Tsunami Death Toll Rockets to 114,000 (and the numbers continue to grow!)

AP ^ | December 30, 2004

[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

[OldFriend]

Kofi is skiing, anything else you need to know.

[teeman8r]

sarcasm button was left off

however, man is a part of nature, and subject to natural disasters as all beings on the planet are... unlike what the environmentalists would think that we are a danger to the planet in whatever we do...

a danger to each other? yes we are, but the earth will do as it pleases... with or without us...

teeman

[MeekOneGOP]

bump!

[OldFriend]

Fifty to One Hundred Million people died in the influenza pandemic within a sixteen week period in 1918.

[7mmMag@LeftCoast]

If Al Gore had the intellectual capacity to add 2 plus 2 and come up with 4, then it would be the first thing he would be right about in his lifetime.

Though I suspect that mathematics at that high of a level is beyond his ability.

"Earth in the Balance" my @$$. What a joke that book is.

[Jon Alvarez]

LOL

[penelopesire]

you wrote:
"They're in Indonesia"

Who?(grin)..the Tamil Tigers are Sri Lankan, which is ethnically more Indian than Indonesian. jftr...thanks for the response.

[7mmMag@LeftCoast]

Almost, In 1976 Central China had a massive earthquake that reportedly killed anywhere from 600,000 to 1.5 million people. Being Moaist China in the 70's we may never really know what the number was. Then again this could easily pass 500,000+ just from the tsunami itself, there are a lot of areas that have yet to be entered. Add the disease deaths and by the end of January we could see 1 million dead from this disaster.

The magnitude of suffering is something no one in modern America or Europe could possibly comprehend without being there. If I had the means I would gladly give up a large portion of my wealth to help these people.

The fact that the worlds wealthiest people are silent and clutching onto their billions says it all.

Though politically I will defend to the death anyone's right to earn as much wealth as possible. But wealth without compassion for your fellow man is useless.

Odd, how easily I got off topic from your post, sorry. :)

[Happy2BMe]

We were talking about previous world human crisis - #84

________________________________________________________

"Fifty to One Hundred Million people died in the influenza pandemic within a sixteen week period in 1918."

[duznshwrnkd]

The Tamil Tigers are an independence movement in Sri Lanka. Here are a couple of top google hits:

Their official website

BBC article

[IonImplantGuru]

Fifty to One Hundred Million people died in the influenza pandemic within a sixteen week period in 1918.

Interesting; when I googled for 'major disasters'/catastrophes a site I got said 20M - 40M for the Spanish Flu Pandemic in 1918.

Note to self: If they haven't come to agreement on that disaster in, what?, 80+ years... then we won't know the real toll (within a factor of two) of this tsunami disaster in our lifetimes.

[Al Simmons]

Certainly the worst since the Chinese earthquake of 1976 that killed 232,000. Don't be surprised if the final toll of this catastrophe climbs to a quarter million...

[Al Simmons]

Nothing (short of an asteroid/nuclear exchange) will ever top the 800,000+ thousand killed in that great Chinese earthquake of about 1100 years ago - as a percent of the population its unimaginable)

[Next_Time_NJ]

Drudge already has it past 400,000

[Diva Betsy Ross]

Lets try to remember that it wasn't the Tsunami itself that killed the most people. It was the fact that the areas where people were trapped were below sea level- so the huge waves became a huge, gigantic surges of water which ran over everything in it's path. While the water sought low areas it got stronger and more violent and that is where there were so many people.That could be part of the reason why so many people were completely caught off guard.

[injin]

Don't think too much , just keep supporting relief efforts,
be generous , open your hearts and your wallets .
As of today , 5 days on , reports are that over 1 BillionUS$
have been donated by private parties . Good job!
We 'private' Americans are one of the worlds greatest assets, let's live up to the accolade.

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

http://www.slmana-east.org/
Sri Lanka Medical Association of North America
http://www.gospelcom.net/ia/
International Aid


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

[hedgetrimmer]

Desperate relief workers are struggling to get food and water to millions of Asia's tsunami victims facing starvation and disease as the death toll from what the UN called 'an unprecedented global catastrophe' passes 120,000. Here the before image (top) taken 23 June 2004 and the image taken on 28 December 2004 with the floaded aeras and destroyed buildings of the northern shore of Banda Aceh, shortly after a tsunami hit the area

[Centurion2000]

Nothing (short of an asteroid/nuclear exchange) will ever top the 800,000+ thousand killed in that great Chinese earthquake of about 1100 years ago

There was one in 1554 that killed 830,000 folks. Is that the one you are referring to ?

[Petruchio]

The crazy thing is that all foreign donations are now stuck in airport in Medan because corrupt officials want to get part of them. I would say that only 20% of all donation will go to the right persons. Otherwise, corruption and mismanagement eats the rest of donations.

To make matters worse, 2 of the Countries hit by the tsunami are in a Civil War right now. One has to wonder if donations are getting to those who need it or are they going to re-supply some army.

[spetznaz]

Where are they getting these "death count" numbers? Actual bodies? Missing reports? Empty villages? I realize that we will never know a real count but I still want it to be somewhat accurate.

Based on the following picture below (WARNING: THE PICTURE IS VERY GRAPHIC) it can be safe to assume that the death toll is quite substantial. This is just one small section of a small beach. If you add the other coastal areas, as well as the areas further inland; and then look at the other nations and islands affected (for example the Maldive islands were 3/4 underwater when it struck), then it is easy to see how the figures could come up.

We need to pray that secondary deaths are prevented. With the way things are over there water-borned diseases like cholera and dysentry could kill many more than the actual tsunami strike(especially cholera, which is such a big killer in so-called '3rd world nations' that i couldn't even begin to put it in words).

May the Lord help them.