Tsunami Death Nears 70,000

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:59 am

This will get much worse before it gets better...The world must unite to take care of these people.

Linkage

Tidal Waves Death Toll Rises to 40,000

24 minutes ago World - AP

By ANDI DJATMIKO, Associated Press Writer

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The death toll from the epic tsunami that rocked 11 countries rose to 40,000 people Tuesday, and food and supplies poured into the region, part of what the U.N. said would be the biggest relief effort the world has ever seen. Millions remained homeless.

Rescuers struggled to reach remote locations where thousands more were likely killed by the deadliest tsunami in 120 years. Bodies, many of them children, filled beaches and choked hospital morgues, raising fears of disease across the region.

Sri Lanka raised its death toll past 18,700. Hundreds died when a train carrying 1,000 passengers from Colombo to Galle was thrown off its tracks by Sunday's waves, police chief B.T.B. Ariyapala said Tuesday.

The waves wrenched most of the train's cars into twisted metal, he said. The passengers were dead or missing; about 150 bodies had been recovered.

In Indonesia, the country closest to Sunday's 9.0 magnitude quake that sent walls of water crashing into coastlines thousands of miles away, the count rose to 15,000, a number the vice president said could rise.

Purnomo Sidik, the national disaster director, told The Associated Press the toll rose by almost 10,000 people after the government received reports from the previously unreachable western coast of Sumatra.

Some 4,400 died in India; 1,500 perished in Thailand. The Red Cross said malaria and cholera could add to the toll.

Desperate residents on Indonesia's Sumatra Island — 100 miles from the quake's epicenter — looted stores Tuesday. "There is no help, it is each person for themselves here," district official Tengku Zulkarnain told el-Shinta radio station.

The disaster could be the costliest in history, with "many billions of dollars" of damage, said U.N. Undersecretary Jan Egeland, who is in charge of emergency relief coordination. Hundreds of thousands lost all they owned, he said.

In Galle, Sri Lanka, officials used a loudspeaker atop a fire engine to tell residents to place bodies on the road for collection. Muslim families used cooking utensils and even their bare hands to dig graves. Hindus in India, abandoning their tradition of burning bodies, held mass burials.

Soldiers and volunteers in Indonesia combed through destroyed houses to try to find survivors — or bodies. The toll in Thailand included at least 700 foreign tourists.

Stories of survival emerged amid the devastation.

A blond-haired 2-year-old found sitting alone on a road in Thailand and taken to a hospital was reunited with his uncle, who saw the boy's picture on the hospital's Web site.

"When I saw Hannes on the Internet, I booked an air ticket to come here in less than five hours," said a man who identified himself only as Jim. Hannes Bergstroem's mother died in the tsunami; his father was in another hospital, the Swedish paper Aftonbladet reported.

In Malaysia, a 20-day-old baby was found floating on a mattress soon after the waves hit Sunday. She and her family were reunited.

But the geographic scope of the disaster was unparalleled. Relief organizations used to dealing with a centralized crisis had to distribute resources over 11 countries on two continents.

Helicopters in India rushed medicine to stricken areas. In Sri Lanka, the Health Ministry dispatched 300 physicians to the disaster zone by helicopter.

Sri Lankan Foreign Minister Lakshman Kadirgamar said the United States was sending helicopters. An airborne surgical hospital from Finland arrived, and a German aircraft was en route with a water purification plant.

UNICEF (news - web sites) officials said about 175 tons of rice arrived in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, and six tons of medical supplies were to arrive by Thursday. But most basic supplies were scarce.

A new danger emerged Tuesday: UNICEF said uprooted land mines in Sri Lanka threatened to kill or maim aid workers and survivors. "Mines were ... washed out of known mine fields, so now we don't know where they are," said Ted Chaiban, the Sri Lanka chief of UNICEF.

Scores of people were also killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, and Maldives. Deaths were even reported in Africa — in Somalia, Tanzania and Seychelles, close to 3,000 miles away.

On the remote Indian islands of Andaman and Nicobar, off the northern tip of Sumatra, officials still hadn't established communications. An estimated 3,000 deaths there were not counted in the official toll.

It was the deadliest known tsunami since the one caused by the 1883 volcanic eruption at Krakatoa — located off Sumatra's southern tip — which killed an estimated 36,000 people.

Many of the dead and missing were children — as many as half the victims in Sri Lanka.

"Where are my children?" asked 41-year-old Absah, as she searched for her 11 youngsters in Banda Aceh, the city closest to Sunday's epicenter. "Where are they? Why did this happen to me? I've lost everything."

The streets in Banda Aceh were filled with overturned cars and rotting corpses. Shopping malls and office buildings lay in rubble, and thousands of homeless families huddled in mosques and schools.

Relatives wandered hallways lined with bodies at the hospital in Sri Lanka's southern town of Galle, a stunned hush broken only by wails of mourning.

Momentum grew to create a tsunami warning system like the one that guards Pacific coasts. Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said Australia would push for its creation.

"I know it looks like a bit like closing the door after the horse has bolted," Downer said Tuesday. But he said he hoped such a system would save lives in the future.

The United States dispatched disaster teams and prepared a $15 million aid package. Japan pledged $30 million and Australia $8 million.

Indonesia's Aceh province exemplified the challenge to aid workers. The government until Monday barred foreigners because of a separatist conflict. Communications lines were still down and remote villages had yet to be reached.

"There is not anyone to bury the bodies," said Steve Aswin, a UNICEF official in Jakarta. "They should be buried in mass graves but there is no one to dig graves."

Sri Lankan police waived the law calling for mandatory autopsies, allowing rotting corpses to be buried immediately. "We accept that the deaths were caused by drowning," police spokesman Rienzie Perera said.

India on Tuesday said a nuclear power plant damaged by tidal waves was safe and that there was no threat of radiation.

EDIT: Number adjusted to 44,000 12/28: 5am PT

EDIT 2: Number adjusted to 52,000 12/28: Noon PT

EDIT 3: Number adjusted to 60,000 12/28: 4pm PT

EDIT 4: Number Adjusted to 63,000 12/28: 5pm PT

EDIT 5: Number adjusted to 68,000 12/28: 8pm PT

EDIT 6: Number adjusted to 70,000 12/29: 4am PT

EDIT 7: Number adjusted to 77,000 12/29: 8am PT

EDIT 8: Number adjusted to 80,000 12/29: 8pm PT

EDIT 9: Number adjusted to 114,000 12/30: 6am PT

EDIT 10: Number adjusted to 125,000 12/30: 4pm PT

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:08 am

Horrible news that keeps getting worse.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:10 am

The hard part now is fighting the inevitable disease.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:15 am

I hope some of the more developed countries send help quick. I dont think many nations of that size are equipped to deal with that many dead or tragedies on that scale.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:26 am

The US and several other countries including the UN are already there. Nevertheless, the magnitude of the largest natural disaster in over 100 years will be a daunting task for these people.

Prey521 · Post by **Prey521** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:27 am

Is this the largest death toll ever caused by a natural disaster?

Izzo · Post by **Izzo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:30 am

Prey521 wrote:Is this the largest death toll ever caused by a natural disaster?

Not even close. I read something yesterday (i forget where but i'm looking) that in the mid 70's an earthquake in China might have killed 500,000 but there was no way to confirm it.

http://mnw.eas.slu.edu/hazards.html

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:33 am

I'll agree to help as long as those countries affected join in on the tsunami early warning system.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:39 am

Prey521 wrote:Is this the largest death toll ever caused by a natural disaster?

Probably not, but...

From the Guinness website:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/con ... rdid=49198

Highest Death Toll From A Tsunami
Following an earthquake off the coast of Sanriku, Japan, in 1896, approximately 27,000 people were drowned when a tsunami hit the coast. A wave that struck Shirahama had an amplitude of 38.2 m (125 ft).

Also:

http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/gwr ... rdid=47757

Highest Earthquake Death Toll Of Modern Times
The highest earthquake death toll in modern times was caused by one that hit Tangshan, China, on July 28, 1976. The official figure of 655,237 deaths was first adjusted to 750,000 and then to 242,000.

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:43 am

UOD wrote:I'll agree to help as long as those countries affected join in on the tsunami early warning system.

Japan and Australia have already said they will help build one. They say it will take a year to implement. Unfortunately won't be much help to the millions affected by this one, but will certainly save lives in the future.

I've been through a tsunami warning when I lived in hawaii, and let me tell you folks take that **** seriously.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:43 am

UOD wrote:I'll agree to help as long as those countries affected join in on the tsunami early warning system.

They have been fighting about for years now. A whole bunch of political crap on who pays for what, etc. Also, most of these countries have little disposable cash to even consider such and endeavor.

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:03 am

Dakota wrote:They have been fighting about for years now. A whole bunch of political crap on who pays for what, etc. Also, most of these countries have little disposable cash to even consider such and endeavor.

That is where our aid to them would be wisely spent....

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:09 am

UOD wrote:That is where our aid to them would be wisely spent....

I couldn't agree more.

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:27 pm

Good link on how we can help:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/1 ... index.html

Spammy · Post by **Spammy** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 3:29 pm

Thats just terrible. Simply terrible

DaddyLongLeg · Post by **DaddyLongLeg** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:11 pm

Over 50,000 now. Unbelievable

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:20 pm

On a geographical note...Why is it that I never associate Thailand with having a coast

seems that one has got me before too. Dunno, it just always surprises me when I hear about the coast of thailand...hmmmm maybe I always confuse it with tibet? could be. wow, self help in under 100 words lol

carry on

brembo · Post by **brembo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:26 pm

Sri-Lanka gets me too, always think of big mountains and yeti for some reason.

Noevo · Post by **Noevo** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:33 pm

'salright, i always picture sri-lanka in the mediteranean somewhere.

+1 for public schools!

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 4:36 pm

I've been tryin to find video footage of the waves in different areas they are just so impressive its unreal to be seeing them on video I can only imagin standing on the beach and watching the water go out about 200 yards.. then all of a sudden you look up and nothing but a wall of water about several meters high comming at ya. I think I would need a change of shorts after that.

Anyone have any video links to see the waves?

BaLa · Post by **BaLa** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 5:35 pm

Sava700 wrote:I think I would need a change of shorts after that.

na..you can just....nm..

if you make it out alive..

Mark · Post by **Mark** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:00 pm

Sava700 wrote:.............Anyone have any video links to see the waves?

found some good videos, the first one is the best quality and scariest one i have seen

http://ish.cc/dan/ts/tsunamiphuket.wmv
http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... phuket.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... sunami.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/patong_beach.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/patong_beach.wmv

Dan · Post by **Dan** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:10 pm

Mark wrote:found some good videos, the first one is the best quality and scariest one i have seen
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/tsunamiphuket.wmv
http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... phuket.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... sunami.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/patong_beach.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/patong_beach.wmv

thats wild stuff Mark,thanks for the links

Spammy · Post by **Spammy** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 6:21 pm

Dude so scary man thanks for the vids..

Brk · Post by **Brk** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:15 pm

And Sri Lanka's rejecting help fro Israel just because the team is made up of a lot of military people?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:20 pm

Methodized wrote:And Sri Lanka's rejecting help fro Israel just because the team is made up of a lot of military people?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm

Good grief. There will never be peace in this world. We will kill ourselves off.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:27 pm

The number of dead has jumped 50% from 40,000 from 60,000 in 12 hours.

Lefty · Post by **Lefty** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:28 pm

Sava700 · Post by **Sava700** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 7:37 pm

Mark wrote:found some good videos, the first one is the best quality and scariest one i have seen
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/tsunamiphuket.wmv
http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... phuket.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/ ... sunami.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/patong_beach.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/patong_beach.wmv

Good videos... I'm sure more will surface from Hotel security cams once they are processed out. I'd like to see a few of a higher altitude for a better image of the wavs

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:49 pm

really sad..

JawZ · Post by **JawZ** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 8:57 pm

Methodized wrote:And Sri Lanka's rejecting help fro Israel just because the team is made up of a lot of military people?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm

LOL

Would you allow post Gulf War I Iraqi soldiers in California to help with a relief effort?

Burke, many people in the world view the Israeli Army as being terrorists. Do I think this is rational behavior? Nope....but it is their view.

Randy · Post by **Randy** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:11 pm

UOD wrote:LOL

Would you allow post Gulf War I Iraqi soldiers in California to help with a relief effort?

Burke, many people in the world view the Israeli Army as being terrorists. Do I think this is rational behavior? Nope....but it is their view.

If I needed a blanket or some medicine I would not care who gave it to me.. I would be thankfull.

Many world leaders are playing a game, blinded by their ingorant attitudes they they dont understand the consequences of their actions

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:14 pm

Good point UOD.

nepenthe · Post by **nepenthe** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:21 pm

Methodized wrote:And Sri Lanka's rejecting help fro Israel just because the team is made up of a lot of military people?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/4130599.stm

Absolutely ridiculous.

Gandalf · Post by **Gandalf** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:25 pm

Pray for those people over there... that really sucks what happend

nepenthe · Post by **nepenthe** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 9:26 pm

UOD wrote:LOL

Would you allow post Gulf War I Iraqi soldiers in California to help with a relief effort?

Burke, many people in the world view the Israeli Army as being terrorists. Do I think this is rational behavior? Nope....but it is their view.

As far as I understand it, Sri Lanka was never at war with Israel (to counter your analogy). In fact, they do have normal diplomatic ties.

Illini25 · Post by **Illini25** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:00 pm

Jet Li - The international action star managed to save his daughter--and himself--from the deadly tsunami

Post by **YeOldeStonecat** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 10:52 pm

Wow...jeeeze, can't imagine going through that. Just to see what a few feet of rushing water does to people and property.

Dakota · Post by **Dakota** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:12 pm

In watching these videos posted in one of the other threads:

http://ish.cc/dan/ts/tsunamiphuket.wmv
http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsuna...unamiphuket.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsuna...nka_tsunami.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/sri_lanka_tsunami.wmv

http://hosted.hytekhosting.us/tsunamis/patong_beach.wmv
http://ish.cc/dan/ts/patong_beach.wmv

The water coming in really didn't crash all that hard, but it was fairly fast moving. You can see people running a few feet to avoid some of the wave surges. It was not some big, huge massive crashing wave. It was a massive amount of water all at once. The videos show it. Even though the water isn't moving all that fast it's very powerful. In most places it only come onto the shore 500-1000 feet.

waferdog · Post by **waferdog** » Tue Dec 28, 2004 11:56 pm

Dakota wrote:The water coming in really didn't crash all that hard, but it was fairly fast moving. You can see people running a few feet to avoid some of the wave surges. It was not some big, huge massive crashing wave. It was a massive amount of water all at once. The videos show it. Even though the water isn't moving all that fast it's very powerful. In most places it only come onto the shore 500-1000 feet.

But are the videos that we are seeing coming from the hardest hit areas? I know that rescuers have not even reached the most damaged islands. Or is what the videos showed representative of the strongest tsunami?

SG Broadband Community

Tsunami Death Nears 70,000

Tsunami Death Toll now over 125,000