Asian Tsunami Kills 12,300, Many More Homeless

[LeiYunFat]

Devastating. I heard on the news they had about an hour or two fromt he time of the quake to the waves. I heard there was little or no warning to the people, and that is just wrong.

[Steve]

That is nuts...

23 THOUSAND!

wow, that is a small city.

That's in all 9 countries effected around the Indian Ocean.
And 11,000 in just Sri Lanka.

[doc]

It will go up as the sea gives back what it took.

[onesp1ng]

Steve, yeah, I was just referring to Sri Lanka alone. They reported that, including the tamil rebels, there is something like 11,500.

Really a pity. Wonder what, if anything, will be the lingering results of this when I (hopefully) travel there next fall.

g

[Steve]

no more numbers

I am not going to try to keep up or post any more numbers, because I don't think any of the news services have it right or anyone will ever know the truth how many really died from this.

[onesp1ng]

I heard there was little or no warning to the people, and that is just wrong.

I have the same feeling. I mean, is there no one ahead of the waves? No radio? I understand evacuation is a process, but these people had no warning at all. It seems no one was called off the beach due to high tides.. In fact, many apparently ran out to see why the water was receding, only to find a wall of water smack back in their faces.

Here's video. You can see what happened to people on beaches. I didn't know how to make a direct link to the video, but scroll down the page a little and you'll see the link.

tsunami hitting resort

[shaolinstylee]

I've been watching some of these videos... tsunamis are crazy... So much energy it is scary.

[zachsan]

i'm hearing 55,000 now.

[doc]

We called our friends in Thailand again. Things are supposedly returning to some sort of normalcy already. Because Phuket is mountainous, only parts of it got hit badly, such as Patong, Kata, and Karon. Further up the coast, where many people have been buying "beachfront" land because it's too expensive in Phuket, there was far more devastation. Khao Lak got hit really hard. It sits flat, surrounded by mountains, and is a new, burgeoning community, full of Swedes, who go there to escape the cold in Sweden. The people of Phuket are sending a lot of relief supplies to the Khao Lak area now. Lot's of deaths up there. Phuket actually survived this fairly well, considering how the rest of the region got slammed.

[dogchow108]

They're saying now the number of dead can possibly multiply due to infectious disease. Care for any comentary on post-tidal wave disease outbreaks? where would the diseases be coming from, or is it simply a case of the water making it easier to grow and spread?

[zachsan]

80,000 now.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/29/asia.quake/index.html

[shaolinstylee]

A lot of these areas didn't have what we'd call adequate facilities for sewage, garbage, etc. This will only be multiplied by the disaster. I wouldn't be surprised if you couldn't trace a persons death 4 years from now back via diseases to the disaster.

[doc]

Cholera and typhus are common after disasters such as these, because of poor sanitation, and infected drinking water. Parasites, depending upon the region, can become prevalent due to disruption of natural drinking supplies and movement of populations.

They're saying now the number of dead can possibly multiply due to infectious disease. Care for any comentary on post-tidal wave disease outbreaks? where would the diseases be coming from, or is it simply a case of the water making it easier to grow and spread?

[zachsan]

Quake Changes Earth's Rotation, Moves Islands

[shaolinstylee]

another good article