Aerial photo of Meulaboh (pop. 36,000), one of the cities that was wiped off the face of the earth

http://www.tagesschau.de/bildstrecken/0,1203,OID3915132_IMG3923440_HID3923440_POS1_MTB1_NAV,00.html ^

[Truth666]

The city's population had increased from 28,000 t0 36,000 in the last 15 years.

[ConservativeMan55]

Wow.

[SoDak]

Wow, it brings to mind a tornado a few miles from here a few years ago. Nothing like this though in death.

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

Prayers for all...

I was looking at the site you mentioned and noticed that coffin in the left corner looks like it has a pillow in it.

[Clara Lou]

Oh, the humanity! It's just too much to take in.

[Battle Hymn of the Republic]

now that I look at it, I see it is a blanket...

[Fitzcarraldo]

This could happen every 50-100 years. In the US this would translate into stricter building codes and early warning systems. I guess the tourist $$$ didn't get funneled in those directions.

[txhurl]

You know, if you add all the individual cities ex-population up (that get articles), it would seem that already 250K are dead.

[null and void]

Dang!

[farmfriend]

[Strategerist]

This could happen every 50-100 years

There's certainly a long enough written history of this region that we know that isn't true.

It's quite possible that this specific quake on this fault, and therefore big Indian Ocean wide tsunamis, may only happen every 500-1500 years.

[jocon307]

"...it would seem that already 250K are dead..."

Tonight on Fox news they are reporting the death toll as 65000 and saying it may double. And that would just be from the tsunami, not counting any subsequent deaths from disease. So, unfortunately, your number may prove accurate.

[Crawdad]

This one struck me:

...wife of Crawdad

[SoDak]

The final figure will be astounding, that's for certain. Indonesia is very heavily populated, as well as India and Sri Lanka.

[Palladin]

Dear Lord, Have mercy on them all, and on the survivors.

This is mind-boggling.

[maggief]

[injin]

Please allow me to post these Relief Agency links on FR.
Please think about generously donating what you can to some of these:
http://www.redcross.org/ (Red Cross United States)

http://www.icrc.org/eng (International Red Cross)

http://www.redcross.or.th/english/home/index.php4
(Thai Red Cross)

http://www.careusa.org/ (Care USA)

http://www.catholicrelief.org/
(CRS – very good one for India)

http://www.directrelief.org/sections/our_work/asia_earthquake.html
(Direct Relief International )

http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/humanitarian_assistance/disaster_assistance/help/index.html
(USAID – United States State Dept )

http://www.unicef.org/ ( UNICEF)
For the Children specifically , very good



http://www.americares.org/ (AmeriCares)
This is a very good one!

http://www.oxfamamerica.org/newsandpublications/press_releases/AsianFloods



Additional Relief Agencies now going into operation
in the affected areas :

Action Against Hunger
247 West 37th Street, Suite 1201
New York, NY 10018
212-967-7800
http://www.aah-usa.org
American Jewish World Service
45 West 36th Street, 10th Floor
New York, NY 10018
800-889-7146
http://www.ajws.org
ADRA International
9-11 Fund
12501 Old Columbus Pike
Silver Spring, MD 20904
800-424-2372
http://www.adra.org
American Friends Service Committee (AFSC Crisis Fund)
1501 Cherry Street
Philadelphia, PA
215-241-7000
http://www.afsc.org
Catholic Relief Services
PO Box 17090
Baltimore, MD 21203-7090
800-736-3467
http://www.catholicrelief.org
Direct Relief International
27 South La Patera Lane
Santa Barbara, CA 93117
805-964-4767
http://www.directrelief.org
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres
PO Box 2247
New York, NY 10116-2247
888-392-0392
http://www.doctorswithoutborders.org
International Medical Corps
1919 Santa Monica Boulevard Suite 300
Santa Monica CA 90404
800-481-4462
http://www.imcworldwide.org
International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
PO Box 372
CH-1211 Geneva 19
Switzerland
41-22-730-4222
http://www.ifrc.org/
International Orthodox Christian Charities
Middle East Crisis Response
PO Box 630225
Baltimore, MD 21263-0225
877-803-4622
http://www.iocc.org
Lutheran World Relief
PO Box 17061
Baltimore MD 21298-9832
800-597-5972
http://www.lwr.org
MAP International
2200 Glynco Parkway
PO Box 215000
Brunswick, GA 3121-5000
800-225-8550
http://www.map.org
Mercy Corps
PO Box 2669
Portland, OR 97208
800-852-2100
http://www.mercycorps.org
Northwest Medical Teams
PO Box 10
Portland, OR 97207-0010
503-624-1000
http://www.nwmedicalteams.org
Operation USA
8320 Melrose Avenue, Ste. 200
Los Angles, CA 90069
800-678-7255
http://www.opusa.org
Relief International
11965 Venice Blvd. #405
Los Angeles, CA 90066
800-572-3332
http://www.ri.org
Save the Children
Asia Earthquake/Tidal Wave Relief Fund
54 Wilton Road
Westport, CT 06880
800-728-3843
www.savethechildren.org
US Fund for UNICEF
333 East 38th Street
New York, NY 10016
800-FOR-KIDS
http://www.unicefusa.or
World Concern
19303 Fremont Ave. N
Seattle, WA 98133
800-755-5022
http://www.worldconcern.org
World Relief
7 E. Baltimore St.
Baltimore, MD 21202
443-451-1900
http://www.wr.org
World Vision
PO Box 70288
Tacoma, Washington 98481-0288
888-56-CHILD
http://www.worldvision.org

[lainie]

http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1273476.htm

"And for the first time today the government sent helicopters with one of the government ministers down to scout Meulaboh, and the reports back were as dire as people had feared from a place where there had been no reports at all so far. Suggestions are that the waves there surged two kilometres inland, and the reports back from that helicopter scouting trip was that 80 per cent of the town of Meulaboh has been completely destroyed by those waves."

[txhurl]

Idiotic crazy thoughts keep running thru my mind, like God, I hope all the sharks and crabs are dead, so as not to eat the victims

And

are the corpses being robbed of their jewelry?

Semi-psychotic this far removed from the wreckage.

[mylife]

My brother is 50 mi inland.

Spoke to him on Christmas.

The next morning caused me to call again, All was well.

The news was so spotty at the time I was afraid of earthquake damage inland.

The Indian news agencies had less news than fox in the early hours