WASHINGTON – As President Bush enlisted two former presidents for an ambitious private fund-raising drive for victims of the tsunami yesterday, asking Americans to open their wallets to help the millions left homeless, hungry, and injured, survivors were still being found in the wreckage left by the deadly storm.

When a tsunami swept Melawati from her home on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island, the only thing that saved her was a floating sago palm tree.

Five days after the December 26 deadly wave, a Malaysian tuna ship’s crew found her clinging to the tree – bitten by fish and traumatized by the horrific experience – but alive after subsisting on the palm’s fruit and bark, officials said yesterday.

Melawati, 23, was spotted Friday in waters near Aceh province, said Goi Kim Par, manager of the Malaysian International Tuna Port. Like many Indonesians, Melawati uses one name.

Despite her injuries and weakness, she remained conscious and arrived for medical treatment yesterday at Malaysia’s northwestern Penang Island, Mr. Goi said.

The Penang health director, Azmi Shapie, said Melawati would be given counseling before being handed to the Indonesian consulate in Penang.

Crew members aboard the trawler told Malaysia’s national news agency, Bernama, that Melawati had waved frantically to draw their attention and was found clad in only her underpants because her clothes had been ripped to shreds. She cried throughout her three days aboard the trawler, they added.

“The devastation in the region defies comprehension,” Mr. Bush said as he announced the fund-raising campaign to be led by his father and President Clinton. “I ask every American to contribute as they are able to do so.”

Mr. Bush, his wife, Laura, and his two predecessors paid brief sympathy visits to the embassies of the four nations hit hardest – Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and Thailand. The first lady brought bouquets of white roses, and the president wrote messages in embassy condolence books, offering prayers as well as promises of American aid.

At the Indian Embassy, Mr. Bush said he plans to visit the world’s largest democracy sometime this year. “In the meantime, though, our country stands with the people who have suffered,” he said.

The president ordered that all American flags fly at half-staff this week in sympathy for “the victims of a great tragedy,” particularly the many thousands of dead and orphaned children.

Meanwhile, the president was getting daily reports from a delegation he dispatched to the region to assess whether the American government can do more. Speaking en route to Bangkok, Thailand, Secretary of State Powell, leading the team with the president’s brother, Governor Bush, a Republican of Florida, did not rule out more American government money. But he said there was no immediate need to increase the $350 million commitment because the most urgent task was coordinating all the aid that was pouring in – the vast majority still unspent.

“There is no shortage of money at the moment,” Mr. Powell said.

Governor Bush, no stranger to massive relief efforts following hurricanes in Florida, said dealing with needs beyond the immediate emergency would be difficult.

“Irrespective of how much tragedy is taking place, there will be a way to get food and water and medicine to people,” he said. “The long-term recovery issues are the ones that are a greater challenge, and the ones where I think the expertise of our country can be brought to bear to really help people.”

The president asserted that America had jumped into action quickly and had taken a leading role, despite criticism that America’s response was neither swift nor leading, especially at first. Mr. Bush promised a long-term investment in the recovery by America. Other countries were quicker to commit large amounts of aid money, and Japan has outpaced the American pledge, which was increased tenfold on Friday to $350 million.

“As men and women across the devastated region begin to rebuild, we of fer our sustained compassion and our generosity, and our assurance that America will be there to help,” Mr. Bush said. Later, he told new lawmakers that Congress’ first order of business should be to provide disaster aid.

Even before the White House campaign, private donations had been running at virtually unprecedented levels since immediately after the earthquake that led to the tsunami.

Under the new fund-raising drive, to be coordinated by the White House’s USA Freedom Corps, an office that encourages volunteering, Mr. Clinton and the first President Bush will solicit donations by doing press interviews and traveling the country. They also will tap into their own networks of contacts to try to pry donations from corporations, foundations, and the wealthy, said White House spokesman Scott McClellan.

Also yesterday, American helicopters rescued dozens of desperate and weak tsunami survivors, including a young girl clutching a stuffed Snoopy dog, as the American military relief operation reached out to remote areas of Indonesia with cartons of food and water yesterday.

Although America was not among the first at the scene after last week’s natural disaster thousands of miles from American shores, it is now spearheading the international relief effort and delivering more supplies than any other nation. An American warship strike group carrying thousands more Marines was headed in to help.

“Look at that, look at that! It’s so big!” shouted a 6-year-old girl, Khairunisa, as a U.S. Hercules cargo plane roared over Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra Island’s devastated Aceh province and the base of the aid operation in Indonesia.

The Americans flew missions from the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln along a 120-mile stretch of Sumatra’s ravaged coastline, further revealing the extent of the destruction. The tsunami, triggered by the world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years, has killed more than 139,000 people in Asia and Africa; more than half the deaths were on Sumatra.

Many of the 60 victims picked up in more than two dozen missions yesterday – including children, elderly, and two pregnant women – were too weak from eight days with little food or water to speak or move. Doctors said they suffered from pneumonia, broken bones, infected wounds, and tetanus. Many appeared deeply traumatized. At least 25 were in critical condition.

The American pilots ferried the survivors to a medical field station in Banda Aceh. The ones not rushed on stretchers were placed on a blue plastic sheet, among them a young girl clutching a stuffed Snoopy dog. Some cried, and aid workers stroked their arms and backs to comfort them. They were given chocolate wafers, water, sweaters, and T-shirts.