Sea surges kill thousands in Asia (undersea earthquake, tsunami)

so sad.

i think this statement is ridiculous.

'I can tell you we have intelligence reports that there have been high-level contacts between all the oceans. The Atlantic and Pacific are clearly implicated in this outrage. The bombing starts in twenty minutes.'

i don't think this is a problem particular to the US.

It's appalling and horrifying and desperately depressing - that story quotes over a million people having to leave their homes in Sri Lanka, besides the thousands dead.

The parallel came because the thread drew the comparison with 9/11.

Let's leave disasters caused by man out of this - let's leave talk of 9/11 behind. What sort of scale are we talking here? Have there been tsunamis on this scale across SE Asia over the last century? Is this something normal or a freak occurence?

the bbc story says that it's the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years, so i guess it is a freak occurrence sort of thing.

literally, it happened very early in the morning here.

Not-stop coverage on FOX! Whouda thought?

indeed. is it because of Australian tourists?

(I know, i was being sarcastic.)

Sadly much like any other year.

...I'm not in any way trying to defend Bushco, who I think are complete assholes..

Yes, that's very right. One could say that residences, buildings and infrastructure probably cost much more in Florida than in Sri Lanka or Indonesia. Still, even mentally factoring that in, the numbers are still highly provocative to me.

Yes, but the US has an enormous fucking war to drain all of its money. Fuck you, needy third-world... Freedom is on the march! (or, will be soon, we expect. January elections! January elections!)

Plus sea snakes. Lovely.

I hope I'm correct in calling 'bullshit'. The news channels' race to proclaim the highest possible figures has been sickening me since about 12 hours after the news broke.

http://www.danieldrezner.com/archives/001805.html

http://yglesias.typepad.com/matthew/2004/12/more_aid_stuff.html

where is that exactly?

I sorta guess this blog has been mentioned already, but if not, the South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami aka SEA-EAT blog is a solid clearinghouse of info:

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

yeah, maybe if they're including with the tsunami deaths those killed in political massacres.

One of my best friends from high school is Sri Lankan and I emailed him a few days back, I haven't heard anything yet. I know he went over there on holiday a fair amount.

Again, I'm not saying "everything is fine" by any means, but there are many possible scenarios in the case of not being able to get in contact with somebody, and death shouldn't be the main assumption. It can be hard enough to contact friends even in the case of no disaster at all!

Still though, the frustration and anticipation is gnarling and painful. I understand that.

http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=3524751

It cost $5 billion to clear up after Hurricane Mitch, which killed 10,000 in Central America in 1998. The UN says this disaster will cost much more—perhaps $14 billion or more, reckons Munich Re, the world’s largest reinsurer. Many families will have lost their bread-winners, many more will have lost their homes. The boats and nets of fishermen will have been wrecked, the crops and livestock of farmers devastated. Roads and railways have been washed away. One of the most insidious contaminants is also one of the most innocuous: salt. Paddies, fields and wells are now inundated with seawater and thus may be unuseable for years. Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schröder has proposed freezing the debts of Indonesia and Somalia to help them rebuild their economies.

We set up a donation box at work and got £250 in 6 hours in my office. The company I work also donated USD$1mill

The subject matter of this BBC piece may appear obvious, but worth dwelling on...

BBC: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/4131941.stm
For a start, the notional insurance cost of the disaster will have little bearing on corporate bottom lines. The overwhelming majority of the victims will have had no insurance: according to estimates from India, only one-quarter of those affected there were wealthy enough to afford insurance, and only one-quarter of that group at most will have taken out policies. Indonesia is likely to have even lower take-up rates. And where insurance certainly is in place - in, for example, the many tourist complexes affected - the costs will be borne in far-away corners of the global reinsurance market, rather than landing locally.

http://www.waxy.org/

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nolavconsole/ukfs_news/hi/in_depth/world/2004/tsunami_strikes/nb_rm_default.stm#

...which, if the link works, will call up four video reports assembled mostly from footage on camera as it happened and afterwards. The first is all, I think, anyone would 'need' -- it's humbling and sad.

That's better.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/entertainment/4140133.stm

I hope he ends up doing it in the one the Cosmic Couriers used to record Galactic Supermarket in quadrophonic sound...

...as if enough pain and suffering hadn't been inflicted already...

"It's a natural home for it because people kept saying to me, 'it's such a good song', but it's such a sad song," Read said.

This makes me want to hit something. Preferably Read. With an axe.

(Also, does this mean Boy George has been on more charity singles than anyone now?)

This is like saying grief's never out of style -- it's the little black dress of emotion.

"India's dwindling aboriginal population in the remote Andaman and Nicobar islands is safe as most lived in jungles, far away from the coast hit by a devastating tsunami, a coast guard official said on Thursday.

Experts had feared that some Stone Age tribal people, who have been living on the far-flung archipelago for thousands of years, could be on the verge of extinction after the killer waves that have killed more than 120,000 people across Asia.

"There have been several media reports talking about a threat to the aborigines, indigenous people and tribals of the islands," Vice Admiral Arun Kumar Singh, director-general of the Coast Guard, which is involved in rescue operations, told reporters.

"I have personally verified the extent of this claim and let me tell you that it is absolutely rubbish."

The Andaman and Nicobar group is a cluster of more than 550 islands, of which only about three dozen are inhabited.

The island chain is home to about six tribes of Mongoloid and Negrito origin. Many of the indigenous people are semi-nomadic and subsist on hunting with spears, bows and arrows as well as fishing and gathering fruit and roots. They still cover themselves with tree bark or leaves.

Singh said the Nicobarese, the largest tribal group that lives on Car Nicobar and adjoining islands, bore the brunt of the waves, but the exact death toll was not known.

Coast Guard surveys showed the rest of the tribes such as the Shompen, the Jarawa and the Sentinelese had escaped either because they lived in the jungles far from the coast or because their islands were barely touched by the waves.

"In the Middle Andaman the Jarawa tribes are there and there has not been a single report of casualty. The Sentinelese of North Sentinel Island, which some reports say have been completely wiped out, are all very much there," Singh said.

More than 13,000 people are dead or are feared to have died in India from the tsunami, but rescuers are still struggling to assess the toll in the Andaman and Nicobar islands.

Officials said more than 6,000 people were feared dead in the island chain alone, which is closer to Myanmar and Indonesia than the Indian mainland and is home to more than 350,000 people.

Around 30,000 of the islands' total population is tribal, the majority Nicobarese.

The rest are smaller groups. Some like the Great Andamanese are already down to 30 people while others like the Shompen number between 200-250.

The number of the Onge, one of the most primitive tribes, has fallen in past decades to about 100. There are about 200 Sentinelese, probably one of the world's only surviving palaeolithic people, who are generally hostile to outsiders.

"Our helicopter pilot who flew over the island told me that he has seen several groups of Sentinelese on the beach and that when he dropped food packets they threw stones at the helicopter."

This alone has made me smile....

I hate Bush. But...I think I am justified in expecting the leader of my country to return to the White House and make a public statement from D.C as soon as he knew of a tragedy of this proportion.

Given the war in iraq, there's no reason he should have been relaxing in Crawford anyway - and certainly not after this.
The Bush inaugural is going to cost $40 million dollars.
Wouldn't it have been nice to see him make a some statement, or, perhaps, agree to pledge MORE than his coronation costs?

Shame, shame,shame,shame on him.

"The carnage is of a scale that defies comprehension," said Bush, who announced that $15 million of U.S. aid has now been disbursed to relief organizations in the area.

Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) and the president's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, were due to leave for the tsunami-devastated region on Sunday as part of a delegation assigned to assess the need for further U.S. assistance.

Bush created the delegation and dramatically increased the U.S. relief contribution after criticism over the size and scale of his initial response to the catastrophe that struck 13 countries from Malaysia to East Africa six days ago.
Critics have noted that the government authorized $13.6 billion in aid for hurricane-battered U.S. states, mainly Florida, before last November's election.
An administration official who requested anonymity said on Saturday the $350 million contribution would come from the government's main disaster and famine assistance accoun

The account, managed by the U.S. Agency for International Development, received $384.9 million in funding for relief projects for the current fiscal year.
Japan eclipsed the U.S. contribution on Saturday by pledging $500 million in aid.
The United States sees itself as leader of an international coalition including Japan, India and Australia that has pledged about $900 million in relief, or nearly half the $1.9 billion in contributions from country donors and official sources such as the World Bank (news - web sites).
In a White House proclamation issued in Crawford, Texas, where Bush is vacationing on his ranch, the president ordered the flag to be flown at half-staff from Monday to Friday next week at all U.S. public facilities and military installations, including embassies and naval vessels.

He said the gesture was meant as a mark of respect for tsunami victims.

Bush said Americans were making important private donations to the relief effort but urged further contributions through the Web site of the federal government's volunteer program, USA Freedom Corps, at www.usafreedomcorps.gov.

"Donor and fund-raiser alike represent the best of our country and offer an example to the world," he said.

And the Bush family, who are millionaires, might lead this new found generosity by giving a percentage of Their wealth...but no, it's about poor people helping poor people while the rich decide what we shall do.

I'm extra very excited about the flag lowering thing...I'm sure that will be of great comfort here and elsewhere.

I'm so sick and tired of it all - the false patriotism, the strange patriotism, and the isolationism...this should be an opportunty for the world to be as one, but my country makes sure it is divisive.

Peace, out. Sorry to be so succinct, have not much net time. Peace to Marcello and Anna and everyone we love.

I mean I know there are religious/political issues here but does anyone really think that the starving homeless survivors care right now?

Aid workers in Indonesia's Aceh province have been discovering the full horror of the devastation wreaked by the Indian Ocean tsunami last week ago.

They have found villages where as many as 80% of the population were killed, and survivors are living on coconuts.

Indonesia accounts for some 94,000 of the 140,000 deaths from the disaster.

Aid is now flowing into Aceh's sole airport in the capital, Banda Aceh, after the runway was blocked for 15 hours by a damaged plane.

About 40,000 died in and around the Aceh town of Meulaboh alone, where local aid workers said "tens of thousands" need immediate assistance.

"The casualty rates in Meulaboh defy imagination," said Aitor Lacomba, Indonesian director of aid group International Rescue Committee.

The BBC's Andrew North reports there is barely a building left standing in many neighbourhoods near the coast.

It is almost impossible to take in the scale of the devastation, our correspondent says.

The wreckage is still dotted with hundreds of flags marking places where bodies have been found, waiting to be collected, and the air reeks of decay.

Indonesia has banned the transfer of children under the age of 16 out of Aceh amid United Nations concern over possible human trafficking for illegal adoption.

http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/2.html

Dear god, you know, I mean what can you say?