Largest Earthquake in 40 Years Triggers Tsunami That Kill More Than 10,000 in Six Asian Nations.Why?

krsna · December 26, 2004

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125481.stm

Srijiva · December 26, 2004

This is just horrible.

I was looking online for news of Puri in Orissa.

I found this so far, Chennai News Online Report

Can JN das tell us how things faired there on Orissa's coast??

What a horrible tragedy /images/graemlins/frown.gif

krsna · December 29, 2004

December 29,2004

STAFF REPORTS

DAILY NEWS STAFF

It's one thing to watch a special-effects-laden disaster movie about a tsunami or other outrageous act of nature; it's quite another to watch the TV news and see the devastation wrought by a real-life magnitude 9 earthquake that struck under the Indian Ocean and sent tsunamis smashing into coastlines across southern Asia on Sunday.

The quake - the fourth most powerful to hit the Earth in the last century and the most powerful in the last 40 years - was so strong that it shifted a 620-mile geologic plate, according to the Associated Press.

The latest estimates put the death toll at more than 52,000 in 11 countries, with that number certain to escalate, perhaps dramatically, as rescue workers extend their reach and counts become more precise.

Health organizations also warn that the number of deaths linked to this terrible disaster will increase due to disease that is certain to spread in the terrible conditions in the areas impacted by the earthquake and tsunami.

AP also is reporting that 2 million people were driven from their homes in Indonesia and Sri Lanka. The photographs of destruction are unfathomable.

The earthquake struck off the coast of Indonesia, and its devastation brought havoc also to Thailand, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, India and even the African country of Somalia. Twenty-to-30-foot walls of water pounded mostly impoverished coastal towns at speeds up to 500 miles per hour.

There were few things as awful to watch as the pained expressions on the faces of family members as they began to bury their loved ones or, in one case, hopelessly sought dry enough ground to bury them.

The tsunami came in a 20-minute period after the quake. Beachgoers noted something strange at some beaches, as water was rapidly pulled outward. Then they witnessed a massive wave heading to land, and ran for their lives.

An American tourist told the Associated Press: "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."

His wife was found alive, but eyewitnesses described scenes of bloated bodies stacked up along the beach, of bodies found in trees, and of an entire orphanage destroyed, with its 170 residents missing.

In Sri Lanka, gigantic waves swept a train off its tracks, killing more than 800 people. Two-hundred of the bodies, unclaimed by family members, were buried Tuesday in a mass grave.

International agencies are preparing for the disease outbreaks because of the destroyed infrastructure and the rotting corpses. Aid is on the way, but these are poor countries and it takes time to get food, medical supplies and doctors to the ravaged areas.

Vast amounts of aid will come. Jan Egeland, the U.N. undersecretary for humanitarian affairs who is now backtracking, did no one a favor when he stupidly and insensitively criticized Western nations, including the United States, for stinginess the other day.

The United States, which gives more international assistance than the rest of the world combined, had only started its calculations at the time of the remarks, and has since added a pledge of $20 million on top of an earlier pledge of $15 million. The figure will go much higher, and that's not counting the large private contributions that are inevitable in this generous nation.