Current Affairs Tsunami sweeps through South East Asia

[An underwater earthquake measuring an incredicle, world-record 8.9 on the richter scale occurred at the North Indonesian coast of Banda Aceh this morning which resulted in Tsunamis (large tidal waves) crashing into mainland areas affecting India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka (worse affected with 3000 fatalities), Thailand, Indonesia, Maldives, Malaysia, and Sumatra. The death toll at persent is 4500 and it seems that it will continue to augment.] - figures on first few hours of when the tsunami wave struck ONLY

A real pity to have this diaster on Christmas.

Measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale

***UPDATE (25/01/05) - Death toll*** [Unofficial figures]

Country-----Death toll

Indonesia------160,000
Sri Lanka-------31,000
India----------- 19,500
Thailand---------5,200
Somalia------------150
Burma---------------59
Malaysia-------------68
Maldives-------------82
Tanzania------------10
Seychelles------------1
Bangladesh-----------2
Kenya-----------------1

*Above figures only valid up until Janurary 14th

Total - 300,000 [Latest approximation - March 2005]



***Update (05/01/05) - Foreign Deaths***

- Sweden: 59 dead, at least 2,500 missing
- Germany: 34 dead, over 1,000 missing
- Britain: 34 dead, 50 missing
- France: 22 dead, 96 missing
- Norway: 21 dead, 430 missing
- Italy: 14 dead, 700 missing
- Finland: 14 dead, 263 missing
- US: 14 dead, thousands unaccounted for
- Switzerland: 12 dead, 850 unaccounted for
- Australia: 10 dead, 1,000 missing
- Denmark: 7 dead, 419 missing
- Austria: 5 dead, 100 missing
- Russia: 1 dead, 80 missing

*Above figures only valid up until Jan 14th


- Shen

 

Last i heard there were over 10'000 people dead. For some reason i find it so hard to think of something like this ever happening, even though it has. My cousin was talking about going to the coast of india for a while, thank god he didn't go.

 

It's now at 23,500 with tens of thousands still missing.

- Shen

 

It left a lot of people homeless too.. I'll keep the families of those who died in my thoughts and prayers.

 

Part of the reason why the casulties are so heavy is because the lack of detection facilities in that region. India and Sri Lanka for sure are on the low end of technology and are unlikely to have any. Indonesia has sensors on it's east coast - towards the Pacific where earthquakes more frequently occur, but none on its west coast (where the site of earthquake occured this time). Other countries sustained casulties for the same reason.

The Indian Ocean is set to install a Tsunami detector after the devastation is over.

- Shen

 

I... can't believe it. It is a disaster.

Actually, tsunamis are not that easily to detect, even with these sensors. Anyway, there was like an hour between the earthquake and the tsunami, too little time.

 

It's sad to hear these things occur. Most of the tourists in those parts are often from Nordic countries. From what I've heard, 1500 swedes are missing in the Phuket area.

The entire world is feeling for the south asia regions, and I'm glad to hear that they are sending help and first aid as fast as possible.

 

The trouble now is a possible outbreak of disease from the decaying bodies etc. It's all sad to hear but the figures will inevitably go up even further if it happens (nearly 70,000 at present).

- Shen

 

Tsunami death jumps over 120,000

The Health Ministry sources told Reuters just under 80,000 had died in Indonesia's northern Aceh province that was close to the undersea quake, some 28,000 more than previously announced. Two sources said the toll would be officially announced soon......


Keeping track of these updates just gets harder and harder to see. With somewhere about 123,000 deaths(updates by Shen), i can feel nothing but sadness every time i check. Its real deppressing this had to happen at all.


-KaiyonTormentor

<edited & updated 30/12/04>

 

This earth has had many natural diasaters, other than this one in South East Asia, the last ones to experience deaths in its tens of thousands are as follows (from the last 500 years):

- 2003 - Earthquake in Bam, Iran - official casualty figure is 26,271
- 1976 - Earthquake in Tangshan, China, kills 242,000
- 1970 - Cyclone in Bangladesh kills 500,000
- 1923 - Tokyo earthquake kills 140,000
- 1887 - China's Yellow River breaks its banks in Huayan Kou killing 900,000
- 1826 - Tsunami kills 27,000 in Japan
- 1815 - Volcanic eruption of Mount Tambora on Indonesia's Sumbawa Island kills 90,000
- 1556 - Earthquake in China's Shanxi and Henan provinces kills 830,000



- Shen

 

Tsk, I've been reading about this in the newspaper, and I can't say I'm impressed with the amount of support they're getting down there. I mean, the disaster caught our attention, but, still so many people would rather ignore it. 'Out of sight, out of mind.'

 

What happened is very tragic, Thousands of people dead, and still many missing, plus all the people without there homes, with family dead, and so many kids became orphans that day.

 

How horrible. Worst of all this had to happen on the New Year. Defenetly not a good start for anyone. I share the grief of all those families who have lost loved ones.

 

True, the only way to stop this is to dispose of the bodies, and that means that they'll either have to dig mass graves for the people or cremate all the bodies.

Also, i've only just heard it on the news but is it true that the US are only going to send over $35 million for aid? That is a lot of money but as for a percentage of the wealth in America i think they could offer a lot more then that.

 

Always ready for a dig eh? If that 35 million figure is accurate (which I don't doubt) it only takes the government into account. Everywhere I go online people are discussing the tragedy, and how to donate. Expect private donations (churches, individual citizens etc) to exceed that sum.

We don't pay enough taxes to pay for the government expidentures that exist already, so I am not surprised the government would be a little stingy. Hopefully private citizens will donate plenty themselves out of the money they saved by paying low tax..

Along those lines, donate here. I hear paypal has a similar setup.

Everytime a tidal wave (being purposefully anachronistic) occurs, you read about how the sea receded, and people went out onto the exposed seafloor to collect fish or whatever. When will people learn? The sea level dropping usually indicates the leading trough of a big wave. If I'm ever on a beach and the sea level rapidly drops, I am running away.

 

Check out my first post in this thread, I update the figures a few times a day. Yes it was true that America (including it's people) donated $35 million of aid to that region and many questioned why they're giving so little, even Great Britain's public donated £50 million in 48 hours (roughly $95 million) and that has set a world record for fastest donations in the shortest space of time. Well, the US government yesterday responded by donating $350 million - 10 times their initial sum + 1500 US marines and 20 helicopters. But the sum of this, and all other countries' donations are not enough.

- Shen

 

Today is a "national grief day" for swedes. Sure, new years day, but hey, the flags are hanging in half.

Anyhow, donate. People in Asia need our support to rebuild their homes and lives.

- Teddz

 

My condoleances to everyone who's suffered. Here are some arial photos of the devastation.

http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050103/multimedia/050103-2-m1.html

It's truly horrible...that all that destruction could happen so fast, when already so many people die every day of starvation.