South Asia disaster.

While I dont usually like posting unfortuante stories I felt this needed to be given some space. I hope that all our south Asian members and their families managed to come throught this safely.

BBC news source

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Asia battles earthquake aftermath

Many do not know if missing relatives are dead or alive
Survivors and rescuers are battling the devastation left by sea surges that wiped out entire communities, killing about 23,000 people.
The death toll continues to spiral up and mass graves are being dug even as people hunt for the missing.

The extent of the damage is still not known in areas worst hit, including Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India and Thailand.

International aid efforts have begun amid fears that disease could spread through the disaster zone.

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HI,

Yes this is a Very Unfortunate Disaster ................This is the Biggest Tsunami i have ever heard of . :(

And the EarthQuake that Caused this Tsunami is Measured at 9.0 on Ricter Scale that's got to be one of the biggest ever recorded.

Today the Tsunami Reached Africa and hit Parts of Eastern African Countries ........Somalia is the Worst hit of the African countries.........This was definately a Big one ........ it travellet till africa more than 5000 miles away form it's epicenter :eek:

The Casualities are Just increasing ..............Yetserday they reported around 5000 to 6000 ............and today they are Reporting around 25,000 and still counting .........i heard Indian Minister say they are estamiting around 30,000 to 45,000 people dead in total

And it was a Tourist Season there the Tourist resorts were Running House full in Sri-lanka and Andaman and Nicobar Island ................About 10,000 Britons were on holiday on the Thai island of Phuke alone and 3,000 In Shri Lanka and may More in the rest...............These South Asian countries are Favoutites among British Tourists .

peoplea are still Struck on that Andaman and Nicobar Island which is the Closet to the Epicenter of that Earthquake .................and there are 25,000 people on that island and 3000 Tourists ...........Still not much news form that Islands ........... :(


Yes, hope All our Asian Friends here and their Families are Safe .

Best of Luck Guys

--Good Luck--

God bless and watch over all those in the sticken areas. What a horrible tragedy to have to endure.

God harass and torment whomever decided it was not expedient to have some type of detection device in place for just such an occurence. It's not a surprise to anyone that this happened - especially given the volcanic nature of the area.

Quote:

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source
Even Bapat agreed that Indian Satellites and Meteorology departments failed to caution people on the coast about the impending danger. ‘‘The tsunami took 180 minutes to travel to the Chennai coast after the quake in Sumatra coast in Indonesia,’’ he said. That gave two-and-a-half hours time-gap for the authorities to be prepared.

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and this... how horrid...

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source

It emerged that U.S. officials who detected the quake tried frantically to warn Asia the deadly wall of water was on its way but there was no official regional alert system to contact.

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Here are some pictures from Phuket, Thailand by a photographer who managed to have his/her camera ready as the water came around his/her hotel - it is theororized that this is the back side of the island, the side not hit by a 20ft wall of water - http://www.pbase.com/issels/phuket_tsunami&page=all

They also took some pictures around the hotel afterwards - http://www.pbase.com/issels/phuket_after_the_tsunami

Silence..

And all our media were focusing on was the Australian loses.. ****.. a hand full compared to the 10's of thousands of locals..

I am lost for words first for the disaster, and second for our selfish media

our prayers and thoughts are with ALL in the disaster area..

Regards

Quote:

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God harass and torment whomever decided it was not expedient to have some type of detection device in place for just such an occurence. It's not a surprise to anyone that this happened - especially given the volcanic nature of the area.

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The governments concerned decided only last year NOT to install a listening / safety net.
The Pacific IS covered, as it is VERY susceptible to Tsunami.

The Indian Ocean is NOT as susceptible .............

THEY gambled ........the populace lost [as usual]

The earthquake registered at 8.9 on the Richter scale.
Worst one since 1964. [March 27th 1964 ALASKA USA]

Also: even if there were a safety net in place, is the communication infra-structure in place to advise the necessary people that **** IS happening, it's time to head to the high ground ?

And remember :
The Pacific net can give several hours warning, due to the size of the area involved.
The Indian Ocean net would 'only' give an hour or two tops...............

from Google :
http://apsn.awcable.com/1964.htm

An event of this size is completely unfathomable. Its really hard to comprehend the extent to which this disaster has affected the lived of the people in this area. How much they must be suffering!

As for an early warning system, all they would have to do is implement a telephone tree and give the rest of the world, that is watching for these events, a first number to call. something so simple could save thousands, if not tens of thousands of lives.

I am impressed that the world is reacting to this in the way that it is, in 2003 26,000 died in an earthquake in the same area and a few years before that (10?) 30000 plus died in a similar way and it was hardly mentioned. I hope its not just because “foreigners” are involved

The following list was compiled from foreign ministries, embassies and media reports:

- Britain: 11 dead, many missing and at least 69 being treated in hospitals

- Italy: 13 dead, many missing and dozens being treated in hospitals

- Norway: 10 dead

- Sweden: Nine dead, hundreds unaccounted for

- United States: Eight dead

- Denmark: Three dead

- France: Six dead

- Australia: Six dead, 11 missing

- Austria: Four dead

- Belgium: Two dead

- South Africa: Two dead

- Finland: One dead

- New Zealand: One dead, about 180 reported missing

- Malaysia: Unconfirmed reports of three dead

- South Korea: Unconfirmed report of one dead

- Switzerland: Unconfirmed report of one dead, 41 missing

- Poland: Media reports say one likely dead, three hospitalized and about a dozen unaccounted for

- Japan: Media report 15 bodies found in Sri Lanka appear to be those of Japanese

- Russia: Up to 120 missing

- Israel: Dozens missing and 28 injured, four seriously

- Turkey: Foreign ministry says it's unable to reach 23 Turks; media report at least 15 missing

- The Netherlands: 19 confirmed missing, 53 confirmed injured

- Spain: 12 confirmed hospitalized

- Portugal: Three confirmed missing, two confirmed hospitalized

- Czech Republic: Many reported missing, at least five injured

wel lemme add how bad it was ,in andaman nicobar islands, a total of 108-110 islands are present out of which 12 islands are missing!!!! missing ,get it lost
now where to be found

well that was a low populated are ,no one living there except the navy and the coast gaurd along with some tribal people ,but wow, missing islands that wave got to be huge

a warning was launched 3 hrs prior to the Tsunami, but that is too less for the people to evacuate the islands,

indian ocean and the bay of bengal are very unforgiving places to be............

in india we have on saying "IT COULD BE WORSE"
its like we are used to some disaster in a decade
as we had the great GUJRAT earth quake in 99. this Tsunami this year
the earth quake measured 9.0 on Ricter Scale could be worse if it had landed in a highly populas area.

evacuation is not as easy as it seems, here the cities are too over crowded and evacuation need to take place atleast a week before.......belive me a week ..........people are more arrogant and to them the govt means nothing ..............................
the whole of se asian is a diaster waiting to happen . people don't really care,
they say "one day every one has to die so why not today"
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peace to the worthy
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well it just got worse!

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Thousands more bodies were found in Indonesia, dramatically increasing the death toll across 11 nations to around 44,000.

Emergency workers found that 10,000 people had been killed in a single town, Meulaboh, in Aceh province at the northern tip of Sumatra island, the hardest hit region in Indonesia, said Purnomo Sidik, national disaster director at the Social Affairs Ministry.

Another 9,000 were confirmed dead so far in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, and surrounding towns, he said. Along Aceh's hard-hit western coastline, villages were swamped up to the roofs, still unexplored by soldiers combing the area for survivors and dead. Refugees fleeing the area described surviving for days on little more than coconuts before reaching Banda Aceh.

Full Story

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by the end of the relif work the toll count will cross 100 000,
belive me i ve had experiences like this

HI,

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by the end of the relif work the toll count will cross 100 000,

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It has Surpased the 60,000 Figure and still Thousand are Missing ...................Passing 1,00,000 Figure is very well possible :(

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The number of dead from Sunday's Indian Ocean killer waves is likely to rise above 100,000, the Red Cross has said.

Senior agency official Peter Rees said he thought the toll would rise sharply when victims are counted on India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Almost 77,000 people have so far been confirmed dead.

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and the Damage occcured has Very well passsed the GDP of a few Counties...........Moritious and Sri Lanka has said that the Extent of Damage has Surpassed their GDP and are Asking for Foreign help to help Restore ..

India has turned down foreign aid and said they have adequate resources to provide relief to victims of a deadly tsunami .......

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India has turned down foreign aid as it has "adequate resources" to provide relief to victims of a deadly tsunami that killed thousands of Asians, a government official said Wednesday.

India has been flooded with "generous offers of aid" from countries like Russia, the United States, Israel and Japan, said the official who did not want to be named.

The Indian government says it has sent warships, helicopters and aircraft to distribute food, medicines and blankets to neighbouring Sri Lanka and the Maldives and has promised over 23 million dollars in monetary aid.

In addition to the Rs 5 billion provided for relief work Monday by the Indian government, another Rs 2 billion has been earmarked to rebuild rural housing.

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............but the other countiris inthe region can say the same thing....................for most of those Countries Tourism added 20 to 60 % of the GDP and it's all destroid................They wouldn't be able to fend for themselves until outside help is given.

I belive everybody Should rise to the occasion and help with whatever small way we as individuals can .

I little Pack of Chocolate or Biscut( non Perisabale Food items) or Blankets or money is even worth the Effort of you can spare a few.............it can go a long way in helping..................You can Submit the contribution to the nearest Red Cross Office .

WebSites of Some Organisations Involved ithe relif Operations:

World Food Program
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Spcieties


:(

** May God be with all those **

--Good Luck--

HI,

Quote:

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Foreigners Killed in Asia Disaster

By The Associated Press

The tally of foreigners confirmed dead from the quake and tsunamis throughout southern Asia, according to their countries' foreign ministries. Authorities said many more are missing and feared dead. Thai authorities said 473 foreigners from 36 nations were confirmed dead from Thailand's southern resorts alone.

• Britain: 26
  
• Germany: 26
  
• France: 20
  
• Italy: 14
  
• United States: 12
  
• Switzerland: 11
  
• Australia: 9
  
• Sweden: 6
  
• Denmark: 6
  
• Netherlands: 5
  
• Japan: 5
  
• Austria: 5
  
• Finland: 4
  
• South Korea (news - web sites): 4
  
• South Africa: 4
  
• Singapore: 2
  
• Brazil: 2
  
• Belgium: 2
  
• Poland: 1
  
• Russia: 1
  
• Colombia: 1
  
• Taiwan: 1
  
• New Zealand: 1

Source

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Many More are Still not accounted for there are At least 1000 Germans and 1500 Britons Still Missing.


--Good Luck--

not to downplay the extent of this tradgy which is getting worse by the minute.

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YALA NATIONAL PARK, Sri Lanka - Wildlife officials in Sri Lanka expressed surprise Wednesday that they found no evidence of large-scale animal deaths from the weekend's massive tsunami — indicating that animals may have sensed the wave coming and fled to higher ground.

An Associated Press photographer who flew over Sri Lanka's Yala National Park in an air force helicopter saw abundant wildlife, including elephants, buffalo, deer, and not a single animal corpse.

Floodwaters from the tsunami swept into the park, uprooting trees and toppling cars onto their roofs — one red car even ended up on top of a huge tree — but the animals apparently were not harmed and may have sought out high ground, said Gehan de Silva Wijeyeratne, whose Jetwing Eco Holidays ran a hotel in the park.

"This is very interesting. I am finding bodies of humans, but I have yet to see a dead animal," said Wijeyeratne, whose hotel in the park was totally destroyed in Sunday's tidal surge.

Full Story

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Google has just set up a page for the Tsunami relief that lists all of the organizations and such-
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

They are up to almost 100,000 ppl dead or missing now... i live in Texas so i really dont have experience with this kind of thing, all i can really say is God bless those people and goodluck to them.

Really very sad the death are increasing daily...... I am also more concerned about the future of those areas.... how they go live..... where they gona earn?...... and all those diseases..... man this is really bad......
Me Pray for them all & hope GOD help them in this...

Hi,

The death Toll is Well Above 1,14,000 .....................and 5 Million People Are Home less.

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New figures reveal at least 114,000 people died in Sunday's ocean disaster.

Officials in Indonesia say the number killed there is now nearly 80,000 and the death toll from the worst-hit area is set to rise still higher.

Aid workers are meanwhile struggling to reach the millions who survived the devastating waves but who now have little water, food or shelter.

Relief teams and supplies are pouring into the region but have yet to reach the hardest-hit and most remote areas.

There are reports of desperate people fighting over aid. Aftershocks and fears of new tsunamis have sown panic among survivors in Indonesia and India.

Across the region thousands remain unaccounted for since the 9.0 magnitude undersea earthquake off Sumatra that forced a wall of water smashing into coastlines as far away as east Africa.

Click here for map of affected area

The US, Australia, Japan and India have formed a coalition to provide relief.

Foreign governments have pledged more than $220m in aid - $35m of which is promised by the US.

Source

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There is no Signs of Death toll Slowing down it's just Multiplying every hour ......... :eek:

--Good Luck--

Hmmm........

1,14,000

That is sad, and reminds me of friends, you see the strange use of punctuation?

That is a Lakh ( a hundred thousand). Naturally, as with most others I have only associated this with counting money, as in "a lakh of rupees"................not in counting the bodies of dead........

I just hope that some of us get people off their butts, and out there doing something useful........

Terrible

as above said tourisim is a big looser now ,it will take forever to revive the tourisimun countries like maldives and srilanka where it contributes about 20-60%.
but we need to understand that is is totally unpredectable,we can't help it
a flase alarm was raised yesterday about another possibly tsunami , but it was no where to appear.
in that case we lost 48 man hours,this is very precious as we need to recover the bodies if not they will cause aanother epidemic like plague or cholera.

karma

also to add many celebraties had a close shave
jet lee was in marutatius when the tsunami came
more to add

CLAIM: '400,000 DEAD' IN INDONESIA ALONE?

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30 (Bernama) -- The death toll in Acheh, the region worst hit by last Sunday's tsunami, may exceed 400,000 as many affected areas could still not be reached for search and rescue operations, Indonesia's Ambassador to Malaysia Drs H. Rusdihardjo said Thursday.

http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/ne....php?id=111574

Friends, please don't use this thread only to discuss the latest death toll. If you want to help, please send your aid trough UNICEF or other organizations.

The worst hit area is Meulaboh, a small town in the Aceh province in Sumatra island in Indonesia. Nearly the whole town is damaged by the tsunami only 20 minutes after the quake (imagine the distance). Besides the Aceh province, the other province hit is North Sumatra. I live in Jakarta city in the neighboring Java island (yes, Java is an island, not some kind of coffee btw).

A web site has been developed few days ago by the IT community in Indonesia. The aim is to support field team to Aceh and North Sumatra to set up an Internet-based communication system so that the most up-to-date information can be accessed quickly.

Most of the pages have been translated to English. As you can see, I'm not the best person when it comes to English. But I guess I'm the only one in AO who speaks Bahasa Indonesia (Indonesian language). So just ask if you need some translation or other info.

You can visit the site here: www.airputih.or.id/en (air putih means plain water).

Some official info from our government as of yesterday (12/30).

o Aid program for Aceh province.

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Population:            4.5 million
Number of cities/towns: 21
Banda Aceh (capital):  350,000
Dead victims:          30,000 - 40,000
Survivors/injured:      500,000
Damaged houses:        100,000

  I. Emergency period: Dec 2004 - Dec 2005
 II. Rehabilitation period: Feb 2005 - Feb 2006
III. Reconstruction period: Feb 2005 - Feb 2009

Fund needed for emergency period:
1. Food (500,000 people x Rp. 5,000 x 12 months x 30 days)    = Rp.    90 billion
2. Clothes (500,000 people x 5 sheets x Rp. 20,000)          = Rp.    50 billion
3. Medical services (500,000 people x 12 months x Rp. 25,000) = Rp.  150 billion
4. Temporary shelters
  2,500 tents x Rp. 40,000,000                              = Rp.  100 billion
  Construction materials                                    = Rp.    50 billion
5. Water, electricity, etc.                                  = Rp.  100 billion

  Total                                                      = Rp. 1.350 trillion

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Note: US $ 1 is about Indonesian Rp. 9,300. So the total is about US $ 145 million.

o The government of Japan has stated their commitment to give US $ 1.3 millions grant to Indonesia. Also, Australia, Singapore and Malaysia have sent at least 10 aircrafts (Hercules, Boeing 707, Beech Craft). They will be used by TNI-AU (Indonesian's military air force) in the social and humanity aid operation until Jan 2005.

May God bless us all.

Peace always,
<jdenny>

Hi jdenny,

I am glad to hear that you are OK...............I hope the same goes for friends and family................

The British Government pledged £15 million......................within a few days the British people had raised £25 million.....................so the British Government pledged £50 million................it will get bigger...........a LOT bigger.

What really p1$$es me off is that we have a moderately large Army, Navy and Air Force.............what are they doing?.............£50million is no good if it comes 4 weeks later?...........the "civilised" (rich) nations have to be able to deliver in 72 hours, NOT 28 days?

OK, 48 hour combat rations are not the finest food............but they do keep people alive..........an army tent is not the best accommodation...............

My point is we need people on the ground NOW!

God bless you all

It is true that the biggest problem for the survivor is going to be getting the aid to them. It is not going to be easy to deal with all the logisitical problemes in the disaster area. As Nihil said they need people and material on the ground now if not sooner.

I feel that I must post this, and appreciate it may not be a view shared by many, but it is how I feel. It never ceases to amaze me that in the event of some disaster anywhere in the world, millions of £, $, euros, can be raised in a matter of days.Our own local communities are suffering now, have been for years. A fraction of the donations from government and the public would alleviate much of this poverty and suffering. I do not advocate not giving /donating etc to disaster funds, but if you were realistic and logical, where is the money coming from to help our local communities. Charity should begin at home, but very seldom does

Jim,

I think that is a rather different issue. What we have here is a major natural disaster. The people need emergency rations, fresh drinking water, sanitation, medical supplies, ships, aircraft, helicopters, landing craft, bulldozers. And trained personnel.

These are things that our military can provide in significant quantities. They are not much use for our domestic problems, certainly in EU member states. These are more social welfare issues for us.

My view is that we have hundreds of thousands of people who are in serious risk of dying. Their resources have been totally overwhelmed. I see no harm in using our military to provide the short term assistance that is required. We are paying for them anyway, and they have the experience in rapid deployment.

The main problem with private donations is that it will be too late before they actually reach the sites and become tangible support.

Guys i see the relief operations everyday here in kalpakkam.People fight against each other to get what they are given though there is lots of relief rushing in it remains a question whether it would reach the right people.But all the water here is being supplied by UNICEF we should be thankful for it.

At least for once the victims are benefiting from all the political rivalry for reconition. This article from the bbc sums it up nicely. Public opinion has pulled the politicians along behind them and I know that seems harsh but who cares as long as the aid gets to the people that need it.

And jm459 this could explain the reasons why it is while charity should start at home for the politicians it doesnt.

bbc news source

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Big pledges yield benefits for donors

By John Simpson
BBC world affairs editor


It has taken George W Bush some days to realise what ordinary people want their leaders to do at times of great international suffering. To be fair, he's by no means the only one.

Many people have lost everything in the disaster.
Tony Blair and leaders from countries as far apart as Japan and Scandinavia, mostly off duty for the holidays, have also been accused of slowness and stinginess.

Now President Bush is starting to move, pledging $350m in total aid, sending 1,500 US marines to Sri Lanka, and a dozen naval vessels and 40 helicopters to the region; and of course his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush.

UN snub

Up to now there has been a certain amount of political jostling between Mr Bush and the UN Secretary General, Kofi Annan, over who should take the lead in dealing with the disaster.
Mr Bush and his strongest supporters detest Kofi Annan for denouncing last year's invasion of Iraq as illegal.
It looked very much as though Mr Bush's initial proposal of an ad-hoc coalition of four countries to sort out the tsunami disaster was intended as a deliberate snub to the UN, which actually has some experience of these things, such as last year's earthquake in Iran.

Plus it has groups of officials ready to deal with crisis like this one.
The standard opinion inside the Bush administration is that the UN is useless in dealing with international crisis.
It is not necessarily true, but it is an article of faith for just about everyone on the right of American politics.

Perhaps, too, there was a bit of feeling in the White House that the countries most affected by the disaster were all a bit questionable - Indonesia, with its strong Islamic tradition, say, or India, which has been traditionally wary of the US.

Political currency

But that initial phase of slowness and unwillingness to spend money is finished; now governments are falling over themselves to show how concerned they are.
In other words, they have spotted that there are real advantages in being generous.

So we are now starting to see all sorts of examples: Pakistan donating money to India, its great rival, only two years since they were waving nuclear weapons at one another, and Japan leapfrogging the Europeans and Americans and announcing a $500m aid package.

Suddenly aid has become deeply politicised.
These are the times when government aid buys respect, influence and the support of voters back home.
It is the politics of the big gesture, and if that sounds unduly cynical, the fact is that big gestures are precisely what is required at times like these.

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