Seven countries affected, 22,000 dead, 5 Americans confirmed dead...
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Posted on 12/27/2004 8:38:45 AM PST by nuve9
Edited on 12/27/2004 9:25:17 AM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
AMBALANGODA, SRI LANKA -- The twisted limbs of the frail girl in a blue dress were caught in a garden fence by the sea. She may have been dead already, but no one stopped to check. There was too much tragedy going on all around, as the water kept coming.
Before the waves hit southern Sri Lanka, I had gone to the seaside to drop off my parents at the shrine in Ambalangoda for a Buddhist ceremony. Sunday was the "Poya," or a full-moon day. We Buddhists believe that Buddha was born, attained enlightenment and died on a full-moon day, so they are a time for reflection.
As I was driving back to the capital, Colombo, I got a message on my cell phone that some parts of coastal Sri Lanka had been hit by unnaturally big waves.
I didn't need the message. People were running everywhere, and the first waves hit the road. They were not huge, not too destructive. They brought fish to the shore, and people rushed to collect them.
Do you have a link for this thread?
Thanks.
It's Bush's fault.
no, I got it from my workplace at the AP. I read it on the domestic wire and thought ppl would be interested in the first-person view of how things happened.
Populate your About Page
OK, thanks.
The article is credited to
Thank you for your report, nuve9. Absolutely speechless here. Prayers offered. Please stay safe and continue to post us.
This is the one from CNN and also on MSNBC's website. I read it there last night.
Thank you for reading it. I truly do pray for everyone affected.
A tragedy of unimaginable proportions.
you really think so?
No. But I wanted to say it before the Left wingers did.
I really don't think any "left-winger" will be saying that in this case.
He's been accused of everything else. Why not?
Oh sure they will. They'll blame it on global warming, if only Bush had signed on to Kyoto. I can hear the whining already.
My God, those pictures are devastating.
So many of the dead never had a chance.
respectfully, because this is a true natural disaster that has nothing to do with the politics of Bush and even mentioning it is just adding fuel to the fire. The only thing to blame for so many deaths in this case, would be the fact that Asian officials failed to issue public warnings after the undersea earthquake. It's insane to think these countries don't have warning systems. It would be meaningless to point fingers to anyone like Bush in this case and anyone who does so just has nothing better to say.
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