Catastrophic 9.0 earthquake strikes Asia; 135,000+ dead from Tsunamis

[Brent88]

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."

[Janice]

That's terrible. Those poor people.

[Brent88]

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.

[Brent88]

Aftermath of the Tsunami in Phucket, Thailand:

[Brent88]

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.

[Brent88]

Madras, India after the Tsunami:



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

[Brent88]

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.

[Brent88]

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.

[snl75]

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

[Brent88]

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

[*Pleasant Tomorrow*]

That's sad

[TheGreatPretender]

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

[Fleet]

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!

[Brent88]

It's been upgraded to 9.0!

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.

[musicradio77]

I can't believe it. That was the first largest earthquake in 40 years. 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.