Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
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 2,200 people in five countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Government and hospital officials both in Sri Lanka and India said 1,000 people had been killed in each of those countries. More than 200 were reported killed in Indonesia, 61 in Thailand and 10 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) said the quake was a magnitude-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 effects of the quake reverberated throughout the region, as waves as high as 20 feet crashed into coastal villages over a wide area.
In Sri Lanka — some 1,000 miles west of the quake's epicenter — officials and hospital doctors said 1,000 people had died. They warned that the death toll was likely to rise. Military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake confirmed up to 500 had died. He said a higher toll would not surprise him.
A wall of water slammed into southern India, killing about 1,000 people, mostly in Tamil Nadu state, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said.
Hospital and local officials said the death toll on Indonesia's Sumatra island was 201 people.
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.
Martinez blamed the tidal waves on the quake.
"This is not unusual occurrence for an earthquake this size and where it's located," said geophysicist Julie Martinez.
Per FNC: According to Reuters death toll now over 6,000 with many missing.
Reuters just reported over 6,000 dead.
RealPlayer version of live TV news out of Thailand.
rtsp://203.147.61.37/encoder/live.rm
It is in English. General news, not just on the disaster.
MSPlayer version [but I can't get it to stay connected]
mms://203.144.166.27/nationchannel
8.9 mag, full moon alert
Quake, Tsunami Hit South Asia; 4,500 Feared Dead
http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20041226/wl_nm/quake_dc_16
Actually if the fishermen were away from the coast far enough, they're fine. Tsunami in the open ocean are only a few inches high.
I'm unaware of any evacuations taking place anywhere in the Indian Ocean. There's no tsunami warning infrastructure or network. These tsunamis hit probably 1-3 hours after the quake in most places. Places like Sri Lanka probably felt very limited shaking due to distance from the epicenter. Only warning you get is the water going out before it comes in.
I'm just surprised that Thailand never developed such a system, specifically for the island of Phuket. I know that the universities in Bangkok do some inter-college seismic research, but I guess that never included sophisticated monitoring equipment in their own region. Or if it did, the communications capability was not robust enough to get the message to the people who needed it.
When we look back on this calamity, the lesson to take away is something as simple as a warning siren on the key beaches of India and Sri Lanka could have saved thousands. Though a lot of Indian fishermen look dirt-poor, in a group of them, one man will often have a cellphone. If there is a basic warning system in place, people will be able to take care of themselves.
Indian Ocean tsunami are surprisingly rare. in the 1800s and early 1900s there were a couple a few feet high, apparently.
It's difficult to get people to spend money or worry about things that haven't happened in either their lifetime or their parent's lifetime, even when geologically you can show something has happened hundreds of times in the past 30,000 years or whatever.
Has anyone seen any pictures or video footage of the tidal waves?
There are now reports trickling in all the way from the Seychelles, Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius islands of substantial damage. Burma seems to be imposing a partial media black-out. The reported death toll will probably climb for a couple of weeks.
Impressive pics. Thanks for the link--and welcome to FR!
FoxNews just reported latest numbers killed at 9,000 and rising.
Just hearing now the toll is around 10,000...waiting for aftershocks.
Thanks for posting that link. I was in Phuket and Phi Phi Island over Thanksgiving...I never would have imagined they would be hit by tsunamis. Fortunately it hit at 0830. Most of the tourists are still sleeping off the effects of the previous night before hitting the beach. If it hit later in the day,I imagine hundreds of tourists would have been taken by the sea.
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