Southeast Asia death toll reaches 23,000, fears grow for 540 Israelis missing in SE Asia

Jerusalem Post ^ | Dec. 27, 2004

[IAF ThunderPilot]

The death toll from Sunday's natural disaster in Southeast Asia has reached 23,000, of them 12,000 in Sri Lanka, 6,000 in India, 4,700 in Indonesia and over 800 in Thailand.

In a press conference held Monday afternoon at the Foreign Ministry, Deputy Director General Nissim Ben-Sheetrit said that so far 450 Israelis in the region have been contacted. Ministry officials said earlier that over 500 were still unaccounted for.

According to Ben-Sheetrit, "I cannot say with certainty that there are no Israeli fatalities. We are examining this possibility and I hope there would not be any. Currently, between 7 and 14 Israelis are known to have been injured".

Israeli Foreign Ministry officials and doctors flew to Southeast Asia on Monday to search for missing Israeli tourists and provide assistance to countries struck by a massive earthquake and tidal waves.

Israeli army doctors are to offer medical assistance in Thailand and Sri Lanka, and army teams will look for missing Israelis in southern India.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom told Israel Radio Monday that there were a limited number of Israeli casualties and possibly fatalities in the tsunamis that struck the region.

According to Shalom, the number of Israeli tourists injured in the quake appeared to be lower than what had been initially believed.

Four Israeli tourists were reported as missing on Monday morning, acting Israeli Consul in Bangkok, Shlomi Kaufman, told Army Radio. According to Kaufman, "We received reports from people who said they had witnessed that something happened to those four".

Ten Israelis are hospitalized in hospitals in and around the southern Thai island of Phuket. All sustained light to moderate injuries.

In addition, it appears there are no foreign casualties on the islands of Andaman in the Indian Ocean. Dozens of Israelis are known to be on that island.

The Foreign Ministry situation room in Jerusalem: 02 5303155.

Shalom said Israel would assist its citizens in every way possible and also offered Israel's assistance to the nations struck by the natural disaster. The Ministry is focusing on getting Israelis onto buses in Bangkok, from where they will be flown to Israel.

Israel's national carrier, EL AL, said it would not charge extra fees or cancellation fees to people wishing to push back planned flights to Thailand, and added it would expedite the return flights of Israelis from Bangkok.

Israelis have so far not appeared on a list of foreign nationals killed in the disaster published by the Thailand Police. Most Israelis are reported to have made their way to Ko Phangang, far from the afflicted areas, for a series of full moon parties that started on Christmas Eve.

Foreign Ministry Director-General Ron Prosor said that Israel would dispatch $100,000 worth of medicine and food to Thailand and India, Israel Radio reported. In addition, a Foreign Ministry delegation including three top doctors from the Hadassah Hospital in Jerusalem and an officer from the Home Front Command departed for the area to provide emergency assistance.

The death toll from the most powerful earthquake in four decades climbed steadily throughout Sunday as authorities counted bodies washed up on beaches and left hanging like ragdolls from trees. Foreign tourists were among the dead and the thousands of others who were reported missing. Tens of thousands fled the coasts for higher ground, fearing aftershocks and further flood surges.

On Monday afternoon, Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz asked the Israel Defense Forces to ready a medical relief team for immediate dispatch to Thailand.

The IDF is also preparing to send humanitarian aid to the region, primarily Sri Lanka. The Defense Ministry said Monday that the teams would be sent as soon as their coordination with the ministry were completed.

Mofaz offered aid of two kinds - a search and rescue team from the Home Front Command, as well as consignments of food and medicines.

[Outland]

I don't want to twist this thread into a debate over North Korean nukes, but....

Do you really believe that we would have any power to affect that scenario? China would step intercede instantly. Then what? End game.

Same for the China/Taiwan dispute. Don't anticipate any action on our part there either.

Expect anything that China would do to be backed by their comrade Putin as well.

Perhaps you've both been away for too long?

[AmericanInTokyo]

What's "away"? What's "too long?" Yes, your right, that belongs on another thread.

[Dang Librul]

I wouldn't bet against the one of those two propositions I'd rather see happen.

[steve86]

troll -- ZOT!!!

[AmericanInTokyo]

Yokohama? Yokohama no doko?

[AmericanInTokyo]

OK then.....How about $100 for you if he blames it on gays, and $100 for me if he doesn't blame it on gays.

Publicly.

48-hour time frame from 2:00 p.m. Eastern time today.

[AmericanInTokyo]

I guess not.....zzzzzzzzzzz.........5:25 a.m. Yokohama time

[Truth666]

EU media censoring deaths of hundereds of tourists - exposed worldwide first here
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1308548/posts

[JennysCool]

Don't believe anybody's "censoring" anything. Earthquakes and tidal waves tend to cut off communications for hours or days.

[Truth666]

An example of today's special report in german ARD TV channel (almost 48 hours after !), following the prime time news, which reported that "5 germans confirmed dead so far, but no names available yet" : a journalist reporting from Phuket said that just in one hotel that was destroyed there were 1000 tourists dead or missing.
The journalist in Germany just ignored what the other one just reported ...

[onedoug]

Admittedly, it's harder to love God at such times.

Though, yet God, admit these tens of thousands to Your embrace. Amen

[JennysCool]

The news likely will be like that for a few days. Mass confusion in a mass disaster. I hear there are airdrops of generators going on, so perhaps we'll get more (good) info soon.

[PsyOp]

You two might want to check your irony against a few ugly facts. Bio-Chemical Weapons & Saddam: A History.

[IAF ThunderPilot]

I bet that tomorrow morning we will hear about another creepy Iranian TV program who blames the Zionists devils (Israelis) for the eqarthquake.

The fact that Israel is sending 100,000$ worth aid, and Iran is sending 0$ worth aid, is not important.

Of course they can with the same ease blaim the USA or Presdient Bush for the earthquake.

Dont think I am a fanatic- I have seen their latest TV program and I almost got a shock from the rubbish:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1307871/posts

[Tarpaulin]

Tsunami Caught On Camera In Thailand

Video Shows Tsunami Hitting Beach

Stunning pictures just in from Asia show one of nature's most-feared acts: a tsunami crashing into a beach on Thailand's Phuket Island.

The amateur video shows the huge wave hitting Patong Beach.

In the video, the big wave is seen quickly approaching the beach, seemingly out of nowhere.

People can first be heard gasping, then screaming, as the tidal wave moves quickly over the beachhead, by buildings and into town.

The tidal waves were triggered by the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years.

The Thai navy is still scouring the islands in the Andaman Sea today for survivors of this weekend's deadly tsunamis, which slammed into the country's tourist areas such as Phuket Island.

Several hundred tourists have been rescued from Thai islands in the sea, but nearly 800 bodies have been retrieved from stricken areas.

Disaster officials say its not yet known how many foreigners were among the dead although a Thai health ministry official has estimated as many as 80 percent of the dead could be foreign tourists.

Phuket Island is a popular tourist spot after being made famous by the Leonardo DiCaprio film, "The Beach."

Already its estimated about 130 people died on the island including an American.

Across Asia the death toll from the weekend earthquake and tsunamis is nearing 24,000.

[Excuse_My_Bellicosity]

Wow, this just keeps getting worse.

[bushisdamanin04]

It seems that natural disasters, and the scope of the loss, gets greater and greater. Is this fact or fiction? Does anyone have any facts or articles that compare today's natural disasters with those of 20, 50, 100, 200 years ago?

[nhoward14]

The knowledge I've gotten over the last few days should explain that.

The tsunami works just like any other wave only much faster and with a larger volume of water involved. As the tsunami is traveling through deep, open ocean the height is only a few feet. It is not until the depth of water decreases that the wave is resisted and begins to compress. As it compresses the wave increases in height and slows down until it breaks on shore.

I understand that Diego Garcia does not have a large mass of land around it underwater to resist the wave as it approaches so the wave does not compress very much. This allows the wave to pass on by with little or no notice that it was ever there.

It is only when you have a large land mass like a continent in the way that the water depth changes slowly enough to make the wave compact and turn into a wall.

[GretchenM]

I enjoyed looking at your home page immensely. The air force represented there looks ready to roll, big time. I also enjoyed seeing a bird's eye view of the holy land about which I read so much in the Scriptures.