Tsunamis in the Indian Ocean

The Duchess of Zeon · Post by **The Duchess of Zeon** » 2004-12-28 09:32pm

One out of two is pretty good, considering people, in terms of a cease-fire over a catastrophe.

The official toll from Reuters is 63,000, however, their own breakdown is actually closer to 66,000. One Indian official in that article has announced that 20% of the people in the Andamans and Nicobars are dead, injured, or missing. That's at least 54,000.

Furthermore, the Indonesian total of 27,000 dead does not include the city of Meubolah, where 10,000 are dead out of a population of 37,500 (that's from the Wikipedia article). So the total death toll is now at least 76,000 and closer to 78,000 counting the latest figures from Sri Lanka. In addition to that, 30,000 people in the Nicobars remain unaccounted for nearly four days after the disaster; and there are no tallies from at least seventeen towns on the coast of Sumatra, all of which have suffered a 100% loss of structures. The death toll will certainl exceed 100,000 and probably reach at least 125,000, though as more figures come in from remote areas of Sumatra it could easily exceed even that.

And the disease hasn't begun to spread, yet, though it will, and soon.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-28 09:42pm

Intresting, it does seems like the event did cause the world to wobble...

Richard Gross, a geophysicist with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, theorized that a shift of mass toward the Earth's center during the quake on Sunday caused the planet to spin 3 microseconds, or 3 millionths of a second, faster and to tilt about an inch on its axis.

When one huge tectonic plate beneath the Indian Ocean was forced below the edge of another "it had the effect of making the Earth more compact and spinning faster," Gross said.

phongn · Post by **phongn** » 2004-12-29 12:06am

DigitalGlobe has satellite imagery up.

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2004-12-29 12:33am

Stravo wrote:Fox News last night when reporting on this mentioned that some of these countries did receieve some advance warning but they decided to ignore them because they were afraid of frightening the tourists. It smacks of Fox sensationalism anyone know if this is true.

As a Malaysian, I am sad to say that it's at least partially true. There was an epidemic of bird flu which threatened to affect our chicken exports not too long ago, and there were definitely cover-ups.

In this case though, it was probably more of a case of Sunday-morning slumber and the 'it couldn't happen to us' attitude (which is to a certain extent justified, since our 60+ fatalities already makes it the worst natural disaster in our history).

PackMule · Post by **PackMule** » 2004-12-29 12:34am

I was just watching the news. As others have mentioned earlier, advanced warning was detected. Apparently scientists here in NZ had word of the quake 2 hours before waves hit Sri Lanka.

However, word to the people had to go through official channels - and didn't reach the populus. Apparently thousands could have been saved if they had just received word to walk inland for 15 minutes.

Fuck. I urge others to start donating to aid organizations, every little bit helps.

Chmee · Post by **Chmee** » 2004-12-29 12:57am

PackMule wrote: Fuck. I urge others to start donating to aid organizations, every little bit helps.

Indeed ... my check to Médecins Sans Frontières is already on the way.

PainRack · Post by **PainRack** » 2004-12-29 06:12am

Apparently, India did detect the Tsunami moving towards it coast an hour or so before it hit. However, the sensors data was mixed and due to the large magnitude of the wave, the scientists misinterpreted the data and ordered not to evacuate.

Also.Today

A SINGAPORE transport aircraft loaded with relief and medical supplies has arrived to help Indonesia deal with the recent disaster.
.
The C-130 plane was loaded with groundsheets, blankets, medical and food supplies, the Foreign Affairs Ministry said in a statement. — AFP

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-12-29 07:19am

NOW India will spend 27 Million USD for a protection service, AFTER the dead.

Lock the barn after the horses flee.

Post by **Sea Skimmer** » 2004-12-29 07:48am

Ace Pace wrote:NOW India will spend 27 Million USD for a protection service, AFTER the dead.

Lock the barn after the horses flee.

The threat of further earthquakes spawning more waves has hardly passed however. Such a system could save many lives in the future.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-12-29 08:45am

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/talking_point/4125619.stm

i barely made it halfway down the page before i had to close the browser in disgust.... there are actual pleas for help from Aech and other places. desperate fucking pleas. first hand accounts of bodies rotting in the streets and in the trees. It is not for the faint of heart.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2004-12-29 08:54am

It seems that some hospitals in Thailand have already been abandoned in fear of possible outbreak of bacterial diseases. Scandinavian Airlines is trying to establish a skybridge to the disaster area to evacuate tourists from Scandinavian nations (over 1,500 Swedes alone are still missing). Finnair of Finland managed to open its own skybridge few days ago - returning planes have all carried several children, who lost their parents after the waves hit.

Soon, they'll have to start burning the bodies in the disaster areas.

Robert Walper · Post by **Robert Walper** » 2004-12-29 09:33am

Words fail me at the moment.

Post by **LadyTevar** » 2004-12-29 09:39am

CNN.com wrote:American diver underwater during catastropheWednesday, December 29, 2004 Posted: 7:12 AM EST (1212 GMT)

(CNN) -- An American woman who was scuba diving with her husband in Thailand as one of Sunday's tsunamis roared overhead said she was oblivious to the disaster until after they surfaced, her mother told CNN on Tuesday.

Faye Wachs, 34, was diving with her husband, Eugene Kim, Sunday morning off Ko Phi Phi Island in Thailand when they noticed the water visibility worsened and felt as though they were being sucked downward, Helen Wachs said.

Their dive master signaled to them to surface, "but we still didn't know what happened," Faye wrote in an e-mail to her mother Tuesday.

The enormity of what was happening while they were scuba diving was not immediately apparent after they surfaced, Helen Wachs said her daughter told her.

"She said she saw a lot of trash in the water. The dive master said it was really rude for people to throw trash. Then they saw large bits of debris and thought there might have been a boat crash," Helen Wachs said.

She said her daughter didn't know what had happened until the dive master got a text message from his wife telling him about the catastrophe.

Soon they saw bodies floating past them, Wachs' mother said in an interview from Oakland, California, where she lives.

Once they returned to shore, the couple did what they could to help, Helen Wachs said.

"I can't describe carrying a moaning person who just saw his girlfriend killed down a hill in the middle of the night," the e-mail said. "I saw more bodies than I care to report. The hotel where we were staying is mostly gone. We lost everything, but our lives."

Faye Wachs said she was impressed by the efforts of the Thai government and the International Committee for the Red Cross, but "she was appalled at the treatment they got" from the U.S. government, her mother said.

At the airport in Bangkok, other governments had set up booths to greet nationals who had been affected and to help repatriate them, she said.

That was not the case with the U.S. government, Wachs told her mother. It took the couple three hours, she said, to find the officials from the American consulate, who were in the VIP lounge.

Because they had lost all their possessions, including their documentation, they had to have new passports issued.

But the U.S. officials demanded payment to take the passport pictures, Helen Wachs said.

The couple had managed to hold on to their ATM card, so they paid for the photos and helped other Americans who did not have any money get their pictures taken and buy food, Helen Wachs said.

"She was really very surprised" that the government did so little to ease their ordeal, she said.

Helen Wachs said her daughter told her they would need "some serious counseling" upon their return to Los Angeles.

Once aboard the plane, Wachs told her mother, the biggest thing they noticed was the absence of the stench of raw sewage that had permeated the air.

"She said the clean smell was amazing."

Wachs, who described herself as "shell-shocked but happy to be coming home," is scheduled to arrive Wednesday morning in Los Angeles, her mother said.

She returns acutely aware that many thousands of others don't have that option.

"The tourists are able to get out, but those there are left with utter destruction," Helen Wachs said.

Now, I can understand how being underwater saved them from the tsunami, since it's just a larger wave until it hits shore. But the part where the US officials were hiding in the VIP lounge, and charged them for new passports? That's just infuriating!!

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-29 09:54am

Oberleutnant wrote:It seems that some hospitals in Thailand have already been abandoned in fear of possible outbreak of bacterial diseases.

It appears to be only one hospital where the sanitary situation have broken down to the extent that it needs to be evacuated and decontaminated.

wautd · Post by **wautd** » 2004-12-29 09:59am

Didnt followed this topic but in case they havent been posted here before, some movies:

http://politiken.dk/media/wvx/3537.WVX
http://moose.cc/tmp/ts/tsunamiphuket.wmv
http://moose.cc/tmp/ts/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv
http://moose.cc/tmp/ts/patong_beach.wmv

Ace Pace · Post by **Ace Pace** » 2004-12-29 10:09am

Frightening, the 2nd one esspecially.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-29 10:11am

Latest figures, this thing is going beyond 100.000.

Indonesia: up to 80.000, struck by both the quake and the full strenghth Tsunami in a remote and contested area - things could hardly get any worse! Only in Meulaboh the estimates are up to 40.000.
Sri Lanka: 22.493 with 4.028 missing and a possible final count up towards 30.000
Thailand: 1.538 with 9.000 injured - this get the most press but is actually the smallest of the four major disaster areas.
India: 12.400, 7.000 of which are from the islands. But according to some reports this could easily double or tripple, Car Nicobar was flattened to 80% and there were 45.000 people there. 1.000 out of 1500 on Chowra are gone.
Outside these major disaster zones some 2-300 more people were killed.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-12-29 10:18am

jesus christ.......

think of the largest sporting arena/stadium you know of filled with people. Now picture of every one of those people dead. Now double the number.

Goddamn thats horrible.

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2004-12-29 10:42am

In the news they just said that infections and bacterial diseases might kill as much people as the tsunami waves if the situation worsens. United Nations also estimates that as much as five million people have been left without food, water or basic sanitation.

@ CJvR

Okay, thanks.

Old Plympto · Post by **Old Plympto** » 2004-12-29 10:46am

The news gets getting worse and worse. My wife almost had a breakdown reading the newspapers... Stories like this one for example, not to mention the ones from Indonesia and Sri Lanka which, some of which are really heartwrenching.

Col. Crackpot · Post by **Col. Crackpot** » 2004-12-29 10:46am

confirmed, it's over 100,000

the UN is also saying that the death toll in Aceh province alone could reach 80,000.

Stravo · Post by **Stravo** » 2004-12-29 10:59am

There's a small group of islands in that area whose average seal level is 1 meter. They were shitting themselves when news of this got out. Thankfully only the outlying islands got hit but they lost a few hundred people and from a population of about 270,000 thats pretty significant.

The news on this is just numbing now. The number keeps on rising and you just know there's worse to come. I am hoping beyond hope we don't see some nasty pandemics spread like cholera because then we're looking at one of those epic disasters that make you question everything about yourself and if you have faith that as well.

Phil Skayhan · Post by **Phil Skayhan** » 2004-12-29 11:14am

It is sickening to me to know that it is likely that people I have met have been killed by this. I was in Phucket a little over two weeks ago. I was at my parents Chrismas morning when the news came on.

I have already donated what I could to the Red Cross to Thailand. It may not be the worst of the affected countries but it is the one I feel closest to.

CJvR · Post by **CJvR** » 2004-12-29 11:32am

Old Plympto wrote:Stories like this one for example, not to mention the ones from Indonesia and Sri Lanka which, some of which are really heartwrenching.

Yes, and then you realize that there are hundreds - or even thousands of stories just like that one...

Admiral Valdemar · Post by **Admiral Valdemar** » 2004-12-29 01:59pm

ITN reported from Oxfam that the 100k figure may go up a lot more when disease sets in and better searches for bodies goes into action.

They also mentioned how the planet was shuck 1 inch off its axis by the event and showed more amateur footage and satellite images.