sri Lanka. He was especially pleased because the magnitude of the Dec. 26 disaster may force CARE to ask transport companies for help.

Ravano, 38, is a graduate of Central Catholic High School who joined the Peace Corps after graduation from the University of Notre Dame. He earned master's degrees in public health and international relations from Johns Hopkins University. CARE then hired him to work war zones, sending him from Kosovo to Sri Lanka in 2000.

He worked inside the largely forbidden area held by the Tamil Tigers, who waged a separatist war for two decades. He set up camps for displaced persons and oversaw the rebuilding of schools. In 2001, he married Irene, a Scot who had worked on the rehabilitation of children in war zones for Oxfam and UNICEF.

Relief work caused long separations. In 2003, with a fragile truce in Sri Lanka, they moved to the United States. By night he studied human rights law at Georgetown University, while working for the Congressional Hunger Center.

But the peace stalled in Sri Lanka, in part because of problems with child soldiers. Irene accepted a 10-month contract from Save the Children to demobilize them, and returned to Sri Lanka in November.

Ravano was preparing to visit her when the calls came from his distraught wife and his former employer.

The scope of the disaster in the nation of 20 million is staggering. During the war he aided 80,000 displaced persons. Estimates of Sri Lankans left homeless by the tsunamis range from 700,000 to 1.5 million.

Most roads were terrible before the tsunami.

There are minefields in the north and flooding in the south. The most obvious immediate priorities are creation of refugee camps and clean water supplies. But long-term planning to rebuild must also begin.

Coordination with the government, the Tamil Tigers and among myriad relief agencies poses the biggest challenge. They meet daily to share information and resources, but tensions arise.

"It's expected. People are still trying to find their way on how to coordinate, where to go, what is needed," he said.

There are signs of hope. Both the army and the Tamil Tigers have been heroic, he said.

"Political parties that have caused tension in the country have come to the rescue of their opposition," he said.

Donations can be made to CARE at 800-521-CARE ext, 999.; and to Brother's Brother at 412-321-3160.

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Correction/Clarification: (Published Jan. 7, 2005) This story as originally published in Jan. 6, 2005 editions on work by CARE among tsunami victims in South Asia gave an incorrect phone number for making donations. The correct number is 800-521-CARE ext, 999.