Posted on 12/30/2004 5:48:14 AM PST by IAF ThunderPilot
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AP) -- The death toll from last weekend's earthquake-tsunami catastrophe rose to more than 114,000 on Thursday as Indonesia uncovered more and more dead from ravaged Sumatra island, where pilots dropped food to remote villages still unreached by rescue workers. A false alarm that new killer waves were about to hit sparked panic in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand...
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TSUNAMI?SITE=WYCHE&SECTION=HOME
(Excerpt) Read more at hosted.ap.org ...
There are many liberals out there expressing the same emotions but who ignored a tragedy of equal or greater magnitude - Saddam Hussein. Socialism has probably killed more people in one century than nature has since recorded history.
My best friend is now in the south of Thailand (Phang Nga Province) volunteering at a temple. They are sleeping on the floor of the main hall and the grounds of the temple is completely filled with dead bodies. They are going through the bodies trying to find any identifying marks, something very hard to do since they are decomposing. They are looking for anything that would be obvious like piercings or jewelry. They are starting to take DNA samples and bury people in mass graves. I just got off the phone with her and the situation is horrible. Trying to politicize this, like some people on here are doing, just makes you look like a complete a**hole.
'Disaster' was a fine word until our language was hijacked by the post-modern 'media'.
I'm sure that the 'numbers' will grow until the survivors are promised enough aid to level the standard of living between the third and first worlds. PHUI
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Indonesian soldiers and civilians throw dead bodies of civilians who were killed by the 26 December earthquake into a mass grave without checking their identities in Banda Aceh, in hopes of stemming an outbreak of disease. The confirmed death toll in the massive earthquake and tidal waves that slammed Indian Ocean shorelines at the weekend climbed to more than 118,000.(AFP/Choo Youn-Kong) |
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I am not attempting to politicize the situation, I am totally upset by the UN official who called the US stingy and Kofi Annan who refuses to acknowledge the suffering which will be prevented in the future Iraq. I also am furious for the country that refused to accept IDF personnel in the rescue effort but wanted Israeli money.
I agree. Talk about politicizing. I believe, if I remember correctly, it was Sri Lanka who did not want help from Israel.
I don't care what the UN, Kofi Annan, Israel, or anyone else has to say. It has no meaning. I do know that there are German teams on the ground in Thailand actually helping people. That is what I care about.
Here's a story from a co-worker of mine, whose Australian husband's daughter from a prior marriage was in Thailand when the tsunami hit. I took the names out for privacy reasons. I think next year maybe she should go diving in the Caribbean instead!
M and her boyfriend J were scuba diving off a small island south of Phuket on the Thai coast Dec 26th when they were hit by a tidal wave caused by the tsunami. They had suited up and were just about to jump in when they noticed the sea being sucked back under the boat. A huge swell rose above them and then hit the shore. The island was devastated and people were seen running for their lives. Small boats were catapulted into the tourist village; several people were skewered by these boats and other debris. Their boat (a seventy footer) was too big to go ashore and eventually a small boat came in and took them inshore.
When they returned to their hotel just off the beach, two of the walls were down and a native long boat was in their room. Bodies were floating past in the streets. They hastily picked up their passports and other documentation, packed what they could and headed off for higher ground.
They waited for a helicopter but only one was available and it was taking off the many wounded. Told that a second wave was due they decided to move to the next island just north of them that had higher ground. They located a kayak placed all their possessions in it and swam out to sea for a mile pushing the kayak until clearing a rocky headland, they then paddled to the other island. Once ashore they trekked thru jungle until they reached the other side of the island which had a deeper port. There they caught a boat that took them to the main coast just off Phuket.
The scene here was total devastation, hundreds of bodies; many of them children were lying everywhere, vehicles and boats were in trees, buildings smashed and people frantically searching for loved ones. Chaos everywhere, locals searching for loved ones, tourists dazed and bleeding wandering around in circles. M and J realized that no help would come for a while and because they were scheduled to leave via air from Phuket that night decided to head for the airport. They caught makeshift transportation to the airport and flew into Bangkok. From there after an overnight stay they continued their journey to Australia. During this ordeal they text messaged their families in Australia.
XXX’s son called him early Sunday morning to tell him that M and J were safe and not to worry when he turned
on the news Sunday morning, where first reports of the disaster were reaching the United States. The last time M vacationed in South East Asia she had left her hotel in Bali and it was blown up by terrorists only a month later. Three hundred tourists were killed and hundreds wounded. Somebody up there is taking care of her.
M and J arrived in Adelaide South Australia Wednesday 29th. Grateful to be home and thankful to have survived when many others did not. So far 60,000 people are reported dead and hundreds of thousands injured.
}:-)4
I have a co-worker story also. The brother of one co-worker lives in Thailand. He and his family tried to get reservations for Phuket for Christmas but were too late and everything was booked up. Disappointed, they stayed in a resort on the less fashionable east coast. Being procrastinators probably saved their lives.
I'm sure these events
were awful, but probably
now the Third World knows
that the countries with
the highest death tolls will get
the most aid dollars.
They've no incentive
to distribute completely
"accurate" numbers . . .
There are a BUNCH of sick sick people on this thread.
YOU DON'T REPRESENT most of us. THANK GOD.
Never.
Bull$hit.
Yes, the War on Terror is important, and the war in Iraq is important...but everything in the whole damn world doesn't correlate to it. Sheesh. Keep a lid on your fanaticism.
our USGS stations in Hawaii & Alaska did pick up the tremors - ck Wretchard @ the Belmont club for details.
That being said, this was a case of such a rare event happening that no-one knew what to do/who to inform with the data - our GS sensors reported it as "no Tsunami warning"; but those same sensors are geared to do two things: pick up the event and analyse if our targetted areas for notification (pacific area, hawaii, west coast) are in danger. GIGO.
news items are popping up now showing that India and perhaps other nations on the Bay of Bengal littoral were informed once the potential consequences were thought through - but again, officials over there who never expected this type of catastrophe didn't know what to do with this info.
You said nothing wrong.
NO WAY. I guess you forgot what those scumbags did with all the donations earmarked for 9/11 victims.
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