Strongest quake IN THE WORLD since 1964!

Tsunami kills as many as 4,500
By Simon Gardner

COLOMBO (Reuters) - The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years has hit southern Asia, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into Sri Lanka and India, drowning thousands and swamping tourist isles in Thailand and the Maldives.

A wall of water up to 10 metres (30 feet) high triggered by the 8.9 magnitude earthquake swept into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and across southern Thai tourist islands, leaving more than 4,500 feared dead in seaside towns and villages.

Two-thirds of the Maldives capital, Male, was flooded and officials voiced anxiety for the fate of dozens of low-lying, palm-ringed coral atolls crowded with international tourists for the Christmas holiday season.

Sri Lanka, where officials put the death toll at 2,200, appealed for emergency international assistance, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office said. One million people, or 5 percent of the population, were affected, officials said.

"The president has declared a state of national disaster due to the seriousness of the situation," her office said.

India feared a devastating toll along its southeastern coast. In the state of Tamil Nadu alone, a government official said at least 1,625 had been killed. Rescuers were searching for hundreds of missing fishermen. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put the armed forces on alert.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey first struck at 7:59 a.m. on Sunday (12:59 a.m. British time) off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands.

In Thailand, at least 223 people had been killed and more than 1,000 injured, officials said.

In popular holiday islands off southern Thailand, rescue workers extracted about 70 Thai and foreign divers from the famed Emeral Cave and several dozen were found and evacuated from around other islands, officials said.

Two Thais were killed at Emeral cave, a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to its tiny beach and water illuminated by sunshine pouring through a hole in the roof, police said.

Officials said more than 600 tourists and locals were being evacuated by air and sea from Ko Phi Phi, the tiny island made famous by the 2000 film "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio.

The Thai government ordered the evacuation of stricken coastal areas, which included popular beach resorts on the islands of Phuket and Krabi.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

BIGGEST QUAKE IN 40 YEARS

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden, Colorado. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline."

It was the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900, she said.

"These big earthquakes, when they occur in shallow water, ... basically slosh the ocean floor ... and it's as if you're rocking water in the bathtub and that wave can travel basically throughout the ocean," USGS geophysicist Bruce Presgrave told the BBC.

In Sri Lanka, thousands fled the worst tsunami in living memory, scrambling to higher ground for fear of another wave.

"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams; we have deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake.

The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of the south and east where beach hotels were inundated or swept away.

"Our naval base in Trincomalee is underwater and right now we are trying to manage the situation there while rescuing people," said navy spokesman Jayantha Perera.

In the low-lying Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was to declare a national disaster in the archipelago whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists from around the world, said chief government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed.

"The damage is considerable," Shaheed said. "The island is only about three feet (one metre) above sea level and a wave of water four feet (1.3 metres) high swept over us."

The international airport was unusable, he said.

"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," Shaheed said.

"As you know it is the peak tourist season. We are trying to get reports from those areas. The whole of the Maldives is a tourist area so we are just hoping and praying."

The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three waves ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2,500.

CHILDREN TORN FROM PARENTS' ARMS

At least 483 people were killed on Sunday on Indonesia's Sumatra island where the wave washed people out to sea and tore children from their parents' arms, officials said.

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where plate boundaries intersect and volcanoes regularly erupt.

To the north in Thailand, officials reported one wave 5 to 10 metres (16 to 32 feet) high hit hotel-lined beaches on Phuket.

"It happened in cycles. There would be a surge and then it would retreat and then there would be a next surge which was more violent and it went on like that," Paul Ramsbottom, a Briton on holiday in a Phuket beach bungalow, told BBC World.

"Then there was this one almighty surge. I mean literally this was the one which was picking up pickup trucks and motorcycles and throwing them around in front of us," he added.

One foreigner was known to be among the dead in Krabi.

Thai television showed scenes of devastation on one Phuket beach. Store fronts were damaged and cars and motorcycles were strewn around after being tossed about by the powerful waves.

A Thai man carried one elderly Western man in swimming trunks to safety on his back, ITV showed.

About 100 people had died in Madras alone, the city's police commissioner, K. Natarajan, told reporters. "The bodies in the hospital are mostly young women and children."

That's terrible. Those poor people.

Death toll is over 7,000 now and will likely climb. Thousands missing. Up to 1 million in India displaced or affected in some way by the quake. ohno:

Aftermath of the Tsunami in Phucket, Thailand:

http://wwwi.reuters.com/images/mdf803976.jpg

http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/msnbc/Components/Photos/041226/041226_tidal_hmed_6a.hmedium.jpg

Tidal waves kill thousands across Asia
Magnitude 8.9 quake in Indonesia triggers deadly flooding
MSNBC News Services Updated: 10:02 a.m. ET Dec. 26, 2004

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world’s most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 7,000 people in six countries.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.

Stunned Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra called the tsunamis unprecedented.

“Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before,” he said.

In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 3,000 people were killed, the country’s top police official said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,900 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and two in Bangladesh.

But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India’s southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.

In Vatican City, Pope John Paul II appealed for swift international help to those afflicted by the earthquake and subsequent tidal waves.

“The Christmas feast has been made sad by the news that reaches us from Southeast Asia,” he told a crowd in St. Peter’s Square for his Sunday blessing on the day after Christmas.

“We pray for the victims of this enormous tragedy and we assure our solidarity for those who are suffering, while we hope that the international community will get moving to bring help to the stricken populations,” the pope said.

The European Union has said it will send an initial $4 million in aid to the region, Reuters reported.

The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world’s fifth largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 quake hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.

“The weather was fine with no clouds, there was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city. In some parts the water was up to chest level,” Bustami, a resident of the Indonesian city of Lhokseumawe, told Reuters by telephone.

“People are panicking now. Some of us are walking by foot and others are on military trucks going to higher ground," Bustami said.

The effects of Sunday’s quake rippled across the region, as towns were crushed by floodwaters and fishermen were swept out to sea.

In Sri Lanka, the office of the prime minister said that more than 3,000 people were killed. Some 1 million others — 5 percent of the population — were displaced by the waters.

“The death toll is going up all the time,” said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the prime minister.

“The president has declared a state of national disaster due to the seriousness of the situation," President Chandrika Kumaratunga’s office said.

An Associated Press photographer near Colombo, Sri Lanka, counted 24 bodies in a stretch of four miles. Rows of men and women were standing on the road asking if anyone had seen their family members.

In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore. The states of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry were hit hardest, officials and rescue workers said.

Residents of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh states said 12-foot storm surges slammed into shore.

“I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper,” said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andhra Pradesh’s Kakinada town. “I had never imagined anything like this could happen.”

Cabinet Secretary B. K. Chaturvedi told reporters that the Indian air force would drop food packets, medicines and diesel generating sets in the affected areas.

In Indonesia, hospital and local officials said the death toll had reached at least 1,870.

Communications were down in several coastal towns facing the epicenter of the undersea quake off the western coast of the island’s Aceh Province, raising fears of widespread and as yet unreported damage on the island.

“We have never seen anything like this. The waves just kept coming. We have fled to high areas for safety,” Kibaret Sarumaha, a resident on Nias, told Metro TV.

Nearly 200 people died in popular southern Thailand resorts, officials said. The Narenthorn Center of the Public Health Ministry said people were swept away in Phuket by a tsunami with 16-foot waves. More than 1,900 were injured and many others were missing.

Waves reported to be up to 30 feet high crashed into beaches, where thousands of tourists were lazing on the country’s renowned white sand beaches when the earthquake struck. Hundreds of bungalows, boats and cars were carried out to sea.

Police and rescue workers in Malaysia said 42 people were killed. More than 1,000 homes across numerous fishing villages were destroyed as waves roared into the coastline, leaving hundreds of families homeless, disaster officials said.

Two-thirds of the Maldives capital, Male, was flooded and officials voiced anxiety for the fate of dozens of low-lying, palm-ringed coral atolls crowded with international tourists for the holiday season.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the “Ring of Fire” around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan’s northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

Madras, India after the Tsunami:

http://www.foxnews.com/photo_essay/photoessay_248_images/eq_round3.jpg

This may be the largest Tsunamis ever caused by an Earthquake in World history.

Sri Lanka: 2,425 killed. One million considered affected. National emergency declared.

India: 1,800 feared killed in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and the
Andaman and Nicobar Islands. 400 fishermen feared missing.

Indonesia: 1,873 killed in Sumatra

In Chennai, India, the force of the waves threw cars off the coast road. Several hundred are feared dead in Tamil Nadu state.

Thailand: 400 feared killed. 100 tourists, especially divers missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit. Hundreds of holiday bungalows on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea. Officially 99 confirmed dead and 1,100 injured.

Malaysia: 28 killed, 21 in Penang and 7 in Kedah.

Maldives: 10 killed. Two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded. Outlying low-level atolls may be badly affected. State of emergency declared.

Seychelles: 2 killed (unconfirmed report).

Cocos (Keeling) Islands

Réunion : Many boats sunk.

Over 11,000 and climbing by the minute.

India
Over 3,200 killed (1724 in Tamil Nadu, over 1000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 280 in Pondichery, 121 in Kerala and 61 in Andhra Pradesh). Hundreds feared missing (800 in Andhra Pradesh alone).

Indonesia
Some 4,422 killed on the island of Sumatra. Dozens of buildings destroyed in the initial earthquake, especially in the city of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. However, most deaths were the result of the tsunami that struck, in particular, western coastal regions of Aceh and North Sumatra provinces. An accurate picture of the damage is difficult due to the ongoing insurgency of the Free Aceh Movement, which means that there are few journalists, government offices, or aid workers in the region. Indonesian government officials are concerned at the lack of communication with towns along the southwestern coast of Sumatra.

Malaysia
53 killed, 38 in Penang, 12 in Kedah, 2 in Perak and one in Selangor, 34 missing.

Maldives
15 killed and the death toll is expected to rise. Two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded during the early hours of the day. Outlying low-level atolls were badly affected and some low lying islands were completely submerged during the high tide. The government has declared a state of emergency and a special task force has been setup to provide aide and supplies to the needy in the islands. Communications services has been badly affected and there was no prior rescue or relief plan whatsoever for a disaster like this.

Sri Lanka
At least 4,500 killed, mostly children and elderly. One million people have been displaced from their ruined homes. At Trincomalee, the tsunami reached more than 2 km inland. The government states that it has little information on the situation in the northern regions controlled by the rebel Tamil Tigers. 20,000 soldiers were deployed in government-controlled areas to assist in relief operations and maintain law and order after sporadic looting. Local media reported that landmines left after the two decade civil war had been washed up and spread by the surge of water.

The government reports at least 3000 dead in the south, while an official Tamil Tiger website reports 1500 dead in rebel areas.

Thailand
400 feared killed, 289 confirmed, 1,100 injured. 100 tourists, mainly scuba divers, are reported missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit. Hundreds of holiday bungalows on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea.

Bangladesh: 2 killed due to the tremors. No reports of tsunamis.
Cocos (Keeling) Islands: After earlier scares, no casualties were reported.
Réunion: Many boats sunk.
Seychelles: 2 reportedly killed.
Somalia: 9 drowned and fishing boats were capsized. The only African nation to report casualties, though alerts were issued for the coasts of eastern Africa.

its awful i know a few people from that part of the world my prayers to them and ther familes

State Department confirms 2 Americans dead in Sri Lanka and 1 dead in Thailand with numerous injured. Death toll likely to go higher.

That's sad :(

That's horrible. The biggest one in 40 years! :eek: My prayers go out to them. :(

Wow, that is one big quake.
I first heard about it last night. The (radio) news said a large quake in Indonesia had struck. I thought maybe 7 or 7.5. When I heard 8.5 (which was the first reading given), I was surprised it was that big. Then, when I heard 8.9, I knew it was one of the world's biggest quakes ever recorded.
The 1964 Alaska quake is listed as 8.6 (Richter magnitude) and an incredible 9.2 Moment magnitude).
The 1960 Chile quake is listed as 8.4 (Richter) and an astounding 9.5 (Moment) which is considered the biggest known earthquake ever in the world.
(The Richter scale is useful only for quakes up to about 7; it is not as precise or accurate for quakes over 7.)

Regarding last night's quake, I actually heard that it affected the Earth's rotation for a few moments. That's kind of scary when you think about it!

It's been upgraded to 9.0! :eek:

The earthquake station in Northwest Alabama reported movement from it. No it wasn't felt at the surface, but it was felt worldwide(it's as far from the epicenter as you can get here).

Like Fleet, I heard about it before I went to bed. All that was known at the time was a big earthquake, I didn't really expect much. I couldn't believe the reports this morning, but it didn't surprise me after learning about the Tsunami. That area is probably the worst of the earthquake-prone areas to get hit by one of them. They don't have a warning system like the Pacific does. :(

I can't believe it. That was the first largest earthquake in 40 years.ohno: I thought it looks like the end of the world is coming. That's sad.:( Asia was the most powerful disaster ever to hit by an earthquake.

Originally posted by Full House
I can't believe it. That was the first largest earthquake in 40 years.ohno: I thought it looks like the end of the world is coming. That's sad.:( Asia was the most powerful disaster ever to hit by an earthquake.

Asia was a disaster? :p

My mom told me about this. Oh, this is very terrible. :(

Sri Lanka, where officials put the death toll at 2,200, appealed for emergency international assistance, President Chandrika Kumaratunga's office said. One million people, or 5 percent of the population, were affected, officials said.
Oh, man! Sri Lanka? Ohh... One of my Sri Lankan co-worker's relatives live in Sri Lanka. It's a tiny country. I hope they're all right. :(

Originally posted by swedeace
My mom told me about this. Oh, this is very terrible. :(


Oh, man! Sri Lanka? Ohh... One of my Sri Lankan co-worker's relatives live in Sri Lanka. It's a tiny country. I hope they're all right. :(

It's very bad... the island was devastated along with coastal and tourist :( areas of Thailand, Southern India, Sumatra, Indonesia, and even Somalia had 9 drownings! omg:

India

In Chennai, India, the force of the waves threw cars off the road.Over 3,200 killed (1724 in Tamil Nadu, over 1000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, 280 in Pondichery, 121 in Kerala and 61 in Andhra Pradesh). Hundreds feared missing (800 in Andhra Pradesh alone). Most of the people killed were fisherfolk who lived along the coast. Many fishermen, both at home and at sea were missing.

Initial reports hinted at very few casualties from the Andaman and Nicobar islands, but after many subsequent earthquakes near Nicobar, thousands were feared to have been killed. Communication with the Nicobars was also reported to be lost.

The worst damage, however was in Tamil Nadu, where the official toll was 1724, mostly women and children. Over 690 were killed in the Nagapattinam district alone, over 300 in the Cuddalore district, over 280 in the Kanyakumari district and over 200 in Chennai city. It was reported that there was no space for even helicopters to land in Cuddalore district.

Those killed in Kanyakumari include pilgrims taking a holy dip in the sea. 650 of about 700 people trapped at the Vivekananda Memorial in an island off Kanyakumari were rescued while the search is on for others. In Chennai along the Marina beach, people taking part in various sports activities (including children), and those who were having a morning walk along the beach, were washed away. It being a Sunday there were more people than usual on the beach.

The Indian Army, Navy and Coast Guard were pressed into service for undertaking rescue operations and to air-drop food to the tsunami victims. The chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh announced ex gratia relief for those affected by the tsunamis.

Indonesia
Some 4,422 killed on the island of Sumatra. Dozens of buildings destroyed in the initial earthquake, especially in the city of Banda Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. Up to three-fourths of Indonesian deaths occurred in Banda Aceh. Most deaths were the result of the tsunami that struck the western coastal regions of Aceh and North Sumatra provinces. An accurate picture of the damage is difficult due to the ongoing insurgency of the Free Aceh Movement, which means that there are few journalists, government offices, or aid workers in the region. Indonesian government officials are concerned at the lack of communication with towns along the southwestern coast of Sumatra, including several small surfing and scuba diving resorts.

Malaysia
People were swept away from beaches as the tsunami hit, resulting in the deaths of 53 people - 38 in Penang, 12 in Kedah, 2 in Perak and one in Selangor. 34 people are missing. The deaths at Penang were reported to include many children who were playing on the beach. No deaths are reported among foreign tourists.

Maldives

Malé, the capital island of Maldives was severely hit by the tsunamis. 15 killed and the death toll is expected to rise. Two-thirds of the capital city Malé was flooded during the early hours of the day. Outlying low-level atolls were badly affected and some low lying islands were completely submerged during the high tide. The government has declared a state of emergency and a special task force has been setup to provide aide and supplies to the needy in the islands. Communications services has been badly affected and there was no prior rescue or relief plan whatsoever for a disaster like this.

Sri Lanka
At least 4,500 killed, mostly children and elderly. Approximately one million people have been displaced from their ruined homes. At Trincomalee, the tsunami reached more than 2 km inland. The government states that it has little information on the situation in the northern regions controlled by the rebel Tamil Tigers. 20,000 soldiers were deployed in government-controlled areas to assist in relief operations and maintain law and order after sporadic looting. Local media reported that landmines left after the two decade civil war had been washed up and spread by the surge of water.

The government reports at least 3000 dead in the south, while an official Tamil Tiger website reports 1500 dead in rebel areas.

Thailand
Thai media report that over 1,000 are feared killed, with 392 confirmed and 1,100 injured. 100 tourists, mainly scuba divers, are reported missing. The popular tourist resort of Phuket was badly hit. The bodies of 44 foreign tourists are reported to have been recovered at Phuket. Hundreds of holiday bungalows on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea. Among those reported missing are Bhumi Jensen, a grandson of King Rama IX, and a former government minister.

Originally posted by Brent88
It's very bad... the island was devastated along with coastal and tourist :( areas of Thailand, Southern India, Sumatra, Indonesia, and even Somalia had 9 drownings! omg:
Aw, man... That means my co-worker is probably going back soon. :( This is all just terrible for these countries!!

Seattle is due for an big earthquake sometime, one that scientists are predicting will cause a tsunami in the Puget Sound.

That and Mt. Rainier is set to erupt in the near future.

Originally posted by Captain ABlairica
Seattle is due for an big earthquake sometime, one that scientists are predicting will cause a tsunami in the Puget Sound.

That and Mt. Rainier is set to erupt in the near future.
True, many people don't know it, but there was a huge (though offshore) earthquake in Washington state around 1690. These are estimated to occur as little as every 300 years to as much as every 900 years. It is estimated to have been about a 9 magnitude. These quake originate on the Cascadia Subduction Zone which begins in northern California and goes northwest off the coast of Oregon, Washington and southern Canada- a total of about 750 miles. If this subduction zone breaks in separate segments, it would probably mean magnitude 8 earthquakes. If the whole zone breaks all of once, it could be a 9 magnitude.

As for Mt. Rainier, yes that volcano and others possibly could erupt. Or it stay dormant. We'll just have to wait and see!

Originally posted by Captain ABlairica
Seattle is due for an big earthquake sometime, one that scientists are predicting will cause a tsunami in the Puget Sound.

That and Mt. Rainier is set to erupt in the near future.

Guess what's at the other end of the ring of fire(connected to the fault that caused today's quake)?

Alaska, Washington and California. :eek:

All three of those are way overdue(especially WA and CA). Alaska's had some big ones in recent years.

that earthquake is a preview of whats to come. California is do for a big earthquake and we don't know when it will strike and how hard. in Northern California we have Mt. Shasta that's dormant, but it could erupt if we have strong seismic activity and there could be a tsunami as well and I don't think were prepared for that. that would also change the climate making more areas low lying and out here you can see how the land is slowly sinking down. if it could be picked up as far as the US then we close to something big.

There was a big earthquake off Tasmania two day ago. it seemed too have been a lead up to the big one

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2004-12/24/content_403149.htm

Originally posted by Brent88
Guess what's at the other end of the ring of fire(connected to the fault that caused today's quake)?

Alaska, Washington and California. :eek:

All three of those are way overdue(especially WA and CA). Alaska's had some big ones in recent years.

Ring of Fire

Johnny Cash

Love is a burning thing
and it makes a firery ring
bound by wild desire
I fell in to a ring of fire...

I fell in to a burning ring of fire
I went down,down,down
and the flames went higher.
And it burns,burns,burns
the ring of fire
the ring of fire.

The taste of love is sweet
when hearts like our's meet
I fell for you like a child
oh, but the fire went wild..

I fell in to a burning ring of fire.....[etc]

Yes, I know about the Ring of Fire circling the globe, and yep, we here in the Pacific Northwest are definitely on it! I thought I'd throw in some of the Man in Black while I was at it.

:lol:

Originally posted by Captain ABlairica
Ring of Fire

Johnny Cash

:lol:
From 1963. :)

Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 13,340 People

6 minutes ago World - AP Asia
By DILIP GANGULY, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles and killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century.

The death toll along the southern coast of Asia — and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost — steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years.

Signs of the carnage were everywhere: Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through the debris of destroyed houses amid the smell of rotting corpses. Hundreds of prisoners escaped a coastal jail in Sri Lanka.

More than one million people were driven from their homes in Indonesia alone, and rescuers there on Monday combed seaside villages for survivors. The Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas.

Another million were driven from their homes in Sri Lanka where some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters were deployed in relief and rescue efforts, authorities said.

At Thailand's beach resorts, packed with Europeans fleeing the winter cold at the peak of the holiday season, families and friends had tearful reunions Monday after a day of fear that their loved ones had been swept away.

Katri Seppanen, 27, of Helsinki, Finland, walked around barefoot, in her salt water-stained T-shirt and skirt, at the Patong Hospital waiting room where she spent the night with her mother and sister. She had a bandaged cut on her leg.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said a tearful Seppanen, who was on the popular Patong beach with her family. The wave washed over their heads and separated them.

Fifty-eight half-naked and swimming suit-clad corpses lay in rows outside the Patong Hospital emergency room. Three babies under the age of one were among the victims. A photo of one baby was posted on the wall of victims, the little corpse in a nearby refrigerator.

The earthquake hit at 6:58 a.m.; the tsunami came as much as 2 1/2 hours later, without warning, on a morning of crystal blue skies. Sunbathers and snorkelers, cars and cottages, fishing boats and even a lighthouse were swept away.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India each reported thousands dead. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives and Bangladesh.

"It's an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented," said Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa of India's Tamil Nadu, a southern state which reported 1,705 dead, many of them strewn along beaches, virtual open-air mortuaries.

"It all seems to have happened in the space of 20 minutes. A massive tidal wave of extreme ferocity ... smashed everything in sight to smithereens," she said.

At least three Americans were among the dead — two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay. He said a number of other Americans were injured, but he had no details.

"We're working on ways to help. The United States will be very responsive," Clay said.

John Krueger, 34, of Winter Park, Colorado, described being inside his bungalow Sunday on Khao Luk Beach, north of Phuket, with his wife, Romina Canton, 26, of Rosario, Argentina, when the water filled it and blew it apart.

"The water rushed under the bungalow, brought our floor up and raised us to the ceiling. The water blew out our doors, our windows and the back concrete wall. My wife was swept away with the wall, and I had to bust my way through the roof," Krueger said while waiting to talk to a U.S. Embassy official at Phuket City Hall. "It was like being in a washing machine."

Canton was dragged into the ocean for more than an hour until a wave brought her back to land again, with a broken nose and foot scratches all over her body, Krueger said.

The quake was centered 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the Indian Ocean's seabed. The temblor leveled dozens of buildings on Sumatra — and was followed Sunday by at least a half-dozen powerful aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from almost 6 to 7.3, and one aftershock Monday that hit India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The waves that followed the first massive jolt were far more lethal.

An Associated Press reporter in Aceh province saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches. Authorities said at least 4,448 were dead in Indonesia; the full impact of the disaster was not known, as communications were cut to the towns most affected.

The waves barreled across the Bay of Bengal, pummeling Sri Lanka, where more than 4,500 were reported killed — at least 3,000 in areas controlled by the government and about 1,500 in regions controlled by rebels, who listed the death toll on their Web site. There was an unconfirmed report of 500 more deaths on another Web site that provided no details. Some 170 children were feared lost in an orphanage. More than a million people were displaced from wrecked villages.

Devinda R. Subasinghe, the Sri Lanka ambassador to the United States, said the extensive damage will make the rescue effort more difficult. "It's going to take time to figure out access to these areas that have been impacted," Subasinghe said Monday in an interview on CNN. Up to 70 percent of the island's coastline was damaged, he said.

There was sporadic, small-scale looting in the towns of Galle and Matara, and authorities said about 200 inmates escaped from a prison, taking advantage of the chaos after guards panicked and fled when water entered the building.

About 2,300 were reported dead along the southern coasts of India. The private Aaj Tak television channel put the death toll there at up to 3,300, but the report could not be confirmed. At least 431 in Thailand, 48 in Malaysia and 32 in the Maldives, a string of coral islands off the southwestern coast of India. At least two died in Bangladesh — children who drowned as a boat with about 15 tourists capsized in high waves.

In India's Andhra Pradesh state, at least 32 Hindu devotees were drowned when they went into the sea for a religious ceremony to mark the full moon. Among them were 15 children. On Monday, bodies of women and children lay strewn on the sand.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, of that state.

In Cuddalore, in the worst-hit Tamil Nadu state, survivors huddled Monday in a marriage hall turned makeshift shelter, as fire engine sirens whined outside. Broken boats law on the shore near smashed huts with only frail bamboo frames jutting out of the ground.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1964, according to geophysicist Julie Martinez of the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites).

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

The quake occurred at a place where several huge geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said a 620-mile section along the boundary of the plates shifted, motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water.

Scientists said the death toll might have been reduced if India and Sri Lanka had been part of an international warning system designed to advise coastal communities that a potentially killer wave was approaching. Although Thailand is part of the system, the west coast of its southern peninsula does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.

As it was, there was no warning. Gemunu Amarasinghe, an AP photographer in Sri Lanka, said he saw young boys rushing to catch fish that had been scattered on the beach by the first wave.

"But soon afterward, the devastating second series of waves came," he said. He climbed onto the roof of his car, but "In a few minutes my jeep was under water. The roof collapsed.

"I joined masses of people in escaping to high land. Some carried their dead and injured loved ones. Some of the dead were eventually placed at roadside, and covered with sarongs. Others walked past dazed, asking if anyone had seen their family members."

Michael Dobbs, a reporter for The Washington Post, was swimming around a tiny island off a Sri Lankan beach at about 9:15 a.m. when his brother called out that something strange was happening with the sea.

Then, within minutes, "the beach and the area behind it had become an inland sea, rushing over the road and pouring into the flimsy houses on the other side. The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible — a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before," he wrote on the Post's Web site.

Dobbs weathered the wave, but then found himself struggling to keep from being swept away when the floodwaters receded.

The international airport was closed in the Maldives after a tidal wave that left 51 people missing in addition to the 32 dead.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake along the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica caused buildings to shake hundreds of miles away. The earlier temblor caused no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that struck off Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
_________________

damn this is some ****........ill be prayin for everyone affected by this disaster.

ugh ya i was there. eye got hit by the tsunami but i luckily had my floaties.

Asia quake death toll tops 20,000
Monday, December 27, 2004 Posted: 5:44 AM EST (1044 GMT)

FACT BOX

SRI LANKA
Sri Lankan military authorities report more than 10,000 people killed. In the northeast, Tamil Tigers report recovering 800 bodies.

INDIA
At least 6,000 killed by waves which flooded the southern coast, official media report.

INDONESIA
News agencies report more than 4,000 killed, many of them in Aceh in northern Sumatra.

THAILAND
Thai authorities report more than 461 people dead and between 400 and 600 missing at sea.

MALDIVES
At least three children reported killed in the high waters on an island north of the capital, Male

CHENNAI, India (CNN) -- The death toll from Sunday's tsunamis climbed to 20,000 by Monday as fears of disease from decaying bodies and contaminated water grew in Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The giant waves -- triggered by the most powerful earthquake on Earth in 40 years -- also left thousands injured, thousands missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.

A Sri Lankan forecaster warned of a "remote possibility of small tidal waves" caused by aftershocks Monday.

Some of the tsunamis reached as far as 1,000 miles from the epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake, which was located about 100 miles (160 km) off the coast of Indonesia's Sumatra Island at a depth of about 6.2 miles (10 km).

The quake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday (7 p.m. ET Saturday), according to the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC). It is the fourth-largest earthquake since such measurements began in 1899, according to the NEIC, tying a 1952 quake in Kamchatka, Russia.

More than 10,000 people have been reported dead in Sri Lanka. Most of them, authorities said, were in the eastern district of Batticaloa. Thousands were missing, an estimated 1 million were displaced and an estimated 250,000 were homeless.

In southern Sri Lanka, 200 prisoners escaped when the waves swept away a high-security prison in Matara.

Witnesses in the eastern Sri Lankan port city of Trincomalee reported 40 foot (14 meter) waves hitting inland as far as a half mile (1 km).

The Sri Lankan government declared a state of emergency, and, along with the government of the Maldives, has requested international assistance, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reported.

As the sun rose, 20,000 Sri Lankan soldiers and naval personnel launched relief and rescue efforts. India sent six warships carrying supplies, along with helicopters. Priorities included identifying the hardest-hit areas and airdropping supplies, along with shepherding stranded people to safer areas.

Sri Lankan authorities imposed a curfew overnight, and many residents remained concerned about the possibility of additional tsunamis. The country has been in the throes of a civil war, and land mines uprooted by the waves were hampering relief efforts.

Sri Lanka's director of meteorology Abey Singha Bandara told CNN his department's analysis suggested "a remote possibility of small tidal waves, but not of the magnitude experienced on Sunday."

Some tourists, meanwhile, were evacuated from the hard-hit eastern coasts to the capital Colombo, on the west coast and unaffected by the disaster.

At first light, many Sri Lankans ventured out to scour the debris for belongings or to search for information on missing family members.

In India, the official government news agency Press Trust of India said at least 6,000 Indians were killed, and more bodies were being recovered.

A resident of Chennai (formerly Madras) in Tamil Nadu district -- India's hardest-hit area -- said he saw several people being swept out to sea.

Along India's southeastern coast, several villages appeared to have been swept away. Thousands of fishermen -- including 2,000 from the Chennai area alone -- who were at sea when the waves thundered ashore have not returned.

Along the coast, brick foundations were all that remained of village homes. In Tamil Nadu, 2,500 people have been confirmed dead, and officials said 3,000 died on the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, where dozens of aftershocks were centered. Communication from the islands to the mainland was cut off.

In Thailand, authorities said more than 400 people are dead, and hundreds are missing. Among the missing were scuba divers who had been exploring the Emerald Cave off Phuket's coast.

Phuket's airport -- which closed when its runways flooded -- reopened, but most roads in the area remained closed as officials tried to assess the damage.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra arrived in Phuket and declared the situation "under control." He told CNN he planned to direct rescue and relief efforts overnight.

Witnesses reported guests drowned in their hotel rooms near the coast as 30-foot waves washed ashore.

Others reported narrow escapes, including a Spaniard who had been aboard a boat when a wave approached.

The captain began screaming and turned the boat directly into a nearby shore, where he beached it. As those aboard jumped from the craft and scrambled up the steep beach, they turned back to see the waves crush their boat, the Spaniard said.

Among the dead are three Americans -- two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, said U.S. State Department spokesman Noel Clay. A number of Americans also were injured in Thailand.

More than 4,000 people are reported dead in Indonesia -- many of them in Aceh in northern Sumatra, about 100 miles from the quake's epicenter, officials said.

The quake also inflicted heavy damage on the area, which is a hotbed of rebel activity, before two tsunamis slammed the coastline. Access and communications were difficult if not impossible. The death toll remained a mystery on the west coast of Aceh, where communication had been wiped out.

The tsunamis struck with no warning to those in coastal areas, as no warning system exists for the Indian Ocean, said Eddie Bernard, director of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine and Environmental Labs in Seattle.

Staffers at warning centers that cover the Pacific Basin and the U.S. West Coast were aware of the quake and the possibility of tsunamis, said Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center in Honolulu, Hawaii.

"They were able to make contact, but they did not have the proper government officials to notify," she said. "They'll be working on this in the future."

The earthquake is classified as "great" -- the strongest classification given by the National Earthquake Information Center.

NEIC geophysicist Don Blakeman said the tsunamis were triggered by the initial massive jolt.

"The damage is just phenomenal," said Jan Egelund, U.N. emergency relief coordinator. "I think we are seeing now one of the worst natural disasters ever."

There was disagreement over whether the threat was over. Waverly Person, Blakeman's colleague at NEIC, said the tsunamis are "long over" and residents and visitors should not worry about further tsunamis.

Bernard, however, said the aftershocks are strong enough to produce more tsunamis.

One such aftershock, measuring 7.3 in magnitude, struck about 200 miles (300 km) northwest of Banda Aceh -- on Sumatra's northernmost tip -- more than four hours after the initial quake, according to the NEIC. The center expects the quake to produce hundreds of smaller aftershocks under 4.6 magnitude, and thousands smaller than that.

"A quake of this size has some pretty serious effects," Person said.

The quake represented the energy released from "a very large rupture in the earth's crust" more than 600 miles (1,000 km) long. The rupture created shock waves that pushed the water at speeds of up to several hundred miles per hour.

It was the strongest earthquake to hit anywhere on Earth since March 1964, when a 9.2 quake struck near Alaska's Prince William Sound. The strongest recorded earthquake registered 9.5 on May 22, 1960, in Chile.

Hundreds Reported Dead Along Somali Coast

Monday, December 27, 2004

NAIROBI, Kenya — Hundreds of people died and entire villages and towns disappeared when tidal waves hit Somalia's coastline along its central and northeastern regions, a Somali presidential spokesman said Monday.

The waves, which hit on Sunday, were triggered by the 9.0-magnitude undersea quake centered off the Indonesian island of Sumatra (search), 4,500 kilometers (2,800 miles) away.

The "human loss is in the hundreds in the central and northeastern coastal area. ... Entire villages and coastal town have been swept away by the tidal waves and there is severe damage to property," said Yusuf Ismail, spokesman of Somalia's President Abduallhi Yusuf Ahmed (search).

The spokesman is based in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, where the Somali parliament is based because the Somali capital is considered too dangerous.

He said he could not give an exact figure on the number of dead because "we're focussing on extending our limited relief to the badly affected people."

An Associated Press Reporter in the Somali capital, Mogadishu (search), said that, according to elders speaking on two-way radios and local journalists, the death toll had risen to more than 50 people, up from Sunday's count of nine dead.

Ismail said the worst affected coastlines were along the semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland and the central regions of Mudug and Upper Shabelle.

"All of the fishermen who went to sea [Sunday] haven't come back," Ismail said. "We make an urgent and important appeal to the international community for immediate relief supplies."

In some parts of Somalia, waves traveled three kilometers (two miles) inland, along riverbeds, said Umar Haji Ali, a fisherman in Kabaal, 800 kilometers (500 miles) northeast of Mogadishu.

In Mogadishu, the ocean rose two meters (six feet) when the waves hit on Sunday, causing damage to docks. There were no reports of deaths in Mogadishu.

"This is the first time we ever saw such waves in our lives," Bishiro Farah Kulmiye, a 53-year old businesswoman said Monday in Marka, about 75 kilometers (46 miles) southwest of Mogadishu.

Ismail said Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Gedi will consult Tuesday with diplomats accredited to Somalia but based in Nairobi to find out what can be done.

Somalia has been split among clan-based militias since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991. More than 500,000 people have died in the conflict since Barre's fall and some 2 million have been driven from their homes, 1.5 million of them refugees in neighboring countries.

Somalia's civil war has devastated the country's physical infrastructure, and Yusuf's government has no civil service, treasury or even buildings to meet in.

this is terrible :( last night i had my tv on and heard about it and i must have fallen asleep with the tv on, because i had dreams last night about a huge flood and my friends and i were trying to get to higher ground. lol then this morning i woke up and found out that there was a tsunami because of the earthquake. weird!

Bummer.

A lady from Atlanta just called in on CNN... she's looking for her brother and sister-in-law on their honeymoon in Thailand. Gosh... this feels like right after 9/11 when all those families were on TV looking for their loved ones. :(

Toll from Asia quake, tsunamis tops 23,000
Millions left homeless; ‘several hundred’ Americans among missing
MSNBC News Services Updated: 6:24 p.m. ET Dec. 27, 2004

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Rescuers piled up bodies along coastlines hit by tsunamis that obliterated seaside towns in Asia and Africa and killed at least 23,700 people in 10 countries, according to a United Nations estimate released Monday.

Hundreds of children were buried in mass graves in India, and morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the catastrophe. Somalia, some 3,000 miles away from the earthquake that sent tsunamis raging across the Indian Ocean, reported hundreds of deaths.

Jan Egeland, the U.N. emergency relief coordinator, said the International Red Cross reported 23,700 deaths and expressed concern that waterborne diseases like malaria and cholera could increase the terrible toll. He said millions of people were affected — by lost homes, polluted drinking water, destroyed sanitation — and that the cost of the damage would “probably be many billions of dollars.”

“We cannot fathom the cost of these poor societies and the nameless fishermen and fishing villages and so on that have just been wiped out. Hundreds of thousands of livelihoods have gone,” he told reporters.

International aid agencies rushed to get food, shelter and clean water to the affected areas.

The terrible tally was expected to keep rising as workers reached remoter regions and the sea washed up more corpses.

Government and aid officials said they had unconfirmed reports of thousands more deaths on the Indonesian island of Sumatra and on India’s Andaman and Nikobar islands. Millions more people were displaced from their homes.

On its Web site, the Washington Post reported that a senior Indonesian official estimated that the number of people killed in one western province could be four times higher than earlier government death tolls.

If that new estimate proved accurate, the Post reported, “the number of deaths could eventually total more than 38,000.”

In Washington, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell reported on American casualties. “At the moment we know of eight Americans who have died, and there are several hundred who are not accounted for yet,” Powell told a news conference.

He said the “several hundred” figure referred to Americans whom authorities had not been able to contact yet, and did not imply they were casualties.

The disaster spared no one. Western tourists were killed sunbathing on beaches, poor villagers drowned in homes by the sea and fishermen died in flimsy boats. Poom Jensen, the 21-year-old Thai-American grandson of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, was killed on a jet ski.

A large proportion of the victims were youngsters, and funerals were held for children and teenagers who could not cope with the fury of the sea. Ted Chaiban, chief for the United Nations Children's Fund in Sri Lanka, estimated that nearly half the victims there were children.

Estimates of the number of dead in the tragedy fluctuated through the day, but U.N. spokeswoman Sian Bowen provided a breakdown that she said was assembled from Red Cross reports.

She said the highest toll was in Sri Lanka, where 12,000 deaths had been reported. Other nations reporting fatalities included India, with 6,000; Indonesia, 4,730; Thailand, 840; Malaysia, 52; the Maldives, 43; Myanmar, 12; and the Seychelles with three, she said.

Bowen said deaths were also reported in Bangladesh, though she had no figures on the number of dead there, and even in Somalia — 3,000 miles away in Africa — where she said nine people had died.

However, Somalian officials said Monday that hundreds of people had died and entire villages and towns had disappeared in flooding.

Individual countries reported death tolls slightly lower than the Red Cross, but the overall number of deaths appears certain to rise.

The emerging picture was even bleaker closer to the epicenter of the massive quake — the most powerful temblor in four decades and the fourth-strongest ever measured.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla said the death toll on the island of Sumatra — closest to the epicenter — could climb to 10,000 people.

On the remote Car Nicobar island south of India, Police Chief S.B. Deol told New Delhi Television he had reports that another 3,000 people may have died.

In Bandah Aceh, Indonesia, 150 miles from the quake’s epicenter, dozens of bloated bodies littered the streets as soldiers and desperate relatives searched for survivors Monday. Some 500 bodies collected by emergency workers lay under plastic tents, rotting in the tropical heat.

“We have ordered 15,000 troops into the field to search for survivors,” said military spokesman Edy Sulistiadi. “They are mostly retrieving corpses.”

Refugees in nearby Lhokseumawe, many of whom had spent the night sleeping outside on open ground, complained that little or no aid had reached them. The city’s hospital said it was running out of medicine.

The Indian state of Tamil Nadu was also hit hard, with thousands of deaths reported. Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa called the scene “an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented.”

Nearby beaches became open-air mortuaries as fishermen’s bodies washed ashore, and retreating waters left behind others killed inland. In Cuddalore, red-eyed parents held a mass burial for more than 150 children.

The tsunamis came without warning. Witnesses said sea waters at first retreated far out into the ocean, only to return at a vicious pace. Some regions reported a crashing wall of water 30 feet high.

“The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we
saw the wave come, and we ran,” said Katri Seppanen, who was in Thailand, on Phuket island’s popular Patong beach.

Sri Lanka and Indonesia had at least a million people each driven from their homes. Warships in Thailand steamed to remote tropical island resorts to search for survivors as air force helicopters in Sri Lanka and India rushed food and medicine to stricken areas.

In Indonesia, villagers near northern Lhokseumawe picked through the debris of their ruined houses amid the smell of decomposing bodies.

One man, Rajali, said his wife and two children were killed and that he couldn’t find dry ground to bury them. Islamic tradition demands that the deceased be buried as soon as possible.

“What shall I do?” said the 55-year-old, who like many Indonesians goes by a single name. “I don’t know where to bury my wife and children.”

In Sri Lanka — an island nation some 1,000 miles west of the epicenter — about 25,000 troops were deployed to crack down on sporadic, small-scale looting and to help in rescue efforts. About 200 inmates took advantage of the chaos, escaping from a prison in coastal Matara.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake’s magnitude was 9.0 — the strongest since a 9.2 magnitude temblor in Alaska in 1964 and the fourth-largest in a century. The quake was more than 6 miles deep and was followed by dozens of powerful aftershocks. A 620-mile section of a geological plate shifted, triggering the sudden displacement of water.

Italy confirmed that 13 of its citizens had died in Thailand. Britain confirmed 11 deaths; Norway 10; Sweden nine; the United States eight; France six; Denmark three; Australia, Belgium, South Africa two; and Finland one.

Malaysia, South Korea, Switzerland, Poland, Japan, Russia, Turkey, the Netherlands, Spain, Portugal, Czech Republic had unconfirmed reports of dead or missing.

President Bush expressed his condolences on Sunday over the “terrible loss of life and suffering.” From the Vatican, Pope John Paul II led appeals for aid for victims, and the 25-nation European Union promised to quickly deliver $4 million.

Aid agencies and governments around the world began pouring relief supplies into the region. Japan, China, Russia and the United States were among the countries sending teams of experts. Powell also announced that the United States was pledging $15 million in an initial aid package.

Jasmine Whitbread, international director of the aid group Oxfam, warned that without swift action, more people could die. “The flood waters will have contaminated drinking water and food will be scarce,” she said.

In Thailand, Gen. Chaisit Shinawatra, the army chief, said the United States has offered to send troops stationed in Japan’s Okinawa island to assist. Thailand was considering the offer.

Tsunamis as large as Sunday’s happen only a few times a century. A tsunami is a series of traveling ocean waves generated by geological disturbances near the ocean floor. With nothing to stop them, the waves can race across the ocean like the crack of a bullwhip, gaining momentum over thousands of miles.

An international tsunami warning system was started in 1965, after the Alaska quake, designed to advise coastal communities of a potentially killer wave.

Member states include all the major Pacific Rim nations in North America, Asia and South America. But because tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka are not part of the system. Scientists said the death toll would have been reduced if they had been.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://www.drudgereport.com/siren.gif

URGENT

Indonesian government officials say 20,000 may be dead on Sumatra Island alone. The official toll from the entire country stands at 5,000, which if confirmed would push the overall death toll to a staggering 38,000.

Originally posted by Brent88
A lady from Atlanta just called in on CNN... she's looking for her brother and sister-in-law on their honeymoon in Thailand. Gosh... this feels like right after 9/11 when all those families were on TV looking for their loved ones. :(
That was my thought as well. :(

damn, i wish i could have spent xmas break in asia.

Originally posted by Brent88
Guess what's at the other end of the ring of fire(connected to the fault that caused today's quake)?

Alaska, Washington and California. :eek:

All three of those are way overdue(especially WA and CA). Alaska's had some big ones in recent years.

oh california? i hope we get something like this.

Originally posted by safety pin
damn, i wish i could have spent xmas break in asia. loooooool ditto!

Originally posted by Kristina
oh california? i hope we get something like this.

When it happens...

It's been nice knowing you. :wave:

Originally posted by safety pin
damn, i wish i could have spent xmas break in asia.
Almost 40,000 people are dead. How bad does something have to be before you'll give your sourcasm a rest?

The same goes for you Kristina.

Show some respect.

Originally posted by Janice
Almost 40,000 people are dead. How bad does something have to be before you'll give your sourcasm a rest?

The same goes for you Kristina.

Show some respect.
i wasn't being sarcastic.

Originally posted by safety pin
i wasn't being sarcastic.
Yeah, you were as serious as a heart attack. Stop it. I will not argue with you, especially in this thread.

Originally posted by Janice
Yeah, you were as serious as a heart attack. Stop it. I will not argue with you, especially in this thread. That remark you made about heart attacks isn't funny...

Originally posted by *Pleasant Tomorrow*
That remark you made about heart attacks isn't funny...
And along comes Sarah's backup. The new tag team.

I'm the moderator here, and I'm warning a member. I'm telling you to mind your own business.

Originally posted by Janice
And along comes Sarah's backup. The new tag team.

I'm the moderator here, and I'm warning a member. I'm telling you to mind your own business. Okay.

Give it a rest. :rolleyes:

Ugh,this was horrible.When i put the news on Monday morning,the death toll was only 4,000 but grew to 23,000 quickly.My worst fear is tsunami's,i just have a huge fear of waves,if the waves are rough at the beach i freak out.
I was actually watching a documentary recently about tsunamis,how ironic,and apparently if there was to be an earthquake,or landslide on the Canary islands,it would generate a,as they put it,"a movie-like 300 foot tsunami" that would head towards miami's coastline.The scientist said that if you're a resident of Miami,and places nearby,and you hear of an earthquake on the Canary islands,keep tuned to the news,because he said its not a matter of "if" it was to happen,its a matter of "when",because he said whether it happens in the next 50 days or next 50 years,its going to happen. Frightening.:eek:

Something is happening. first the earthquake, then it's snowing in New Orleans and there's a heavy rainstorm here in CA. the climate is changing.

Originally posted by Dr. Phillips
Something is happening. first the earthquake, then it's snowing in New Orleans and there's a heavy rainstorm here in CA. the climate is changing.
It's actually quite normal. These things have been happening for thousands of years. There are earthquakes going on every day somewhere in the world (most below magnitude 3).

I don't think this Califorina rainstorm will be as large as the one in 1992, in which 6 to 8 inches of rain fell in parts of the San Fernando Valley in one day.

I've never heard of so many people dying in one catastrophe. Anyone got the morbid statistics on that?

Originally posted by Janice
I've never heard of so many people dying in one catastrophe. Anyone got the morbid statistics on that? It is sad, and scary at the same time, since I live in an area that is prone to having earthquakes:(

Originally posted by Janice
Yeah, you were as serious as a heart attack. Stop it. I will not argue with you, especially in this thread.
k, but i wasn't just saying that to be an ass.

Death toll now to 40,000 and still rising.

Aid pours into Asia as death toll rises to 40,000

MSNBC News Services Updated: 8:35 a.m. ET Dec. 28, 2004
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The death toll from the epic tidal waves that rocked 11 countries rose to 40,000 people on Tuesday after Sri Lanka and Indonesia significantly increased their confirmed deaths.

Medical supplies, food aid and water purification systems poured into the region, part of what the United Nations said would be the biggest relief effort the world has ever seen. Millions remained homeless.

Rescuers struggled to reach remote locations where thousands more were likely killed by the deadliest tsunami in 120 years.

Bodies, many of them children, filled beaches and choked hospital morgues, raising fears of disease across an 11-nation arc of destruction.

The disaster could be the costliest in history, with “many billions of dollars” of damage, said U.N. Undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge of emergency relief coordination. Hundreds of thousands have lost everything, and millions are living with polluted drinking water and no health services, he said.

The geographic scope of the disaster was unparalleled. Relief organizations used to dealing with a centralized crisis had to distribute resources over 11 countries in two continents.

Helicopters in India rushed medicine to stricken areas, while warships in Thailand steamed to island resorts. In Sri Lanka, the Health Ministry dispatched 300 physicians to the disaster zone, dropping them off by helicopter.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said the United States was sending helicopters, and an airborne surgical hospital from Finland arrived in Sri Lanka. A German aircraft was en route with a water purification plant. “A great deal is coming in and they are having a few problems at the moment coordinating it.”

UNICEF officials said that about 175 tons of rice arrived in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, late Monday and six tons of medical supplies were expected to arrive by Thursday. But most basic supplies were scarce.

Meantime, Secretary of State Colin Powell said Tuesday the United States “will do more” to help the victims and said he regretted a statement by U.N. Humanitarian Aid Chief Jan Egeland, suggesting America was being "stingy".

Initially, the U.S. government pledged $15 million and dispatched disaster specialists to help the Asian nations devastated by the catastrophe.

On Monday, President Bush sent letters of condolence and Powell exclaimed, “This is indeed an international tragedy, and we are going to do everything we can.”

In an interview on NBC“s “Today” show Tuesday, Powell said that “clearly, the United States will be a major contributor to this international effort. And, yes, it will run into the billions of dollars.”

Sri Lanka's government on Tuesday raised its death toll past 18,700, and feared the final death toll would reach 25,000.

"Dead bodies are washing ashore along the coast," said Social Welfare Minister Sumedha Jayasena, who is coordinating relief efforts. "Reports reaching us from the rescue workers indicate there are 25,000 feared dead, and we don't know what to do."

Click "Launch" to view images from a massive earthquake that hit Asia sparking deadly tsunamis, killing tens of thousands in nine countries.

In Indonesia, the country closest to Sunday's 9.0 magnitude quake that sent walls of water crashing into coastlines thousands of miles away, the count rose to 15,000, a number the vice president said could reach 25,000.

"Thousands of victims cannot be reached in some isolated and remote areas," said Purnomo Sidik, the national disaster director.

More than 4,400 died in India and 1,000 in Thailand, among them more than 700 tourists. The Red Cross said it was concerned that diseases such as malaria and cholera could add to the toll.

Scores of people were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Maldives. Deaths were even reported in Africa — in Somalia, Tanzania and Seychelles, close to 3,000 miles away.

Eight Americans were among the dead, and U.S. embassies in the region were trying to track down hundreds more who were unaccounted for.

Desperate residents on Indonesia’s Sumatra Island — 100 miles from the quake’s epicenter — looted stores Tuesday. “There is no help, it is each person for themselves here,” district official Tengku Zulkarnain told el-Shinta radio station.

In Galle, Sri Lanka, officials used a loudspeaker fitted atop a fire engine to tell residents to place bodies on the road for collection. Muslim families used cooking utensils and even their bare hands to dig graves. Hindus in India, abandoning their tradition of burning bodies, asked for help with mass burials.

Soldiers and volunteers in Indonesia combed through destroyed houses to try and find survivors — or bodies. In Thailand’s once-thriving resorts, volunteers dragged scores of corpses — including at least 700 foreign tourists — from beaches and the remains of top-class hotels.

In Malaysia, a 20-day-old baby was found floating on a mattress soon after the waves hit Sunday. She and her family were reunited. At a Thai resort, a blond-haired 2-year-old of unknown nationality was recovering at a hospital after being found sitting alone on a road. His parents were presumed dead.

Sunday’s massive quake of 9.0 magnitude sent 500-mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the deadliest known tsunami since the one caused by the 1883 volcanic eruption at Krakatoa — located off Sumatra’s southern tip — which killed an estimated 36,000 people.

A large proportion of southern Asia’s dead were children — as many as half the victims in Sri Lanka, according to officials there. A bulldozer dug a mass grave in southern India for 150 young boys and girls, as their weeping parents looked on.

“Where are my children?” asked 41-year-old Absah, as she searched for her 11 youngsters in Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city closest to Sunday’s epicenter. “Where are they? Why did this happen to me? I’ve lost everything.”

The streets in Banda Aceh were filled with overturned cars and rotting corpses. Shopping malls and office buildings lay in rubble, and thousands of homeless families huddled in mosques and schools.

In a scene repeated across the region, relatives wandered hallways lined with bodies at the hospital in Sri Lanka’s southern town of Galle. A stunned hush was broken only occasionally by wails of mourning.

The United States dispatched disaster teams and prepared a $15 million aid package. Japan pledged $30 million. Australia pledged $8 million.

Officials in Thailand and Indonesia conceded that immediate public warnings of gigantic waves could have saved lives. The only known warning issued by Thai authorities reached resort operators when it was too late. The waves hit Sri Lanka and India more than two hours after the quake.

But governments insisted they couldn’t have known the true danger because there is no international system in place to track tsunamis in the Indian Ocean, and they could not afford the sophisticated equipment to build one.

Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would investigate what role his country could play in setting up an Indian Ocean warning system.

“I know it looks like a bit like closing the door after the horse has bolted,” Downer told reporters. But he said he hoped such a system would save lives in the future.

The head of the British Commonwealth bloc of Britain and its former colonies called for talks on creating a global early warning system for tsunamis.

Egeland said the issue of creating a tsunami warning system would be taken up at the World Conference on Disaster Reduction in Kobe, Japan from Jan. 18-22.

Indonesia’s Aceh province near the epicenter exemplified the challenge to aid workers. The government until Monday barred foreigners because of a long-running separatist conflict. Communications lines were still down and remote villages had yet to be reached.

“There is not anyone to bury the bodies,” said Steve Aswin, an emergency officer with UNICEF in Jakarta. “I heard that many bodies are still in the hospitals and many places. They should be buried in mass graves but there is no one to dig graves.”

Sri Lankan police waived the law calling for mandatory autopsies, allowing rotting corpses to be buried immediately. “We accept that the deaths were caused by drowning,” police spokesman Rienzie Perera said.

On the remote Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar, off the northern tip of Sumatra, officials still hadn’t established communications. An estimated 3,000 deaths were not yet counted in the official toll.

Also on Tuesday, India’s government said a nuclear power plant damaged by tidal waves was safe and that there was no threat of radiation.

Tsunamis as large as Sunday’s happen only a few times a century. A tsunami is a series of traveling ocean waves generated by geological disturbances near the ocean floor. With nothing to stop them, the waves can race across the ocean like the crack of a bullwhip, gaining momentum over thousands of miles.

An international tsunami warning system was started in 1965, after the Alaska quake, designed to advise coastal communities of a potentially killer wave.

Member states include all the major Pacific Rim nations in North America, Asia and South America. But because tsunamis are rare in the Indian Ocean, India and Sri Lanka are not part of the system. Scientists said the death toll would have been reduced if they had been.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041228/D878NPA80.html


Czech Supermodel Injured in Tidal Wave

LONDON (AP) - Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, who appeared on the cover of 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue, was injured and her photographer boyfriend is missing after the pair were caught up in the Asian tsunami disaster, a spokeswoman for the boyfriend said Tuesday.

Nemcova and British photographer Simon Atlee had been vacationing in the resort of Phuket when the waves swept over them on Sunday, said Atlee's agent, Eve Stoner.

"She is in hospital and he is missing. We don't have any further information than that at the moment," Stoner said,

The Sun newspaper reported Tuesday that Nemcova clung to a tree for eight hours as the water swirled around her. It said she suffered a shattered hip and internal injuries.

Stoner said British authorities had no information on Atlee's fate.

"We are just very hopeful," she said. "As time goes on we are getting quite frantic and stressed about it. Our thoughts are really with Petra and Simon's family at the moment."

"It just seems horrific, like something out of a movie," she added.

Nemcova, 25, has appeared in magazines including Sports Illustrated, Marie Claire and Vogue, and also has modeled for Victoria's Secret.

Atlee, 33, is a well-known fashion photographer who recently shot the pictures for Nemcova's 2005 calendar.

Death toll in Asian quake disaster over 55,000

52 minutes ago World - AFP

JAKARTA (AFP) - The confirmed death toll from the massive earthquake and tidal waves that devastated much of Asia's coastline passed 55,000, with officials warning the figure was likely to rise steeply.

In Indonesia, the government's disaster relief centre said at least 27,174 were killed after the country took the full force of the huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages.

Indonesia's health ministry said at least 27,174 had been killed in the quake as the true scale of the catastrophe becomes clear.

In Sri Lanka more than 17,600 people, including at least 70 foreigners, were killed in Sunday's disaster.

More than 8,500 people were reported killed in India with many more victims expected, officials said.

Among them were about 4,000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the epicentre of the quake, where thousands were missing after five villages were swept away, an official said.

More than 1,400 people were killed, among them more than 700 foreign tourists, in southern Thailand, officials said, putting the toll at 1,439.

In Malaysia 65 people, including many elderly and children, were killed, officials said, while at least 90 people were killed in Myanmar.

At least 52 people including two British holidaymakers were killed while another 68 were missing in the tourist paradise of Maldives, officials said.

In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized from large waves, local officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa where 100 fishermen were declared dead in Somalia and 10 in Tanzania.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale -- making it the largest quake worldwide in four decades.

Death toll

Sri Lanka: 17,640
India: 8,523
Indonesia: 27,174
Thailand: 1,439
Malaysia: 65
Myanmar: 90
Maldives: 55
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia 100
Tanzania 10
Total: 55,098

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20041228/D878NEC00.html

Reports: Jet Li Escapes Maldives Flooding

HONG KONG (AP) - Vacationing action star Jet Li injured his foot as he protected his daughter from tsunami waves that flooded his hotel in the Maldives, Hong Kong newspapers reported Tuesday.

Li, who played the villain in "Lethal Weapon 4," was with his daughter in the hotel's lobby Sunday when huge waves gushed into the hotel, the Apple Daily newspaper reported, quoting a friend vacationing with Li.

Li slightly injured his foot while picking up his daughter, the report said. Ming Pao Daily News reported Li struck his foot against a floating piece of furniture.

A 9.0-magnitude earthquake hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra early Sunday, sparking massive waves that struck 10 countries, including Thailand, India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and Somalia.

The natural disaster has killed more than 22,000, with the Maldives recording at least 43 deaths.

Li made his name in Hong Kong as a martial arts film star before moving on to Hollywood. He has starred in such movies as "Romeo Must Die" and the recent box-office hit "Hero."

http://www.historychannel.com/tdih/tdih.jsp?month=10272964&day=10272993&cat=10272946


WORST EUROPEAN EARTHQUAKE:

December 28, 1908

At dawn, the most destructive earthquake in recorded European history strikes the Straits of Messina in southern Italy, leveling the cities of Messina in Sicily and Reggio di Calabria on the Italian mainland. The earthquake and tsunami it caused killed an estimated 100,000 people.

Sicily and Calabria are known as la terra ballerina--"the dancing land"--for the periodic seismic activity that strikes the region. In 1693, 60,000 people were killed in southern Sicily by an earthquake, and in 1783 most of the Tyrrenian coast of Calabria was razed by a massive earthquake that killed 50,000. The quake of 1908 was particularly costly in terms of human life because it struck at 5:20 a.m. without warning, catching most people at home in bed rather than in the relative safety of the streets or fields.

The main shock, registering an estimated 7.5 magnitude on the Richter scale, caused a devastating tsunami with 40-foot waves that washed over coastal towns and cities. The two major cities on either side of the Messina Straits--Messina and Reggio di Calabria--had some 90 percent of their buildings destroyed. Telegraph lines were cut and railway lines were damaged, hampering relief efforts. To make matters worse, the major quake on the 28th was followed by hundreds of smaller tremors over subsequent days, bringing down many of the remaining buildings and injuring or killing rescuers. On December 30, King Victor Emmanuel III arrived aboard the battleship Napoli to inspect the devastation.

Meanwhile, a steady rain fell on the ruined cities, forcing the dazed and injured survivors, clad only in their nightclothes, to take shelter in caves, grottoes, and impromptu shacks built out of materials salvaged from the collapsed buildings. Veteran sailors could barely recognize the shoreline because long stretches of the coast had sunk several feet into the Messina Strait.

Disease Could Double Asia Death Toll

GENEVA (AP) - The death toll from the Asian tidal waves could eventually double because of disease, the World Health Organization warned Tuesday.

"There is certainly a chance that we could have as many dying from communicable diseases as from the tsunami," Dr. David Nabarro, head of crisis operations for WHO, told reporters.

The death toll from the earthquake and associated tidal waves is already at 44,000, and officials expect it to rise further.

Nabarro said the main threat to life now is communicable diseases associated with a lack of clean water and sanitation.

"The initial terror associated with the tsunamis and the earthquake itself may be dwarfed by the longer term suffering of the affected communities," Nabarro warned.

Yep... I predicted yesterday the toll would top 100,000 on another board, but that was when the toll was at 24,000. 150,000 wouldn't surprise me now.

Over 62,000

Confirmed Death Toll:

Sri Lanka: 18,706 dead
Indonesia: 27,174 dead
India: 15,000 dead
Thailand: 1,400 dead
Maldives: 52 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
Somalia: 200 dead
Kenya: 15 dead
Seychelles: 3 dead
Tanzania: 10 dead
South Africa: 1 dead

Originally posted by Brent88
Over 62,000

Confirmed Death Toll:

Sri Lanka: 18,706 dead
Indonesia: 27,174 dead
India: 15,000 dead
Thailand: 1,400 dead
Maldives: 52 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
Somalia: 200 dead
Kenya: 15 dead
Seychelles: 3 dead
Tanzania: 10 dead
South Africa: 1 dead Damn :(

I've never heard of so many people being killed in one disaster. Almost 63,000? That's unimaginable. If the projections for Sri Lanka are about right, almost 71,000 people are dead right now, total.

Geez... these numbers are really rising.

Does anyone know what the generalized population of Sri Lanka is? :(

Originally posted by swedeace
Geez... these numbers are really rising.

Does anyone know what the generalized population of Sri Lanka is? :(

I checked really quickly and I came up w/ 19,905,000 people.

Thats horrible :(

Sri Lanka death toll up to 21,000.

Celebrities Among Victims of Tsunami

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - A German statesman, a Czech supermodel and a Swedish Olympic ski champion were among the vacationers whose search for peace and sun in tropical southern Asia was shattered by the tsunamis that spared neither rich nor poor.

Petra Nemcova - who appeared on the cover of 2003 Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue - was carried away with her boyfriend, the fashion photographer Simon Atlee, after a huge wave plowed into southern Thailand on Sunday.

Nemcova's New York spokesman, Rob Shuter, said the model and her boyfriend had been vacationing in the resort of Phuket when waves overwhelmed their beach hut.

Nemcova, 25, clung to a tree for eight hours as the water swirled around her. She was recovering in a Thai hospital from broken bones, possibly including a broken pelvis, and unspecified internal injuries.

Atlee, 33, was swallowed by the raging waters and was still missing Tuesday.

"I've spoken to Petra several times and she's in pretty bad shape," Shuter said. "She's on pain medication. She probably doesn't realize yet the magnitude of the disaster."

Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl was on holiday in Sri Lanka's pristine south - one of the areas most devastated by tsunamis.

Kohl and his entourage were evacuated Tuesday from a hotel by the Sri Lankan air force.

"The helicopter went and we managed to bring him back with six others," Commander Air Marshal Donald Perera told The Associated Press.

Swedish skiing great Ingemar Stenmark was sunbathing in Thailand when he saw an immense wave roaring to shore. He ran for his life.

Stenmark - who won two gold medals at the 1980 Olympics and 86 World Cup races - was with friends in Khok Kloi, about 30 miles from Phuket.

"The water from the first wave disappeared, but then it came back with terrifying speed," Stenmark told Swedish media. He and his girlfriend were not injured.

Another athlete wasn't so lucky. Troy Broadbridge, an Australian Rules football player, was on his honeymoon in Phuket when he and his bride were swamped as they strolled along a beach. Trisha Broadbridge was safe, but he was still missing Tuesday.

Several Italian soccer players - including AC Milan striker Filippo Inzaghi, Milan captain Paolo Maldini, and Juventus defender Gianluca Zambrotta - were caught in the maelstrom in the Maldives but were unhurt.

Thailand's royal family also were among the grieving. The Thai-American grandson of King Bhumipol Adulyadej, Poom Jensen, 21, was reportedly jet skiing when the tidal wave struck Phuket. His body was found later.

Hollywood actor-director Richard Attenborough's family also suffered tragedy. His granddaughter, Lucy, 14, perished and his daughter, Jane, and her mother-in-law are missing in Phuket. Another granddaughter, Alice, 17, was being treated in a hospital.

Attenborough's directorial credits include "Cry Freedom,""Chaplin" and the Oscar-winning "Gandhi." He has appeared in scores of films including "The Great Escape,""Elizabeth" and "Jurassic Park."

On Thailand's Phi Phi island, where "The Beach" starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed, 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea, and resort officials said many foreign tourists were among the missing.

Designer Nate Berkus, a regular contributor on "The Oprah Winfrey Show," was carried away with a friend by a tsunami after it ripped off the roof of their hut in Sri Lanka.

They briefly clung to a telephone poll, but a second wave ripped them away. Berkus climbed to safety on the roof of a submerged home - but his friend disappeared into the raging sea.

Originally posted by Brent88
Yep... I predicted yesterday the toll would top 100,000 on another board, but that was when the toll was at 24,000. 150,000 wouldn't surprise me now.


Sadly Brent, it's probably going to be a lot higher than 150,000 :(

The Drudge Report says 68,400 are dead now. :(

Race to Bury Asia's Dead as Toll Hits 68,000

Dec 28, 10:07 PM (ET)

By David Fox

GALLE, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - Stricken countries on the Indian Ocean worked swiftly on Wednesday to bury thousands of bodies as experts warned disease could kill as many people as the 68,000 already dead from the violent crush of Sunday's tsunami.

While rescuers ventured into outlying areas cut off for three days since what was possibly the deadliest tsunami in more than 200 years, the United Nations mobilized what it called the biggest relief operation in its history.

The ocean surge was triggered by a 9.0-magnitude undersea earthquake off the Indonesian island of Sumatra, spreading in an arc of death across the Indian Ocean and striking nations from Indonesia to Sri Lanka, and beyond to Africa.

U.S. scientists said the quake that set off the killer wall of water permanently moved tectonic plates beneath the Indian Ocean as much as 98 feet, slightly shifting islands near Sumatra.

Survivors told harrowing tales of the moment the tsunami, up to 33 feet high, struck towns and resorts, sucking holidaymakers off beaches into the ocean, smashing people and debris through buildings, leaving more than 68,400 dead and thousands more missing and injured.

UNICEF executive director Carol Bellamy said children could account for up to a third of the dead.

One of the worst-hit areas of southern Thailand was Khao Lak, a resort beach on the mainland north of Phuket island, where hundreds of bodies have been discovered and hundreds more are missing.

"Rescuers are holding their breath while using their bare hands, axes, or shovels to dig through piles of wrecked buildings and debris at Khao Lak," said senior Thai provincial official Chailert Piyorattanachote.

ECONOMIC COST AT $13 BILLION

Disease could kill as many people as those killed by the wall of water, a top World Health Organization (WHO) official said.

"There is certainly a chance that we could have as many dying from communicable diseases as from the tsunami," the WHO's Dr David Nabarro told a news conference.

Gerhard Berz, a top risk researcher at Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, estimated the economic cost of the devastation at more than $13 billion.

Secretary of State Colin Powell, rejecting comments from a top U.N. official that rich countries were being "stingy," said the international community may have to give billions of dollars in aid.

The United States more than doubled its pledge to $35 million. Australia increased its aid to $27 million and said it, the United States, Japan and India were considering setting up a core group to coordinate help.

"A lot of the economies, or sectors of the economies, of the affected countries have been close to destroyed and it is going to require a great deal of rebuilding and a great deal investment," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer.

Indonesia has suffered the biggest number of victims, with 32,502 known to be dead.

Nearly all the deaths in Indonesia were in the northwestern province of Aceh at the tip of Sumatra. Rescue crews were still trying to reach cut-off areas. Separatist rebels announced a truce while people search for loved ones.

The stench of decomposing corpses spread over the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, where fresh water, food and fuel were in short supply. Bodies lay scattered in the streets.

One of the worst hit cities was Meulaboh, about 90 miles from the quake's epicenter. The mayor, Tengku Zulkarnaen, said three-quarters of his city had been washed away.

SURVIVING ON COCONUTS

In Sri Lanka, where nearly 22,000 died, hundreds of people were killed when a wave crashed into a train traveling to Galle from Colombo, wrecking carriages and uprooting the track it was traveling on. The train was called "Sea Queen."

Rescue teams headed out to the last of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands that have been cut off since Sunday and where people on some of the isles have been surviving on just coconuts.

India's toll of nearly 12,500 included at least 7,000 on the islands which are closer to Myanmar and Indonesia than to the Indian mainland. On one island, the surge of water killed two-thirds of the population.

"One in every five inhabitants in the entire Nicobar group of islands is either dead, injured or missing," a police official said.

In Thailand, where thousands of tourists were enjoying a Christmas break to escape the northern winter, many of the country's paradise resorts were turned into graveyards.

In a French-run hotel at Khao Lak, up to half the 415 guests were believed killed. A reporter from France's Europe 1 radio said many bodies had been found in their rooms.

Some 136 foreign nationals and tourists were confirmed dead and 2,689 were still missing. Some 1,500 Swedes and 800 Norwegians were still unaccounted for.

On Thailand's Phuket island, foreign tourists pored over names on hospital lists and peered at scores of hospital photos of swollen, unidentified bodies.

Thailand's official toll was 1,538 dead.

Hundreds of people were killed in the Maldives, Myanmar and Malaysia. The arc of water struck as far away as Somalia and Kenya. Fishing villages, ports and resorts were devastated, power and communications cut and homes destroyed.

The tremor, the biggest in 40 years, may have caused the Earth to wobble on its axis, permanently accelerating its rotation and shortening days by a fraction of a second, U.S. scientists said.

The quake ripped a chasm in the sea bed which set off the tsunami, perhaps the deadliest for hundreds of years.

A tsunami in 1883 at Krakatoa, off southern Sumatra, killed 36,000 and one in the South China Sea in 1782 killed 40,000, according to the U.S. National Geophysical Data Center.

A Satellite photo from Sri Lanka as the Tsunami was hitting... this is horrifying.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/qb/srilanka_kalutara_flood_dec26_2004_dg.jpg

:eek2:

Unfortunately, there have been many natural disasters in that area of the world. For instance, in 1970, there was a typhoon (hurricane) in the Bay of Bengal, in which about 500,000 people were killed. Most when the storm-generated waves washed over the low-lying areas.

Originally posted by Brent88
A Satellite photo from Sri Lanka as the Tsunami was hitting... this is horrifying.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/qb/srilanka_kalutara_flood_dec26_2004_dg.jpg

:eek2:

Wow... Those are MASSIVE waves.

Some of the latest footage they have of the Tsunami hitting is amazing.

Originally posted by Brent88
A Satellite photo from Sri Lanka as the Tsunami was hitting... this is horrifying.

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/qb/srilanka_kalutara_flood_dec26_2004_dg.jpg

:eek2:
i can't even make out the damn picture.

Updated numbers:

Indonesia: 32,502
Sri Lanka: 21,715
India: 12,419
Thailand: 1,516
East Africa: 133
Malaysia: 64
Maldives: 55
Myanmar: 36
Bangladesh: 2

68,442.

Unbelievable...

Brent,

Those satellite photos sure are scary! Almost looks like a scene from a horror movie.

Originally posted by Fleet
Brent,

Those satellite photos sure are scary! Almost looks like a scene from a horror movie.

Makes you not want to go to the beach. :eek: :(

Originally posted by Brent88
Makes you not want to go to the beach. :eek: :(
Even surfers would stay away.

It does look like a scene from a movie.Horrifying.
Whoever said that it makes you not want to go to the beach,i agree.Infact,its summer here,and i plan to stay away from the beach.Its silly,but i'd keep thinking that any minute the water would recede (did i spell that right?) and the tsunami would come.After i saw Deep Impact,i was afraid of the ocean-couldn't even look at it!:eek:

Death toll reaches 100,000
By Andrew Gilligan In Colombo And Valentine Low In London, Evening Standard
29 December 2004

The death toll in the tsunami disaster soared past 100,000 today - and is set to climb higher.

A total of 50 Britons are now confirmed dead and at least 100 are unaccounted for after tidal waves swept away resorts in Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and around the Indian Ocean.

Officials in every country today warned the final number of dead will be even higher as rescue teams reach remote areas.

The UN said there were now strong grounds to believe that the toll in the Sumatran province of Aceh, the worst affected area, would be as high as 80,000. The number dead has now climbed in every country affected, including:

Thailand: 1,700 confirmed dead, including 43 British tourists.

Indonesia: more than 42,000 confirmed dead.

India: nearly 7,000 dead, and many coastal areas including parts of Kerala still to be searched.

Sri Lanka: 22,500 are confirmed dead and there are fears for hundreds of independent British travellers on the east coast.
Aid agencies today warned disease will also cause massive casualties among the survivors as the biggest relief effort in history began.

The British toll climbed as a new alert was sounded over the number missing. Abta, the tours operators' association, said there were 100 Britons unaccounted for. There are no confirmed numbers for missing backpackers.

Today more dramatic accounts emerged as hundreds of Britons flew back to Heathrow from Thailand.

Businessman Neil Tennant, from Woodbridge, Suffolk, told how he and his family had to flee to the roof of their hotel in Khao Lak as a giant wave swamped the building.

He said: "We ran up to the roof from our room just a few seconds before the water swamped it. I have no doubt we would have been killed if we had stayed where we were."

Amy Davies, from Camden, who was staying at Ko Phi Phi in Thailand, arrived home still in her swimming costume. She said: "I saw a drowned child in the water below me."

First Choice said six of its 248 customers in Phuket were still unaccounted after Sunday's tsunami.

An official at the British embassy in the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, today said the confirmed British death toll there stood at three.

First Choice had 584 holidaymakers in the Maldives. One died and all the others have been accounted for.

MyTravel said it had between 850 and 900 clients in the affected area. Most had been accounted for.

The vast majority of the 3,500 foreigners still unaccounted for in the disaster region are from Scandinavia. The missing include at least 1,500 Swedes, 800 Norwegians, 214 Danes and 200 Finns.

Families across Britain were today in mourning and hundreds waited helplessly for news of their loved ones. Film director Lord Attenborough was among those grieving after it was confirmed his granddaughter, Lucy, 14, was dead and his daughter, Jane Holland, 49, was missing, feared dead. Jane's mother-in-law, also called Jane Holland, was also missing in Phuket. The family, who live in London, have asked for privacy "at this terrible time".

The south-east Asian communities of London watched in horror as the tsunami destroyed the lives of their relatives. Moulana Mazahir, from Harrow, lost 50 close relatives when a wall of water destroyed his home town of Hambantotain southern Sri Lanka. The 45-year-old chef 's only solace is that his wife and three sons, who had been on holiday in the resort, escaped with their lives after leaving just three hours before disaster struck.

"My life will never be the same. It was a miracle my wife and sons are still alive - but they are terrified."

Mohammed Samsudena and his wife Nirusha, 29, also from Harrow, say they have lost 40 family members and are desperately trying to contact other relatives in Hambantota. The 36-year-old petrol station sales assistant said: "Yesterday morning we heard that the body of my sister-in-law, Fatima, had been found. She was only 18."

Relatives of London newlyweds Christopher and Gaynor Mullen, from Richmond, now fear the worst - last hearing from the couple on Christmas Day, when they simply said they were "on the beach" in Thailand.

Fashion photographer Simon Atlee, 33, from London, most famous for his photograph of Rugby World Cup hero Jonny Wilkinson in the Hackett advertisements, was also swept away in the tidal wave as his holiday bungalow in Khao Lak near Phuket was destroyed. His girlfriend, Czech model Petra Nemcova, 25, survived by clinging onto a palm tree.

Louise Willgrass, 43, from Colney, near Norwich, was washed away after she had got out of the rented car her family was travelling in to buy suncream at a Phuket supermarket.

The car, being driven by her husband Nigel and containing their four children, Emily, 16, Ben, 14, Michael, nine and Katie, six was overwhelmed by the tidal wave. Mr Willgrass managed to pull the children free and they survived by clinging to floating debris.

Conservation volunteer Lisa Jones, 31, is feared dead on the tiny Thai island of Koh Phra Thong, where she had been helping research sea turtles.

WOW, that is crazy. :eek: I have been following this thread (but not replying to it much). One cannot possibly comphrend just how much 100,000 people is. That is a LOT.

:(

I don't know where you got your info from, Brent, since you didn't link to an article...So I did some sleuthing of my own. This is from Associated Press's website and they say the toll is nearly 77,000 and not 100,000 people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QUAKE_TSUNAMI?SITE=WFAA&SECTION=HOME

Dec 29, 12:17 PM EST

Aid Arrives; Asia Death Toll Nearly 77,000

By LELY T. DJUHARI
Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -- Cargo planes touched down with aid Wednesday, bearing everything from lentils to water purifiers to help survivors facing the threat of epidemic after this week's quake-tsunami catastrophe. The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island, finding thousands of bodies and increasing the death toll across 12 nations to nearly 77,000.

The international Red Cross warned that the toll could eventually surpass 100,000. The race was on to try to prevent an outbreak of diseases and to curb food shortages among millions of homeless - which the U.N. health agency said could kill as many as the waves and quake.

Sri Lanka said it was getting its first reports of measles and diarrhea. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating 65,000 survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered.

"Even those people who (didn't lose homes) can't get food. Nothing is available," said Father Raja Perera, of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka's second largest city, the hard-hit southern resort of Galle, where refugees from ravaged homes crowded into churches, Buddhist temples and mosques.

Town after town along Indonesia's Sumatran coast was covered with mud and sea water, with homes flattened or torn apart, an Associated Press reporter saw on a helicopter overflight with the military commander of the island's Aceh province. The only signs of life were a handful of villagers scavenging for food on the beach.

Western Sumatra suffered a double blow in Sunday's disaster, shattered both by the most powerful earthquake in 40 years and perhaps the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, which wreaked destruction across a dozen nations.

"The damage is truly devastating," Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said. "Seventy-five percent of the west coast is destroyed and some places it's 100 percent. These people are isolated and we will try and get them help."

The first military teams reached the devastated fishing town of Meulaboh on Sumatra's coast and across the coast they found thousands of bodies, bringing Indonesia's toll to 45,268, according to the Health Ministry's official count. That toll was likely to rise - one official on Tuesday estimated that as many as 10,000 people were dead in Meulaboh alone.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 22,400 people dead, India close to 7,000 - with 8,000 missing and feared dead. Thailand put its toll at more than 1,800. Another 340 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

From East Africa to southern Asia, chances faded of finding more survivors of Sunday's massive, quake-driven walls of water. Tens of thousands of people were still missing. German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder said 1,000 Germans were unaccounted for.

"We have to fear that a number of Germans clearly in the three-digit numbers will be among the dead," Schroeder told reporters. Currently, 26 Germans have been confirmed dead.

"We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Chairman Jean-Marc Espalioux of the Accor hotel group said of the search for thousands of tourists and locals missing from beach resorts of southern Thailand - including more than 2,000 Scandinavians.

In Sri Lanka, reports of measles and diarrhea were beginning to reach health authorities, causing concern of an epidemic, said Thilak Ranaviraj, the government's top official handling relief efforts.

In a field in Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra's Aceh province, bulldozers shoved more than 1,000 unidentified bodies into mass graves. The corpses had been picked off the city's streets as authorities rushed to get decaying bodies into the ground.

"What worries us is the lack drinking water," said Dr. Georg Petersen, the World Health Organization representative in Indonesia. "That means that people might drink contaminated water and they can get sick from waterborne diseases like diarrhea."

Four relief planes arrived in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, bringing a surgical hospital from Finland, a water purification plant from Germany, doctors and medicine from Japan and aid workers from Britain, the Red Cross said.

Meanwhile, trucks fanned out across the island nation to deliver bandages, antibiotics, tents, blankets and other supplies to the hardest hit areas, the southern and eastern coast. A dozen trucks left the U.N. World Food Program depot in Colombo on Tuesday. The military said a fleet of 64 trucks packed with rice, sugar, tents and other essentials entered Tamil areas Wednesday

But officials in the east said at least four WFP trucks bound for Tamil areas in the north were forcefully diverted by Sinhalese mobs and low-ranking government officials to predominantly Sinhalese areas. Selvi Sachchithanandam, a WFP spokeswoman, declined to comment on the report.

Sri Lanka has been torn for years by a conflict with separatist Tamil rebels who control parts of the north, demanding independence from the mostly-Sinhalese nation.

Indonesia's military said a navy flotilla was headed to Sumatra's western coast to being him. Supplies - including 175 tons of rice and 100 doctors - reached Banda Aceh, but with aid not arriving quickly enough, desperate people in towns across Sumatra stole whatever food they could find, officials said.

Widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's devastated resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away by - the torrents.

An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to Phuket and to take home shellshocked travelers. Jets from France and Australia were among the first to touch down at the island's airport. Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden planned similar flights.

The world's biggest reinsurer, Germany's Munich Re, estimated the damage to buildings and foundations in the affected regions would be at least $13.6 billion.

Donations for recovery efforts came in from all parts of the globe.

The governments of the United States, Australia and Japan pledged a combined $100 million while taxi drivers in Singapore put donation tins in their cars and volunteers in Thailand text-messaged aquaintances to give blood to the Red Cross.

Originally posted by PZelda
I don't know where you got your info from, Brent, since you didn't link to an article...

http://www.thisislondon.com/news/articles/15630695?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5

International Red Cross now expects the death toll to top 100,000 in Indonesia ALONE. That would push the overall toll to at least 125,000.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/galleries/149-74.html?SITE=WFAA&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT

i cannot believe the pictures that the press is allowed to show

some of these just took my breath away, and not in a good way

..

Originally posted by PZelda
I don't know where you got your info from, Brent, since you didn't link to an article...So I did some sleuthing of my own. This is from Associated Press's website and they say the toll is nearly 77,000 and not 100,000 people.

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/Q/QUAKE_TSUNAMI?SITE=WFAA&SECTION=HOME

Dec 29, 12:17 PM EST

Aid Arrives; Asia Death Toll Nearly 77,000

By LELY T. DJUHARI
Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -- Cargo planes touched down with aid Wednesday, bearing everything from lentils to water purifiers to help survivors facing the threat of epidemic after this week's quake-tsunami catastrophe. The first Indonesian military teams reached the devastated west coast of Sumatra island, finding thousands of bodies and increasing the death toll across 12 nations to nearly 77,000.

The international Red Cross warned that the toll could eventually surpass 100,000. The race was on to try to prevent an outbreak of diseases and to curb food shortages among millions of homeless - which the U.N. health agency said could kill as many as the waves and quake.

Sri Lanka said it was getting its first reports of measles and diarrhea. Paramedics in southern India began vaccinating 65,000 survivors against cholera, typhoid, hepatitis A and dysentery, and authorities sprayed bleaching powder on beaches where bodies have been recovered.

"Even those people who (didn't lose homes) can't get food. Nothing is available," said Father Raja Perera, of St. Mary's Roman Catholic church in Sri Lanka's second largest city, the hard-hit southern resort of Galle, where refugees from ravaged homes crowded into churches, Buddhist temples and mosques.

Town after town along Indonesia's Sumatran coast was covered with mud and sea water, with homes flattened or torn apart, an Associated Press reporter saw on a helicopter overflight with the military commander of the island's Aceh province. The only signs of life were a handful of villagers scavenging for food on the beach.

Western Sumatra suffered a double blow in Sunday's disaster, shattered both by the most powerful earthquake in 40 years and perhaps the deadliest tsunami in recorded history, which wreaked destruction across a dozen nations.

"The damage is truly devastating," Maj. Gen. Endang Suwarya said. "Seventy-five percent of the west coast is destroyed and some places it's 100 percent. These people are isolated and we will try and get them help."

The first military teams reached the devastated fishing town of Meulaboh on Sumatra's coast and across the coast they found thousands of bodies, bringing Indonesia's toll to 45,268, according to the Health Ministry's official count. That toll was likely to rise - one official on Tuesday estimated that as many as 10,000 people were dead in Meulaboh alone.

Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 22,400 people dead, India close to 7,000 - with 8,000 missing and feared dead. Thailand put its toll at more than 1,800. Another 340 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

From East Africa to southern Asia, chances faded of finding more survivors of Sunday's massive, quake-driven walls of water. Tens of thousands of people were still missing. German Chancellor Gerhardt Schroeder said 1,000 Germans were unaccounted for.

"We have to fear that a number of Germans clearly in the three-digit numbers will be among the dead," Schroeder told reporters. Currently, 26 Germans have been confirmed dead.

"We have little hope, except for individual miracles," Chairman Jean-Marc Espalioux of the Accor hotel group said of the search for thousands of tourists and locals missing from beach resorts of southern Thailand - including more than 2,000 Scandinavians.

In Sri Lanka, reports of measles and diarrhea were beginning to reach health authorities, causing concern of an epidemic, said Thilak Ranaviraj, the government's top official handling relief efforts.

In a field in Banda Aceh, the capital of Sumatra's Aceh province, bulldozers shoved more than 1,000 unidentified bodies into mass graves. The corpses had been picked off the city's streets as authorities rushed to get decaying bodies into the ground.

"What worries us is the lack drinking water," said Dr. Georg Petersen, the World Health Organization representative in Indonesia. "That means that people might drink contaminated water and they can get sick from waterborne diseases like diarrhea."

Four relief planes arrived in Sri Lanka's capital, Colombo, bringing a surgical hospital from Finland, a water purification plant from Germany, doctors and medicine from Japan and aid workers from Britain, the Red Cross said.

Meanwhile, trucks fanned out across the island nation to deliver bandages, antibiotics, tents, blankets and other supplies to the hardest hit areas, the southern and eastern coast. A dozen trucks left the U.N. World Food Program depot in Colombo on Tuesday. The military said a fleet of 64 trucks packed with rice, sugar, tents and other essentials entered Tamil areas Wednesday

But officials in the east said at least four WFP trucks bound for Tamil areas in the north were forcefully diverted by Sinhalese mobs and low-ranking government officials to predominantly Sinhalese areas. Selvi Sachchithanandam, a WFP spokeswoman, declined to comment on the report.

Sri Lanka has been torn for years by a conflict with separatist Tamil rebels who control parts of the north, demanding independence from the mostly-Sinhalese nation.

Indonesia's military said a navy flotilla was headed to Sumatra's western coast to being him. Supplies - including 175 tons of rice and 100 doctors - reached Banda Aceh, but with aid not arriving quickly enough, desperate people in towns across Sumatra stole whatever food they could find, officials said.

Widespread looting also was reported in Thailand's devastated resort islands of Phuket and Phi Phi, where European and Australian tourists left valuables behind in wrecked hotels when they fled - or were swept away by - the torrents.

An international airlift was under way to ferry critical aid and medicine to Phuket and to take home shellshocked travelers. Jets from France and Australia were among the first to touch down at the island's airport. Greece, Italy, Germany and Sweden planned similar flights.

The world's biggest reinsurer, Germany's Munich Re, estimated the damage to buildings and foundations in the affected regions would be at least $13.6 billion.

Donations for recovery efforts came in from all parts of the globe.

The governments of the United States, Australia and Japan pledged a combined $100 million while taxi drivers in Singapore put donation tins in their cars and volunteers in Thailand text-messaged aquaintances to give blood to the Red Cross.

You know, I've noticed that the death toll varies greatly depending on the source. People were saying 68,000 long before CNN ever went that high, at the time they only reported 22,000 while other news networks were showing totals near 70,000.

77,000 or 100,000....That's terrible.

ABC has scheduled a special on the tsumani, tonight at 10pm ET/PT:

TSUNAMI: WAVE OF DESTRUCTION ABC News’ Special Edition of “Primetime” Airs Wednesday, December 29 at 10:00 p.m., ET


Charles Gibson anchors a special edition of ”Primetime,” “Tsunami: Wave of Destruction,” WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 29 (10:00-11:00 p.m., ET), on the ABC Television Network. This one-hour special examines the chain of events that led to the devastating destruction in South Asia, the impact of relief efforts beginning to arrive in the region and the science of tsunamis, and looks back at other catastrophic natural disasters. The special also will include eyewitness accounts from survivors and a look at what experts are doing to brace for a potential aftershock. Mr. Gibson will report the latest developments, and ABC News correspondents Mark Litke in Thailand and Nick Watt in Sri Lanka will contribute live reports.

Thanks Pav. I'll be watching.

Poor Asia.:( Thousands and thousands of people killed in a wake of tsumani. I watched the news and it was devastating.:crying:

Originally posted by Dr. Phillips
Something is happening. first the earthquake, then it's snowing in New Orleans and there's a heavy rainstorm here in CA. the climate is changing.

It's not like we didn't know that it would. It is amazing to me that people can so easily dismiss it.
Either way, this is an awful way to start 2005. If you ask me, it doesn't bode well for the new year. The world will be feeling this for many years.

The world is, indeed changing; political and environmental.

My uncle lives in Thailand and he,his wife and his son are safe,thank god.

I cant believe how much the death toll has risen,its dreaful.It makes the September 11 terrorist attacks look minor.

It's not like we didn't know that it would. It is amazing to me that people can so easily dismiss it.

I agree.The world cant continue going this way.Disasters are getting more frequent,and the weather is definetly weird.I dont think people dismiss it,i think its something alot of people think about,but would rather not think about.I think i would go crazy if i spent my life wondering what the fate of the world is going to be.;)

Tsunami Warnings issued in India and Thailand due to aftershocks, no waves reported though.

:eek2:

Tsunami Death Toll Jumps to 114,000

By CHRIS BRUMMITT, AP

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) - The death toll from last weekend's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 114,000 on Thursday as Indonesia uncovered more and more dead from ravaged Sumatra island, where pilots dropped food to remote villages still unreachable by rescue workers. A false alarm that new killer waves were about to hit sparked panic in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

The increase came after Indonesia reported nearly 28,000 newly confirmed dead in Sumatra, which was closest to the epicenter of last weekend's massive earthquake and was overwhelmed by the tsunami that followed. Some 60 percent of Banda Aceh, the main city in northern Sumatra was destroyed, the U.N. children's agency estimated, and 115 miles of the island's northwest coast - lined with villages - was inundated.

Indonesia, with around 80,000 dead, was the worst hit, followed by Sri Lanka, India and Thailand. The total across 12 nations in southern Asia and East Africa was likely to rise, with thousands still missing and fears that disease could bring a new wave of deaths.

Tens of thousands of residents fled coasts in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand after warnings that a new tsunami was about to strike after new aftershocks hit the Indian Ocean Thursday.

India issued a tsunami warning at midday, but then hours later its science minister, Kapil Sibal, went on television to announce the warning was incorrect and based on information received from a U.S. research firm.

Fears of a new tsunami were ''unscientific, hogwash and should be discarded,'' Sibal said.

Still, the alert sparked panic among people traumatized by Sunday's devastation.

''We got into a truck and fled,'' said 40-year-old Gandhimathi of Nagappattinam in India's Tamil Nadu state, who said authorities told her to leave her home. ''We took only a few clothes and left behind all of our belongings, everything we had.''

Sri Lanka's military later told residents there to be vigilant but not to panic, while coastal villagers climbed onto rooftops or sought high ground. ''There is total confusion here,'' said Rohan Bandara in the coastal town of Tangalle.

Tsunami sirens in southern Thailand sent people dashing from beaches, but only small waves followed the alarms.

An estimated 5.7 magnitude aftershock was recorded in seas northwest of Indonesia's Sumatra island by the Hong Kong observatory Thursday morning, along with earlier, overnight quakes at India's Andaman and Nicobar islands. But a 5.7 quake would be about 1,000 times less powerful than Sunday's, and probably would have ''negligible impact,'' said geologist Jason Ali of University of Hong Kong.

The false alarm highlighted the lack of an organized tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean region - which experts have already said may have worsened the crisis after Sunday's 9.0 magnitude quake hit off Sumatra's coast, sending a massive wave racing at 500 mph across the Indian Ocean.

Sibal, the Indian science minister, said Thursday's warning was based on information from a U.S. research group that ''claimed they have some sensors and equipment through which they suggest there was a possibility of an earthquake.''

He did not elaborate on how the information was incorrect.

Experts now worry the tsunami's destructive effects will spread into disease and deprivation among the survivors left in its wake.

Meanwhile, military ships and planes rushed to get desperately needed aid to Sumatra's ravaged coast. Countless corpses strewn on the streets rotted under the tropical sun causing a nearly unbearable stench.

Food drops began along the coast, mostly of instant noodles and medicines, with some of the areas ''hard to reach because they are surrounded by cliffs,'' said Budi Aditutro, head of the government's relief team.

Government institutions in Aceh province, the territory on Sumatra's northern tip, have ceased to function and basic supplies such as fuel have almost run out, forcing even ambulances to ration gasoline.

On the streets of Banda Aceh, the provincial capital, fights have broken out over packets of noodles dropped from military vehicles.

''I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and weeks ahead,'' U.N. Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland said.

The United States, India, Australia and Japan have formed an international coalition to coordinate worldwide relief and reconstruction efforts, President Bush announced.

''We will prevail over this destruction,'' Bush said from his Texas ranch Wednesday.

The number of deaths in Indonesia stood at about 52,000. Authorities there said that did not include a full count from Sumatra's west coast, and UNICEF estimated the toll for that country alone could be 80,000.

Sri Lanka reported 24,700 dead, India more than 7,300 and Thailand around 2,400 - though that country's prime minister said he feared the toll would go to 6,800. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.

The disaster struck a band of the tropics that not only is heavily populated but attracts tourists from all corners. Throughout the world, people sought word of missing relatives, from small-town Sri Lankan fishermen to Europeans on sand-and-sun holidays.

On hundreds of Web sites, the messages were brief but poignant: ''Missing: Christina Blomee in Khao Lak,'' or simply, ''Where are you?''

But even as hope for the missing dwindled, survivors continued to turn up.

A 2-year-old Swedish boy was reunited with his father days after the toddler was found alone on a roadside in Thailand's southern beach resort island of Phuket. In Sri Lanka, a lone fisherman named Sini Mohammed Sarfudeen was rescued Wednesday by an air force helicopter crew after clinging to his wave-tossed boat for three days.

Rescue workers on Thursday plied the dense forests of India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands - an archipelago just to the northwest of the quake's epicenter - where authorities fear as many as 10,000 more people may be buried in mud and thick vegetation. Many hungry villagers were surviving on coconut milk, rescuers said.

Mohammad Yusef, 60, a fisherman who fled his village and was holed up at a Catholic church in the territory's capital Port Blair along with about 800 others, said all 15 villages on the coast of Car Nicobar island had been destroyed.

''There's not a single hut which is standing,'' he told The Associated Press. ''Everything is gone. Most of the people have gone up to the hills and are afraid to come down,'' Yusef said.

Many villagers had not eaten for two days and said that crocodiles had washed ashore during the disaster, compounding the horror of more than 50 aftershocks since Sunday's quake.

Indonesia's Ambassador said he expects the death toll in Indonesia ALONE to exceed 400,000. :eek: :(

They are reporting the toll just rolled past 117,000. :(

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/ap/20041230/ap_on_re_as/tsunami&cid=514&ncid=514

It is basically the same thing Janice posted, but the numbers have changed.

Very sad. :crying:

5 million without food and water. 2,000 Americans unaccounted for with 14 confirmed dead.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia

First picture is before, second is after:

http://us.news1.yimg.com/us.yimg.com/p/rids/20041230/i/r372630745.jpg

:eek: :(

I just wish this horror movie will end soon.....all those innocent people and 1/3 of them children :(

The toll just sailed past 123K. I wish it would stop. :(

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/PA_NEWDEATHQuakethu15quakeleadud?source=&ct=5

Tsunami death toll passes 120,000
31 December 2004

The death toll from the Asian megaquake and ensuing tsunamis officially passed 120,000.

At least 123,181 people were killed in 11 countries in southern Asia and Africa by Sunday's massive earthquake and tsunami waves, according to official figures.

In Indonesia: At least 79,940 people were killed on Sumatra island, the government said. It is still counting deaths in districts on Sumatra's hard-hit western coast, meaning the final toll will likely rise.

In Sri Lanka: Some 24,743 killed in government and rebel controlled areas. About 1 million people were displaced.

In India: The government said 7,330 deaths have been confirmed, but the toll was expected to climb: A police official said 8,000 people were missing and possibly dead in India's remote Andaman and Nicobar Islands, located just north of Sumatra.

In Thailand: The government said 2,394 people died.

In Somalia: At least 114 killed, said Ali Abdi Awaare, environment minister of the semiautonomous region Puntland. A presidential spokesman earlier said hundreds were killed without giving an exact figure.

In Burma: About 90 people were killed, according to reports compiled by international aid agencies.

In Malaysia: At least 65 people, including an unknown number of foreign tourists, were dead, according to official reports. In Maldives: At least 69 people were confirmed dead.

In Tanzania: At least 10 people killed, mostly swimmers, said Alfred Tibaigana, police commander in Dar es Salaam. In Bangladesh: Two killed. In Kenya: One killed.

Originally posted by PZelda
The toll just sailed past 123K. I wish it would stop. :(

That's pretty conservative IMO. I'm going with that number right now, but some other sources are quite a bit higher. :(

Tsunami death toll tops 135,000
World Bank gives $250m, European nations boost pledges

Friday, December 31, 2004 Posted: 8:02 AM EST (1302 GMT)

JAKARTA, Indonesia (CNN) -- The world was stepping up efforts to aid millions of survivors of the devastating tsunami that swept across southern Asia as the death toll rose above 135,000.

U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan appealed for the international community to come together to help the victims, and several European nations said they were increasing their donations in response.

Britain boosted its pledge from $30 million to $95 million, and the World Bank added $250 million to the $250 million pledged by the international community.

Annan welcomed the aid and said even more would be needed. A donors conference is planned for January 11.

Canada has announced a debt moratorium for tsunami-affected countries, and other wealthy creditor nations are expected to follow suit.

Meanwhile, a U.S. delegation headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Florida Gov. Jeb Bush -- brother of President George W. Bush -- will travel to southern Asia Sunday to assess humanitarian needs. (Full story).

"This is an unprecedented global catastrophe that requires an unprecedented global response," Annan said.

"It has registered deeply in the consciousness and conscience of the world as we seek to grasp the speed, the force and the magnitude with which it happened.

"The impact will be felt for a long time to come."

The regional death toll rose to 135,263 on Friday after Tamil Tiger rebels in Sri Lanka said 14,000 were killed in rebel-controlled areas in the north and east of the island.

Sri Lankan officials report at least 27,008 deaths in non-rebel-held areas, putting the island's total death toll at 41,008.

Indonesian officials said nearly 80,000 died on Sumatra, the island whose western coast was first hit by the massive wave triggered by Sunday's magnitude 9.0 underwater earthquake.

There are more than 4,000 dead in Thailand and at least 10,000 deaths in India.

India's toll is almost certain to rise as emergency teams reach the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, closer to the earthquake's epicenter. Few of the islands rise higher than 12 feet above sea level, and the southernmost islands were swamped by the tsunami.

Jan Egeland, the U.N.'s emergency relief coordinator, said the relief effort is monumental -- likely the largest and most expensive in history.

"We're still finding places in northern Sumatra and elsewhere where there are many, many dead," Egeland said.

In Sweden, flags will fly at half-staff Saturday as the nation observes a day of mourning for its 44 victims. Prime Minister Goeran Persson attended a memorial service Thursday in Stockholm with the royal family and said Sweden's toll could exceed 1,000.

There are 2,500 Swedes missing in Thailand, most of them backpackers believed to be in Phuket or Khao Lang.

With disaster assessment and aid teams still trying to assess remote areas, the scope of the disaster is still difficult to grasp.

Indonesian-based British conservationist Mike Griffiths flew over the western coast of Sumatra and said it was "like a nuclear blast has leveled the area."

Between Meulaboh and Chalang, about 60 miles north, no villages are left, he said. Calong, a town of 13,000, has "vaporized," he said.

John Budd, a spokesman for UNICEF in Indonesia, said the infrastructure damage in Aceh province in Sumatra's north has made distributing aid especially difficult.

"UNICEF has an office which could have easily started, but that office has been wrecked," he said.

The 9.0-magnitude earthquake struck about 7 a.m. Sunday (7 p.m. ET), knocking down buildings along the shore, up to Aceh's capital, Banda Aceh, on the northern point.

More than a million people in Sri Lanka were forced from their homes -- and nearly half of those no longer have homes.

Malaysia reported 66 deaths and six missing, but Deputy Prime Minister Mohamed Najib said flooding in the Pinang and Kedah states was extensive.

More dead were reported in Myanmar (formerly Burma), Bangladesh, Tanzania, Somalia and Kenya.

Thousands of the dead remain unidentified, and some officials said decomposition is making identification more difficult.

More than 4,500 confirmed dead in Thailand, half of them foreigners
Published on Dec 31 , 2004

KHAO LAK, Thailand, Dec 31 (AFP) - More than 4,500 people -- almost half of them foreign holidaymakers -- were Friday confirmed dead in Thailand's tidal wave disaster and officials in the worst hit resort region said they expect to find hundreds more bodies later in the day.

The governor of Phang Nga province, which includes the devastated resort area of Khao Lak, said 2,027 foreigners and 1,662 Thais were confirmed dead there.

Interior ministry figures showed a total of 821 confirmed dead -- including 203 foreigners -- in the five other provinces on the Andaman Sea coast which were battered by huge waves last Sunday.

The combined data shows a total of 4,510 people including 2,230 foreigners confirmed killed in the whole country.

The ministry said 6,475 are missing nationwide and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has said 80 per cent of these should be presumed dead.

Phang Nga governor Anuwat Maytheevibulwut told AFP rescuers were Friday expected to retrieve 300 more corpses in his province alone.

"We will try to complete the task today on land but I have no idea how many would be floating in the sea," Anuwat said.

At least 100 more bodies are expected to be removed Friday from the once-idyllic Phi Phi island, said deputy interior minister Sutham Sangprathum.

He said a candlelight New Year vigil would be held on the island -- one of many planned in a sombre nation which normally marks the occasion with frenzied merrymaking.

European nations were also grieving.

New Year's Day will be an official day of mourning in Sweden. Prime Minister Goeran Persson said Thursday that 44 Swedes are confirmed dead in Thailand but that number "is going to end up in the hundreds, in the worst-case scenario exceed 1,000."

Norway said Thursday that at least 21 Norwegians died and 430 were missing across the Indian Ocean region. "We are faced with an incomprehensible tragedy that is growing by the hour," said Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier said the same day that 19 French nationals died in Thailand and there was little hope for 90 who disappeared.

Britain warned nationals not to visit Thailand.

"Flooding, stagnant water, disruption of sewer lines, and poor quality sanitation conditions are conducive for the development of disease," the foreign office said.

In Ottawa, Thailand's ambassador Stanchart Devahastin pleaded for body bags, freezers, coffins and forensic experts to help store and identify decomposing corpses.

Thaksin, who has deployed 20,000 rescue workers, said the figure of those still missing is "very worrying."

He said the search of wrecked buildings had slowed, because of a shortage of heavy equipment and because some rescuers briefly fled Thursday due to a false alarm about more tsunamis.

Disposal of the masses of dead was posing a dilemma, with Western countries keen to preserve the remains for identification and Thai health officials favouring quick disposal in 33 degree Celsius (92 Fahrenheit) heat.

Refrigerated containers were in acutely short supply.

Thai officials and dozens of foreign forensic experts have now agreed that the bodies of foreigners will be collected at three sites in refrigerated containers pending an identification process which could take months, a French police source told AFP.

The bodies will be collected in Khao Lak, Phuket and Krabi province.

Photos and sometimes even fingerprints are useless in many cases because the corpses are so decomposed.

"As in all disasters, we are rushing afterwards. We have made progress but the disaster has also made progress," said one expert.

If anyone wants to help, here is a page on CNN.com listing many aid groups that are taking donations. Either you or your parents may like to contribute to one of them.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.aidsites/index.html

:(

U.S. Government has just raised the aid package to $350 million, 10 times more than the $35 million originally pledged.

:eek: