Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People

AP ^ | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY

[TexKat]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles and killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century.

The death toll along the southern coast of Asia — and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost — steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years.

Signs of the carnage were everywhere: Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through the debris of destroyed houses amid the smell of rotting corpses. Hundreds of prisoners escaped a coastal jail in Sri Lanka.

More than one million people were driven from their homes in Indonesia alone, and rescuers there on Monday combed seaside villages for survivors. The Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas.

Another million were driven from their homes in Sri Lanka where some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters were deployed in relief and rescue efforts, authorities said.

At Thailand's beach resorts, packed with Europeans fleeing the winter cold at the peak of the holiday season, families and friends had tearful reunions Monday after a day of fear that their loved ones had been swept away.

Katri Seppanen, 27, of Helsinki, Finland, walked around barefoot, in her salt water-stained T-shirt and skirt, at the Patong Hospital waiting room where she spent the night with her mother and sister. She had a bandaged cut on her leg.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said a tearful Seppanen, who was on the popular Patong beach with her family. The wave washed over their heads and separated them.

Fifty-eight half-naked and swimming suit-clad corpses lay in rows outside the Patong Hospital emergency room. Three babies under the age of one were among the victims. A photo of one baby was posted on the wall of victims, the little corpse in a nearby refrigerator.

The earthquake hit at 6:58 a.m.; the tsunami came as much as 2 1/2 hours later, without warning, on a morning of crystal blue skies. Sunbathers and snorkelers, cars and cottages, fishing boats and even a lighthouse were swept away.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India each reported thousands dead. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives and Bangladesh.

"It's an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented," said Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa of India's Tamil Nadu, a southern state which reported 1,705 dead, many of them strewn along beaches, virtual open-air mortuaries.

"It all seems to have happened in the space of 20 minutes. A massive tidal wave of extreme ferocity ... smashed everything in sight to smithereens," she said.

At least three Americans were among the dead — two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay. He said a number of other Americans were injured, but he had no details.

"We're working on ways to help. The United States will be very responsive," Clay said.

John Krueger, 34, of Winter Park, Colorado, described being inside his bungalow Sunday on Khao Luk Beach, north of Phuket, with his wife, Romina Canton, 26, of Rosario, Argentina, when the water filled it and blew it apart.

"The water rushed under the bungalow, brought our floor up and raised us to the ceiling. The water blew out our doors, our windows and the back concrete wall. My wife was swept away with the wall, and I had to bust my way through the roof," Krueger said while waiting to talk to a U.S. Embassy official at Phuket City Hall. "It was like being in a washing machine."

Canton was dragged into the ocean for more than an hour until a wave brought her back to land again, with a broken nose and foot scratches all over her body, Krueger said.

The quake was centered 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the Indian Ocean's seabed. The temblor leveled dozens of buildings on Sumatra — and was followed Sunday by at least a half-dozen powerful aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from almost 6 to 7.3, and one aftershock Monday that hit India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The waves that followed the first massive jolt were far more lethal.

An Associated Press reporter in Aceh province saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches. Authorities said at least 4,448 were dead in Indonesia; the full impact of the disaster was not known, as communications were cut to the towns most affected.

The waves barreled across the Bay of Bengal, pummeling Sri Lanka, where more than 4,500 were reported killed — at least 3,000 in areas controlled by the government and about 1,500 in regions controlled by rebels, who listed the death toll on their Web site. There was an unconfirmed report of 500 more deaths on another Web site that provided no details. Some 170 children were feared lost in an orphanage. More than a million people were displaced from wrecked villages.

Devinda R. Subasinghe, the Sri Lanka ambassador to the United States, said the extensive damage will make the rescue effort more difficult. "It's going to take time to figure out access to these areas that have been impacted," Subasinghe said Monday in an interview on CNN. Up to 70 percent of the island's coastline was damaged, he said.

There was sporadic, small-scale looting in the towns of Galle and Matara, and authorities said about 200 inmates escaped from a prison, taking advantage of the chaos after guards panicked and fled when water entered the building.

About 2,300 were reported dead along the southern coasts of India. The private Aaj Tak television channel put the death toll there at up to 3,300, but the report could not be confirmed. At least 431 in Thailand, 48 in Malaysia and 32 in the Maldives, a string of coral islands off the southwestern coast of India. At least two died in Bangladesh — children who drowned as a boat with about 15 tourists capsized in high waves.

In India's Andhra Pradesh state, at least 32 Hindu devotees were drowned when they went into the sea for a religious ceremony to mark the full moon. Among them were 15 children. On Monday, bodies of women and children lay strewn on the sand.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, of that state.

In Cuddalore, in the worst-hit Tamil Nadu state, survivors huddled Monday in a marriage hall turned makeshift shelter, as fire engine sirens whined outside. Broken boats law on the shore near smashed huts with only frail bamboo frames jutting out of the ground.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1964, according to geophysicist Julie Martinez of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

The quake occurred at a place where several huge geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said a 620-mile section along the boundary of the plates shifted, motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water.

Scientists said the death toll might have been reduced if India and Sri Lanka had been part of an international warning system designed to advise coastal communities that a potentially killer wave was approaching. Although Thailand is part of the system, the west coast of its southern peninsula does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.

As it was, there was no warning. Gemunu Amarasinghe, an AP photographer in Sri Lanka, said he saw young boys rushing to catch fish that had been scattered on the beach by the first wave.

"But soon afterward, the devastating second series of waves came," he said. He climbed onto the roof of his car, but "In a few minutes my jeep was under water. The roof collapsed.

"I joined masses of people in escaping to high land. Some carried their dead and injured loved ones. Some of the dead were eventually placed at roadside, and covered with sarongs. Others walked past dazed, asking if anyone had seen their family members."

Michael Dobbs, a reporter for The Washington Post, was swimming around a tiny island off a Sri Lankan beach at about 9:15 a.m. when his brother called out that something strange was happening with the sea.

Then, within minutes, "the beach and the area behind it had become an inland sea, rushing over the road and pouring into the flimsy houses on the other side. The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible — a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before," he wrote on the Post's Web site.

Dobbs weathered the wave, but then found himself struggling to keep from being swept away when the floodwaters receded.

The international airport was closed in the Maldives after a tidal wave that left 51 people missing in addition to the 32 dead.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake along the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica caused buildings to shake hundreds of miles away. The earlier temblor caused no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that struck off Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

[Jon Alvarez]

some examples...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2003/apr2003/sri-a14.shtml

JVP speaker Sunil Handunnetti, MP, resorted to empty demagogic bluster, declaring: “Bush and Blair, you are defeated. Your new technological weapons are defeated. You have today created thousands of Iraqs around the world! You have created thousands of Saddam Husseins in Sri Lanka, Portugal and Syria.”



Antiwar protests also took place in a number of towns in the eastern province of Sri Lanka last Friday. At Kalmune, 7,000 participated in a demonstration, while at Sammanthurai and Akkaraipattu protests of 8,000 and 5,000 were held.

and

http://www.agitprop.org.au/nowar/20030404_netto_louder_voice.php

‘'But the whole of Sri Lanka is against this war,'’ he says. About 2,000 people protested in Colombo while other districts have organised their own anti-war campaigns. And all the daily papers have provided anti-war coverage, he points out.

While anti-war sentiment in individual countries is strong across Asia, the challenge lies in building pan-Asian networks to surmount the lack of a common language and the exclusivity of entrenched national political frameworks.

‘'We are at the beginning of a long and challenging process of formation of global people’s alliances, focusing our efforts on Asia,'’ says Ito. ‘'Under the impact of the American war with all its dire consequences befalling us, we have stepped into this dynamic process.”

[Rebelbase]

Since you can't distinguish the difference between "humanitarian" and "military" there isn't any point of continuing this conversation.

[Jon Alvarez]

yes, I have a passport...

last I heard, Thailand had 700 troops in Iraq, but was withdrawing. I'm merely pointing out the fact that we should be selective in who we help...and proportionately.

Yes, my view of the world is pretty narrow...

America good
terrorists bad

Nations requesting and receiving aid should support us in our efforts to win this war.

[Jon Alvarez]

exactly...

in time of war, resources are very important.

[TexKat]

For you to take such a stupid narrow view of this situation and apply your idiotic biases to the situation is beyond childish.

And it is definitely not God like.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I don't care if the Thais had 0 and stated in public their utter hate for us, they are human beings and they are in need, and we have the means to help.

Sometimes you have to try to be a better person, not a bitter person.

Thank god you have no actual power.

[Central Scrutiniser]

The left defines us by the most idiotic posters, and this guy is giving him all kinds of ammo.

What a sad person.

[Rebelbase]

Indeed.

[nmh]

It's hard to comprehend this kind of swift devastation.

One thing Christians should know is that He will NEVER flood the earth again. Having seen this kind of swift, unmerciful devastation should give credence to the Biblical flood account in the Bible. You can see it doesn't take long or much to bring about destruction.

[TexKat]

Here you can get you undies in a tighter wad.

Walls of water

In Thailand, Gen. Chaisit Shinawatra, the army chief, said the United States has offered to send troops stationed on Japan's Okinawa island to assist. Thailand was considering the offer.

[TexKat]

You can see it doesn't take long or much to bring about destruction

Not long at all.

[Rebelbase]

" Yes, my view of the world is pretty narrow"

"Nations requesting and receiving aid should support us in our efforts to win this war."

"we should only scratch the backs of those who scratch ours...if that bugs you, too bad."

"Jon Alvarez is a conservative activist, author, and devoted family man. A member of the local Republican committee, he has also helped to form the Onondaga County Young Republicans, and is also the founder of the organization "Patriotic Americans Boycotting Anti-American Hollywood" or PABAAH.com. With over 4,000 members nationwide, PABAAH has successfully called attention to the anti-Americanism of many well-known celebrities. Jon has also been a guest on national TV, with appearances on Scarborough Country as well as The Daily Show."

http://www.renewamerica.us/columns/alvarez

[Chgogal]

There is (was) a great drop off reef may be 15-25 yards off of Phi Phi. Visibility fab. Unfortunately, there was this huge (6-8 ft) black tip that swam by. Didn't think much about it until I was about 100 yds off shore. Then out of nowhere black tips including Grandpa surrounded me. They kept circling me. The only time I was uncomfortable with sharks was with those blacktips. As I was swimming ashore a little two footer snapped at my fin. But the reef was beautiful. Just need to lure Grandpa and his friends away.

I must do the Similans. I hope you hear from your dive masters. Which one live aboard did you dive with?

[Paulus Invictus]

In Hawaii, they have an elaborate tsunami early warning system that really works. As soon as they know there is an earthquake anywhere in the Pacific Rim, the alarms go off and people run for the high ground. I'm amazed that the countries along the Rim at least did not have radio warnings about the big earthquake. If people had heard such warnings, many might have been saved. My first reaction to the news about the quake was to call my son in Hawaii to tell him, but he already knew and was ready to flee if the scientists pulled the main alarm.

[TexKat]

USAID Disater -Sumatra Earthquake

How Can I Help?

[TexKat]

How close is New Zealand from where the atrocities are today?

December 23, 2004

Biggest Earthquake of Year Shakes Ocean Floor Off New Zealand

See my post #23 on this thread.

[Jon Alvarez]

once again, I am fully supportive of sending aid to those countries that assist us in the war on terror. Those that have not assisted should seek relief from the UN.

What's so difficult to grasp in that concept?

[noblejones]

>>
And, of course, Howard Dean has blamed this on global warming.
<<

>>
Are you serious?
<<

Sadly, yes. Heard a pop quote from him on ABC network radio last night. I realize he was talking off the top of his head, but using such a horrible incident for meager political gain is satanic in scope.

[TexKat]

I thought maybe you might have a change of heart. Keep the link, one never knows.

[Jon Alvarez]

what part of my position do you not understand?

Support America, we will reciprocate...

Leave American troops to carry the largest share of the fighting in this world war, then seek help from the UN.

duh.