Strong Quake, Tsunami Hit Southern Asia, 650 Killed

[egghead]

Strong Quake, Tsunami Hit Southern Asia, 650 Killed

COLOMBO (Reuters) - A huge earthquake hit southern Asia on Sunday, setting off a tsunami that drowned hundreds in Sri Lanka and India, sent Indonesians rushing to high ground and washed away bathers on the Thai tourist island of Phuket.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.5 as measured by the U.S. Geological Survey first struck at 7:59 a.m. (0059 GMT) off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean.

A wall of water up to 10 meters (30 feet) high set off by the tremor swept into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and along the southern Thai tourist island of Phuket, leaving at least 650 people feared dead, officials said.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1965, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist for the U.S. Geological Survey. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline," she said.

The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of Sri Lanka's south and east and the chairman of the John Keells hotel chain said five of his hotels had been badly flooded.

At least 500 were feared dead in Sri Lanka, the National Disaster Management Center said.

"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams, we have deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake.

An official in eastern Trincomalee said 3,000 people had been displaced and six villages destroyed.

Along the southern Indian coast, as many as 74 people were killed and many injured by a tsunami there, hospital and government officials said.

http://olympics.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=topNews&storyID=7178847

[PIPER]

Sad that is...... :(

[egghead]

over 1000 dead and it is the worlds largest earthquake ever in the world!:eek:

[blankapraha]

over 1000 dead and it is the worlds largest earthquake ever in the world!:eek:

sorry to say but this is not quite true - as sad as it may be - : Have a look at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/activity/past.html

[DakotaSunRunner]

This is truely sad indeed. And worse yet, earth quakes follow most fault lines through the pacific and so this could well travel to allow for other earthquakes in other places. I pray that all shall go well for those affected by this sad situation...

[rik]

This is truely sad indeed. And worse yet, earth quakes follow most fault lines through the pacific and so this could well travel to allow for other earthquakes in other places. I pray that all shall go well for those affected by this sad situation...



Well said.

[egghead]

S Asian quake kills 10,000

The strongest earthquake in 40 years claimed 10,000 lives on Sunday as tsunamis spread across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas of Sri Lanka, southern India and Indonesia, as well as Thailand and Malaysia.

The earthquake, measuring 8.9 on the Richter scale, struck just before 7am local time off the western coast of Indonesia's conflict-torn Aceh province. A number of 5m-high tsunamis injured thousands and made millions homeless. At the peak of the tourist season resorts from Thailand to the Maldives were left reeling.

It was the strongest quake recorded since a 1964 tremor in Alaska and the fifth-largest documented since 1900, the US Geological Survey said.

In Indonesia, the first country to be hit, officials put the death toll at more than 2,500, after the surge dragged villagers out to sea and tore children from the arms of their parents.

At least 3,000 people died on India's eastern coastline in the states of Orissa and Tamil Nadu, where officials feared the administration's inexperience in providing emergency relief would add to the toll. Chellapa, a fisherman in Chennai, told Reuters: "The whole area has been turned into a cemetery."

In Sri Lanka at least 3,500 people died. Beaches were strewn with debris and 750,000 were left without shelter.

In Thailand authorities said at least 300people died, including nearly 120 people on the resort island of Phuket, and more than 5,000 were injured. Casualties included Barom Tantien, a former deputy finance minister, a member of the opposition Democratic party. Thaksin Shinawatra, prime minister, said: "Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before."

Deaths from the tsunami were reported as far away as the east coast of Africa.

The disaster is expected to have a big economic impact, coming during the Christmas-New Year holiday season, when Asian and western travellers head to south-east Asia's beaches.

This month the Pacific Asia Travel Association said 300m visitors would land in Asia-Pacific in 2004, up from a record of 275m in 2002. That number may be hurt by Sunday's disaster. Suraphon Svetasreni, deputy governor of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, said: "Right now, we cannot really tell exactly how many hotels, and how many resorts have been destroyed."

read more
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/c53ec72e-5779-11d9-a8db-00000e2511c8.html

[rik]

Our hearts and prayers go out to all the peoples in these affected areas.

[hotmale]

The people in that region have enough misery to deal with (without some 9 Richter quake to screw everything up). The situation must be terrible :(

BTW, has anyone seen rohit? Hope he wasn't spending the Christmas holiday surfing those enormous waves.

[joshsiao]

Singapore next nearest country right next to the quake zone after Sumatra, Indonesia. Yet we never felt anything except slight tremours in certain parts of the country. Luckly us. Geographically Singapore is the perfect island in the world. No disasters whatsoever except the highest occurencce of lightning activity.

Suddenly all the other countries around us were put into disaster. Neighouring Malaysia's state of Penang was hit quite badly with many seaside resorts. So was Phuket, Thailand's surrounding islands.

[hotmale]

I've set up a web page for anyone interested in donating (through Amazon.com)
http://www.techjunkeez.com/redcross_relief.htm

[rik]

Excellent idea hotmale...

[rohitk89]

The people in that region have enough misery to deal with (without some 9 Richter quake to screw everything up). The situation must be terrible :(

BTW, has anyone seen rohit? Hope he wasn't spending the Christmas holiday surfing those enormous waves.

thanks hotmale...luckily im doing good...200km awayfrom the place the tsunami hit...its a wonderful thing that ur doing...and it'd be gr8 if ppl cud help with the donations...there are some links at yahoo also....

the worldwide toll has surpassed the 77000 mark by the way :( ...and this was such a huge undersea tremor that it has reportedly caused a continental slip of upto 20 metres in some places like indonesia...

[lynchknot]

Glad to see you are ok rohitkumar.

[PIPER]

I've set up a web page for anyone interested in donating (through Amazon.com)
http://www.techjunkeez.com/redcross_relief.htm

Awesome thing you are doing here hotmale....kudos man.

[rik]

This is unimaginable.

[tarun]

BTW, has anyone seen rohit? Hope he wasn't spending the Christmas holiday surfing those enormous waves.

Nope, rohit is fine. Don't worry at all. His(our) city isn't coastal so it was completely unharmed.

[Reverend]

Tsunami Relief Page at Google:
Like so many others around the world, we at Google are following the devastation caused by the earthquake and tsunami that has hit many parts of Asia and east Africa. Below are a few sites already set up to provide information and handle donations for victims throughout the region. Our thoughts are with everyone who has been affected.Donations
• American Red Cross (via Amazon) (http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/104-2867334-2853546)
• CARE (http://www.careusa.org/)
• Direct Relief International (http://www.directrelief.org/)
• GOAL (http://www.goal.ie/newsroom/tsunamiappeal.shtml)
• Habitat for Humanity International (https://www.habitat.org/giving/donate.aspx?link=32)
• International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent (http://www.ifrc.org/helpnow/donate/donate_response.asp)
• Karuna Trust (http://www.karunalanka.org/index.html)
• Network for Good (http://www.networkforgood.org/topics/international/earthquake/tsunami122604.aspx)
• Oxfam International (http://www.oxfam.co.uk/) | (US page) (http://www.oxfamamerica.org/whatwedo/emergencies/asian_floods_2004)
• Sarvodaya (http://www.sarvodaya.org/)
• Save the Children (http://www.savethechildren.org/)
• UNICEF (http://www.unicef.org/)
• World Food Programme (UN) (http://www.wfp.org/)

[egghead]

Nice post Reverend.

Our hearts and parayers go out to all that has been devistated by this tragedy.

News have begun to say that this is the biggest loss of life tragedy next to the a-bomb on Hiroshima


man!

[gowsic]

is anyone affected by tsunami?
any family/relatives/friends?

i have relatives back in sri lanka but none were affected yet very sad to see this happening to those people :(

[cash_site]

This is very sad, and not a good omen for the start of a new year in 2005! Entire islands have been washed away with hundreds of thousands dead.

Hopefully this is a catalyst to get all regions working together for the benefit of mankind and not just oneself!

[SupaStar]

This is very sad, and not a good omen for the start of a new year in 2005! Entire islands have been washed away with hundreds of thousands dead.

Hopefully this is a catalyst to get all regions working together for the benefit of mankind and not just oneself!

Been away for a while with no TV/phone/internet and to come back to this is truely shocking. Australia has been holding many charity events in an effort to raise money for the victims' families.

Already an Australian charity concert has generated 20 million dollars and a charity cricket match, 14 million dollars!! Way to go!!