Galle, Sri Lanka ? At the main warehouse in Galle, mountains of cardboard boxes and suitcases ready to burst take up a quarter of the cavernous building.

Some are labeled simply “Aid for Tsunami Victims in Sri Lanka,” but their contents — winter jackets, expired foodstuffs and skin ointments, stiletto shoes, winter tents, thong panties and even Viagra pills — have left Sri Lankans scratching their heads.

Among the unprecedented aid that poured in after the Dec. 26 tsunami, which killed between 30,000 to 38,000 people in Sri Lanka, people anxious to help from all corners of the world were perhaps too anxious, shipping items of no use in a tropical country.

Seven weeks after the disaster, no one knows what to do with unusable supplies that have piled up at government buildings, aid agencies and refugee camps.

“These items just cannot be used here,” said storekeeper H. Wickremabandara, noting that Sri Lanka has an average temperature of 82 degrees. “There are all these old clothes and no one wants them.”

Banners along the devastated coast read “Help the displaced” and “We need your help,” with an arrow pointing to a nearby refugee camp. But authorities, aid workers and the displaced make one common plea: No more clothes and bottled water, please.

In the warehouse in Galle, one of the hardest-hit districts where aid supplies are distributed to 121,000 people, cardboard boxes are stacked as high as the ceiling.

Tsunami survivor N. Rilwan enjoys a makeshift swing among unusable clothes at a shelter for displaced people in Galle, Sri Lanka. Donations have poured in since the Dec. 26 tsunami, including items of little use in Sri Lanka's warm climate.

Battered suitcases tied with rope or tape contain blankets, winter coats and woolen Mickey Mouse pajamas. Coming from the West, most were much too large for the average Sri Lankan.

Although bottled water was initially an urgent requirement, most water sources have been restored and purification systems were set up by aid agencies.

Most of these unusable supplies are from individual donors, small overseas charities or private companies. Others were from locals who seem to have made it as an opportunity to clear their closets. Most were shipped to the country without any details but a tag saying “tsunami aid” and expectations they would be sifted before actually reaching beneficiaries.

“It’s clear that some people have sent clothes that are actually meant to be used as dusters,” said Himali Fernando, an official at Sarvodaya, one of the largest nongovernmental groups working in the island.

Still, she said, nothing will be thrown away. Warm clothing may be sent to shelters or to tea plantation workers in the hills, where the climate is cooler.