Tragedy - Earthquake followed by Tsunami in South & Southeastern Asia

Seems like Malaysia and India were the most badly hit countries. Thailand, Sri Lanka and Indonesia were also hit. Local newspapers here in Brazil say that up to now the death count is at about 3,000, including a lot of tourists. I read somewehre that it may actually be double that.

The quake itself was 8.9 Richter, and happened on the west coast of Sumatra (about a thousand miles away from the capital of Indonesia). The tsunamis are what impressed me most. I had learned that usually the sea level quickly lowers a few feet before the wave comes. This one had a considerable sea level rise before it happened. The waves were [edit] up to 10 meters high, about 30 feet.[/edit] Yep, tsunamis may generate bigger ones, but these ones covered a really large area, accounting for one of the biggest disasters ever.

Dead people were found stuck to high tree branches. Boats were taken far off the coast, both towards the sea and the land.

Now, 3 to 6 thousands of people have died, but many more have disappeared so there’s no knowing (yet) whether they are alive, and millions (you read it right, it’s been reported. One million only in Sri Lanka, ) have lost their homes, specially in fishermen villages in India.

It’s sad and disturbing. And all the time I kept thinking, it could have happened anywhere else in the world. I live in a coastal city, it could have been here.

Thankfully, humanitary help is coming into the most affected sites from a lot of countries. I wish a fast rebuilding to all those who lost their homes and workplaces.

Yes, this is quite the catastrophe. The total death toll is over 7,000 at the moment.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125481.stm

Prays for those who died and their families :too bad:

Jeez…

Damn…

I think something is about to happen BIG over there. Look in the news nets. Thats actually the second one. The first one happened off of Australia. And almost just as big (8.6). lets see if Japan gets one. Then its bad.

Actually, this disaster is considered the 5 biggest in a century or a century and a half, I think. There was another big one some 40 years ago too.

I think a real bad one that could happen is the explosion of a volcano in the Atlantic. There’s this volcano which is said to be building pressure, and if it explodes, it’ll be Krakatoa 2.0.

May they live beyond life.

If I may be so crass, this majorly sucks. ;_;

has a moment of silence

Man, that’s terrible. Hopefully it doesn’t get any worse.

Ouch…

The death toll has is nearing 13 thousands. The east coast of India is full of fishermen villages, plus that’s a country with a population almost the same as that of China. Sum this with some other conditions from the other countries involved, this one has the potential to be the worst natural tragedy of human history.

To date, the worst disaster I have notices of happened in China and took some 242 thousands of lives. I hope I’m wronged, but this “seaquake” may have gone beyond that.

Anyway, many bodies were swallowed by the ocean, so we may never know the amount of dead.

Last night on the news they said it was 9.0 n the richter scale…

One of the worsts stories i have heard is about a place called emerald cave frequented by scuba divers. It can only be accessed by swiming through on underwater tunnel. It gets its name from the effect of lifgt coming through a small hole in the roof and refracting off the white sand beach, turning the clear water emerald. It is believed thatthere were divers in there when the wave hot, driving water into the cave, thowing the contents around and driving it through the hole in the roof.

Mmm… population control…

:kissy:

That sucks, but it did look cool on the news.

Eden, that’s terrible.

I hope that as many as possible can be saved. This is absolutely terrifying.

I was watching this on CNN, and one of the comments really pissed me off. It was something like, “Over 10 000 people are dead, and three of them are American.”

What the fuck? Why do they single out the americans? Is it supposed to be a tragedy that 3 americans died in a disaster that killed thousands of asians? Why exaggerate their importance? I’m not trying to say their deaths are unimportant, but fuck. It’s like they were saying ten thousand people died, but who gives a fuck about them. THREE americans died! TRAGEEDDYYYY.

Yeah, right. God, I hate CNN.

They didn’t even comment on CANADIANS LIVES lost. :’<

CNN = teh dev0l

In late breaking news, with these disasters comes the return of the dreaded SARS virus. People are advised to procure a weapon and fire wildly into the air in a mass panic.

That sucks the big one. It’s just very sad.

Up to now the Death Toll is 23 thousands. BBC has a footage of the moment the wave hit an hotel. Yeah, a cinegraphist had the balls to filme the wave instead of running away.

On the way to Grouse they had the same thing, “Blahblahblah stuffaboutcanadasendingaddandhowyoucan even 7 canadians are missing and thought to be dead blah blah aboutrisingdeathtoll blhablahblah pleasegiveaddtohelpthosewhoarenowwithoutshelter”

You just need to listen to the right source.

:kissy: