posted
Last official death toll was 59 300, tsunamis hitting right smack on late sunday morning when the beaches were filling with people. Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, East Africa and 5 other countries, I think.
The swedish foreign agency spread misinformation during the early hours after the initial news yesterday, saying "all swedish tourists have been accounted for and are safe". About 1500 swedish tourists have since then been reported missing, 10 confirmed dead. Swedish, british and german tourists make out the majority of the foreigners in Thailand and Sri Lanka during the season.
My neighbor who lives in the apartment over mine was in Sri Lanka, he was dragged out into the sea and ripped up against the debris, reefs and seashells, they eventually found him struggling to reach the shore and got help, I heard this from my father two hours ago.
My other friend was also in Sri Lanka, I didn't hear from him until this morning, he said it was a close call but he'd been very fortunate and had managed to get further inland during the evacuation. He still has to go back to Colombo, the capital, to travel home again, I feel so sorry for all the misery he'll be seeing.
I hope to God no one else here has any relatives or friends down there.
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
The front page of the Houston Chronicle has the picture of a little boy from Sweden holding a sign saying that he's missing his parents and brothers. It breaks the heart; I hope he finds his family.
I'm glad that you've heard from your friends, Nim.
-------------------- The philosopher's stone. Those who possess it are no longer bound by the laws of equivalent exchange in alchemy. They gain without sacrifice and create without equal exchange. We searched for it, and we found it.
Registered: Mar 1999
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I read about the coordinated help efforts being planned now, the largest aid project ever undertaken by the UN, WHO, Save The Children and all other organisations. It feels so strange and scary to see history being written in the now, that I'm seeing and reading of things that happen in realtime, things that in years to come will be referred-back-to as fact.
I both long for and fear the time when I'll see my friend again, I've never before met anyone I previously feared was dead.
The swedish correspondents say the stench of death and decomposition is already unbearable, and some Thai people are looting the corpses for jewels and valuables. I also read a transcript from someone at the temples where they pile the bodies, saying that half of all casualties are babies and small children.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
Registered: Aug 1999
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posted
This seems to be the largest natural disaster in recent memory...not because of the death toll (as of now) but because of the number of countries affected and the distances the waves traveled.
I also heard on the news that the quake reshaped the coast of Sumatra and messed with the earth's rotation, making Dec. 26 a very slightly shorter day than it should have been. My God, this is horrible.
-------------------- "You are a terrible human, Ritten." Magnus "Urgh, you are a sick sick person..." Austin Powers A leek too, pretty much a negi.....
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@Ritten: Stop joking about that! This is really nothing to poke fun at!
My girlfriend had booked a trip to the Maledives starting 4 Jan but was lucky to be able to cancel. I always think about what might have happened had she gone over Christmas.
And that photo of the Swedish boy was on our newspaper cover today too. It really breaks the heart, especially to know that he is just one of thousands of children who have lost their families!
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I read about the 'probable' wobble in the earth's rotation - but not about anything to do with 'a shorter day'. Got a website?
I'm wondering if there is any connection with the 8.1 mag earthquake that took place a few days earlier off the coast of Maquarie Island - south of Tasmania and South west of New Zealand. You can trace the major fault lines between the two.
I can't believe the waves travelled all the way to Africa! samped Maldives, Mauritus, Reunion(That's a long way) and The Seychelles.
Plus the East African countries of Somalia, Kenya and Tanzania.
I read that there were dramatic tide increases experienced as far away as Mexico!!
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posted
And California apparently, though there it was not a "dramatic" tide increase.
-------------------- Lister: Don't give me the "Star Trek" crap! It's too early in the morning. - Red Dwarf "The Last Day"
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
And the most damning thing about it all is that the Thai ministry of Tourism, which was INFORMED of the approaching tsunamis WELL before they hit the shores, didn't even bother to issue a fucking WARNING for fear of spreading "unnecessary" panic and the usual self-apologetic bullshit. So, thanks to a bunch of government officials more concerned for their own necks than for the lives of THOUSANDS, bodies are now floating through the streets of Phuket. Go humanity.
-------------------- ".mirrorS arE morE fuN thaN televisioN" - TEH PNIK FLAMIGNO
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted
I'm not saying you're wrong but if we're to judge the actions of the Thai authorities, we'd need to read the exchanges between warning stations and decision makers those couple of days.
I read that the info they had to work with stated that the quake was a 8.0 initially, and they had gotten a 8.0 in the region a few months earlier, which didn't produce any waves whatsoever. They obviously underestimated the quake, but I don't think they did a coverup on this, or we wouldn't have gotten wind of it.
-------------------- "I'm nigh-invulnerable when I'm blasting!" Mel Gibson, X-Men
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