Lampuuk, Indonesia ? Former Presidents Bush and Clinton traveled Sunday to ground zero of tsunami devastation where they described the destruction as unimaginable and promised survivors who begged for shelter that more help would come.

On the second day of their relief mission to the region, the two former leaders flew in U.S. military helicopters from the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, over a barren landscape that was once a patchwork of rice paddies, to the village of Lampuuk, where the sole structure left standing is a large white mosque.

The village had 6,500 inhabitants before the Dec. 26 disaster. Only 700 remain.

As he looked out of the helicopter, Bush said he was counting his blessings. “In my own heart, I was saying we’re very lucky, we’re very lucky people not to have to go through something like this.”

Clinton shook hands with Rahmayadi, one of thousands of survivors left homeless by the disaster. He said his house in Lampuuk had stood in the neighborhood where the Americans visited but was flattened by the tsunami.

“My children and wife died and I didn’t get their bodies, so now it’s only me and two sons,” said the 53-year-old Rahmayadi, who goes by one name. “All we ask for now is shelter because we can’t live in tents forever. I will keep being patient until someone helps me.”

Bush reassured villagers who greeted them, “You’re going to be OK. A lot of people around the world want to help.”

Tsunami death toll s range from 169,070 to 178,118. The number of missing is believed to be as high as 128,426, with most presumed dead.

“It’s hard to imagine those numbers until you see the level of devastation. The first thing I thought was, ‘Well, at least now I understand. I understand how they all died. I understand why they couldn’t get away,”‘ Clinton said. “And then, when we were flying over Banda Aceh, I was struck by how the devastation was total and then more limited, and you’d come into a street, and everything would be normal again. It’s almost impossible to appreciate the scope of this if you haven’t physically seen it.”

Clinton said reconstruction would take three to five years.

The pair began a tour of the tsunami zone in Thailand on Saturday and after visiting Aceh, flew to Sri Lanka on Sunday. They planned to fly today to southern Sri Lanka to visit U.S.-funded housing units and a trauma counseling program for children in Matara, one of the country’s hardest-hit towns.