Officials at area colleges and universities waiting to hear from students from the tsunami-torn regions of South Asia have gotten some good news -- and a lot of "no news" that they're interpreting as good news as well.

As of late last week, no students or faculty members had been reported missing, injured -- or worse -- as a result of the Dec. 26 tragedy that has killed 150,000 people.

But at least a few were involved, albeit safely.

Among them were two from Carnegie Mellon University, which has 638 students from India, Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh.

Sumitra Gopal, a receptionist at Carnegie Mellon's robotics institute, was in Chennai, India, three miles from the ocean, the university said. But instead of being at a beach when the wave hit, she was at a house visiting with family and friends and escaped harm.

Carnegie Mellon research scientist Bernadine Dias was in her native Sri Lanka. She was miles from the tsunami, but she lost an uncle who was trapped in a bus with another uncle who survived.

Carnegie Mellon had no word on any other students, faculty or staff from the affected area.

A professor emeritus from Penn State University had a close call with his family in Thailand, but a university spokesman said there had been no word of other faculty, staff or students affected. The school has 727 students from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia and about 70 alumni in the same area. Ninety-five members of faculty and staff have origins there.

Warren Morrill, of Bellefonte, Centre County, his wife, son, daughter-in-law and two grandchildren were snorkeling off the shore of Phuket, Thailand, when the tsunami struck. They were able to ride it out at sea, but when they got to land afterward, all they found was destruction, including everything they had brought with them.

"The beach is a bad place to be when the water is rising fast," Morrill said in an article he e-mailed to the Centre Daily Times in State College. "A boat at sea is better."

University of Pittsburgh classes resumed Wednesday with no reports of anyone missing among the 215 students from India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and Malaysia.

Most of the area's other colleges and universities resume class tomorrow but spent last week trying to reach their South Asian students. So far, the few they'd reached were fine.

Officials at Seton Hill University in Greensburg, for example, had worried about a graduate student, Mehran Saif, who returned to Bangladesh to marry over the holidays. But, a school spokeswoman said, they got word he and his bride were safe and honeymooning in Saudi Arabia.

At Duquesne University, officials had yet to hear back from 58 students from the affected countries whom they e-mailed, but that does not mean those individuals are missing.

Back in the United States, Duquesne students Nuvan Dassanaike and Dewaliguda Pererai, his wife, got calming news by phone from Sri Lanka. Both their parents were safe.

Dassanaike's parents were attending a church overlooking the Indian Ocean in Behiwela near Colombo on the coast and were about to be joined for lunch by Dewaliguda's parents, who were driving from the inland town Kotte.

"You feel happy that your immediate family is all right but you felt so depressed that so many of your fellow countrymen were facing a crisis beyond your comprehension," said Dassanaike, 29, who is working on an MBA.

Relief efforts were being mounted at West Virginia University and at other campuses where the spring semester has already begun.

Robert Morris University, which had not heard of any affected students, spearheaded an effort to get city colleges and universities to volunteer for a television fund-raiser broadcast on local stations Friday night.

At Point Park University, Downtown, the International Students Office was trying to reach 11 South Asian students: four from India, four from Indonesia, two from Sri Lanka and one from Malaysia. Most of them stayed in the United States over the holiday break, a spokeswoman said, and the office director had reached four of them, who reported no problems at home. The others, she said, "could be traveling around the country or visiting friends."

Indiana University of Pennsylvania will not resume classes until this week, but a spokeswoman said no students were caught in the tsunami. A faculty member who was in Thailand stayed in Bangkok to help with relief efforts. An administrator with a Thai wife also went to Thailand for the holidays to visit her family but apparently was safe.

There was no news yet of eight Sri Lankans and two Indians who study at Slippery Rock University, "But we can't find any evidence that they were affected, killed or lost family," a spokesman said.

Allegheny College in Meadville, Crawford County, has six students from South Asia but had heard nothing but good news from them.

"Two of them stayed over [here] during the break, and both their families felt the earthquake" that sparked the tsunami, said Danuta Majchrowicz, director for international studies. Others reported that they weren't affected.

Three Allegheny students were studying in South Asia. One left the day before Christmas and the other two got out safely the day of the tsunami.

A handful of South Asian students attend Thiel College in Greenville, Mercer County. A junior from Sri Lanka, Kawshika Wijayamanda, stayed in the area for the holidays but learned her grandparents' home had been slightly damaged. No other students reported any problems.

Morrill, a professor emeritus of cultural anthropology, said he and his family had no idea that a tsunami was hitting the beach while they snorkeled two miles at sea. They did, however, notice a serious and sudden increase in current and got back on the boat.

The boatman headed back to shore, and eventually they learned of the 15- to 20-foot-tall wall of water that had hit land.

After three or four hours floating off shore in fear of another wave, the boat found a tiny clear space in which to land and the Morrill family saw the devastation firsthand. All of their belongings in their two rented bungalows were destroyed, so they were taken to a hotel.

A few days later they flew to Bangkok, where the U.S. Foreign Service lent each of them $100 and issued temporary passports.

"We lost luggage, clothes, cameras, books, cell phones, a hearing aid, calculators, passports, money, toiletries, gifts and souvenirs," Morrill wrote.