Posted on 12/30/2004 7:51:01 AM PST by jazzo
MALE (AFP) - At least 42 islands in the tourist paradise of the Maldives were flattened with 117 people killed and missing after tsunamis raved the low-lying atoll nation, the president said.
President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom said 75 people were killed while another 42 were confirmed missing in Sunday's devastating tidal waves that caused havoc in his nation of 1,192 coral islands.
"We were not in any way prepared to deal with this disaster," Gayoom told a special session of the national parliament. The toll could be higher as the authorities re-establish contact with far flung islands, he said on Thursday.
"Maldives may be able to build a new life from scratch with financial assistance, but dealing with the widespread personal tragedy and despair would not be easy," he said.
The tragedy struck the atoll nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims which is already facing the prospect of extinction from sea level rise caused by global warming. Gayoom had warned that a one-meter (three foot four inch) rise in sea levels could submerge his country.
When walls of water washed over the Maldives, the nation lost all the infrastructure on 13 of its 202 inhabited islands while another 29 of the country's 85 resort islands suffered similar damage.
Each island is a single resort hotel with the geographical formation allowing the country to keep foreigners and the local Sunni Muslim population separate except in the one square mile capital island Male.
Foreigners are not allowed to overnight on islands inhabited by Maldivians and special permission is required to visit them.
Gayoom, 67, who is Asia's longest serving president in power since 1978, has already declared an emergency and put off parliamentary elections that were due Friday.
Voting has been re-scheduled for January 22, but officials said even that could be put off again as the country struggled to rebuild itself amid initial estimates that the damage was in excess of 1.5 billion dollars.
Gayoom said 9,000 people had been evacuated from damaged islands while another 12,000 were made homeless across the archipelago.
"There are shortcomings in the relief operations," he admitted but urged all Maldivians to unite in the face of the worst disaster to hit the nation and said they were also getting international help.
Officials said a total of six foreigners, three Britons, two Sri Lankans and one Indian were among those confirmed killed.
The Maldives was getting a shipment of drinking water from Britain Thursday, officials said.
Scottish Water was sending thousands of bottles in an aircraft that was flying in to pick up stranded tourists.
"We were not in any way prepared to deal with this disaster."
What can one possibly do on a low-lying island when the ocean decides to wipe it out? Other than move before it happens?
Oh. It was a secure Naval base the last time I was there.
It takes one to call one and I won't be leaving soon.
(Unless over sensitive creeps get me banned.)
You guys have to start thinking out of the box. Why do we need to spend billions on a Quixotic mission to help people that don't like us.
You can't buy friendship. Well maybe your friendship can be bought, I don't know...
The sad fact is no one is prepared to deal with this.
We (U.S.) will be blamed when it falls apart.
I have to go play tennis now.
You might check out my page and find I am older than you, am a Nam combat vet Navy officer and am a lot smarter ;)
Don't get lonely without me.
The Maldives are a Muslim dictatorship. They'll accept help but not Bibles.
You didn't bother
to get your facts straight when you
replied to my post.
Freepers who last here
don't waste other Freepers' time
with random chatter.
"You might check out my page and find I am older than you, am a Nam combat vet Navy officer and am a lot smarter ;)"
Damn... I didn't know Kerry was a Freeper ....
Then why did you post this?
There are plenty of low-lying islands in the world and all in danger of submerging, which has been true since before environmentalism was "invented."
I've flown over the South China Sea, home of lots of little golf-course size islands that quite obviously were not permanent. In the past, natives piled into their canoes and moved on to other islands, and thus the Pacific was populated. No one should expect such delicate blips on the geological screen to last forever.
Pretty damn funny if you ask me.
"Why do we need to spend billions on a Quixotic mission to help people that don't like us."
Good question, but some people after having watched replays of the tsunami 24/7 are in that over-sensitive kumbaya phase at the moment.
In the meantime, African Christians are STILL being macheted to death in the Sudan and Nigeria, while munching on roasted catapillar in their burned out huts, and NO ONE is lifting a finger because CNN isn't running IT 24/7.
You know that Aceh Bandr or whatever it was called seems to be totally wiped out. It was the center of anti-Christian operations.
You make some great points and I agree with everyone of them. I've also flown over and fair percentage of the S. China Sea and had forgotten about some of those postage stamp-sized islands.
God and Mother Nature simply didn't intend for us to occupy every square foot of available earth. I'm sorry that some island dwellers will lose their homes to the sea - but it isn't the fault of SUVs or greenhouse gasses - it's part of nature's plan.
Hmmmm, I wonder what the Navy is building there.
You MUST be kidding. LOL! Bwahahahahahahahahaha!
That's one I wish we could "blame" on W...
Hmm...Any word yet on whether the do-gooders want to rebuild the island and top it with a big ol' Mosque like a cherry on the cake?
The tragedy struck the atoll nation of 330,000 Sunni Muslims which is already facing the prospect of extinction from sea level rise caused by global warming. Gayoom had warned that a one-meter (three foot four inch) rise in sea levels could submerge his country.
One meter? One meter??? Just guessing here, but I doubt there is enough ice on the entire planet to raise the level of the oceans worldwide by that much! How ridiculous!
If aid does not arrive in the next few days, most of the people will be dead.
We have a fleet steaming toward them, but it may not get there in time. So do the Australians. They keep getting hit by aftershocks, too. It sounds like hell on Earth.
Galveston Island, Texas built an 8 foot tall sea wall to avoid a repeat of its 1900 Hurricane storm surge damage.
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