Sitting on a beach (relaxing beautiful day) and suddenly watching all the water suck out to sea ~ then realizing you have only moments to sprint away if you want to live has got to be one of the worst things someone could go through. I am just totally in awe of this disaster ~ it really is just like a movie.
True. Me and my wife were honeymooning in Bali, Indonesia just like five months ago. We would be at the beach all day long. I cant even imagine what we would have done had a gigantic wave started coming upon us. Their arent really tall buildings in these countries where one could go to take refuge.
Its very sad news. As soon as I heard about what had happened I knew tens of thousands would be dead. I think some of the videos that will come out of this will be incredible...just to see nature at its most devastating.....I cant imagine seeing a beach basically sucked dry and then to see it all flooding back inland at such a rate. Its very sad.
Its awful to compare disasters but this disaster will probably surpass the Bam Earthquake. There are many remote places cut off where damage assesments haven't been done plus with the political instability in Sri Lanka and Aceh numbers may not be known for awhile. Not to mention the hardship and suffering that's going to come from disease, starvation and privation following this disaster. The people there need help and the sooner the better. If you want to donate please go to the Red Cross website, see my sig.
For the most part I've noticed Americans concerned over this event despite the fact that it occurred halfway around the world. I hope the efforts to rebuild won't be forgotten because just to put it in perspective, the number of deaths as it is now is 10 times the number of casualties on September 11. Not to mention the millions of homeless. Terrible tragedy.
link to tourist video of the wave coming ashore!! LINK IS NO LONGER WORKING>... right click and save as - scariest tourist video yet.... (11.4MB)
Floating mattress saves 20-day-old baby from drowning PENANG: While thousands of people lost their lives when a tsunami hit the region, a 20-day-old baby survived, thanks to a floating mattress. When the tsunami hit the popular Miami Beach in Batu Ferringhi here at about 1.15pm, S. Tulasi was sleeping in a room behind her father’s western food outlet along the beach. “We were all caught off guard when the wave hit us. I was thrown several metres away but managed to hold onto one of the posts but my 12-year-old daughter was swept by the wave,” said A. Suppiah. Suppiah, 55, said his wife, Annal Mary, 40, braved the strong wave to open the room door to save their baby. “I thought I had lost both my daughters but thank God the mattress was floating in about 1.5m of water and my baby was crying. My other daughter, Kanchana somehow managed to get to her feet and run to safety,” said Suppiah who injured his right ankle. Suppiah, who has been running the outlet for the past 10 years, said the wave caused about RM30,000 in losses. “I don’t know what to do now. My livelihood depends on tourists staying in the hotels around here and daily visitors. I hope the Government will allow me to continue doing business here,” he added. For ice cream seller, A. Subramaniam, the safety of a few hundred picnickers was his main concern when he saw an unusual wave moving towards Teluk Bahang beach. “I had never seen such a wave. I knew something was wrong as the wave was dark and as high as a coconut tree,” he said. Riding a 200kg motorcycle loaded with ice cream, Subramaniam said he rode on the sand and screamed to the picnickers to leave the place. “But many of them just stood and watched the coming wave. The first wave was not that strong but the second one was very powerful and lasted about five minutes,” he added. Subramaniam said he managed to prevent a 16-year-old girl from being swept away by the wave. “Fortunately enough, the people there ran to safety before the second wave came. But when I rushed to Batu Ferringhi, I saw many people being swept by the wave,” he said. His son, Kugilan, 14, who was selling ice cream in Tanjong Bungah, said he saw several children being swept by the waves. “Their parents tried to pull them but the waves were very strong,” he said. – Bernama
"We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," Hudnut said. Quake rattled Earth orbit, changed map of Asia: US geophysicist An earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said. The 9.0-magnitude temblor that struck 250 kilometers (155 miles) southeast of Sumatra island Sunday may have moved small islands as much as 20 meters (66 feet), according to one expert. "That earthquake has changed the map," US Geological Survey expert Ken Hudnut told AFP. "Based on seismic modeling, some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 meters. That is a lot of slip." The northwestern tip of the Indonesian territory of Sumatra may also have shifted to the southwest by around 36 meters (120 feet), Hudnut said. In addition, the energy released as the two sides of the undersea fault slipped against each other made the Earth wobble on its axis, Hudnut said. "We can detect very slight motions of the Earth and I would expect that the Earth wobbled in its orbit when the earthquake occurred due the massive amount of energy exerted and the sudden shift in mass," Hudnut said. Another USGS research geophysicist agreed that the Earth would have got a "little jog," and that the islands off Sumatra would have been moved by the quake. However, Stuart Sipkin, of the USGS National Earthquake Information Center in Golden Colorado, said it was more likely that the islands off Sumatra had risen higher out of the sea than they had moved laterally. "In in this case, the Indian plate dived below the Burma plate, causing uplift, so most of the motion to the islands would have been vertical, not horizontal." The tsunamis unleashed by the fourth-biggest earthquake in a century have left at least 23,675 people dead in eight countries across Asia and as far as Somalia in East Africa. The tsunamis wiped out entire coastal villages and pulled beach-goers out to sea. The International Red Cross estimated that up to one million people have been displaced by the natural calamity. link
It's kind of sad that, in the news, I'm seeing that there are some out there who are taking this time to attack the US about being one of the richest nations but actually contributing the least amount of aid. Their basically saying we are not doing enough before we have even had a chance to do anything. While that may be true, I don't think there is any place for that kind of talk right now. I think the focus should be on every country collectively tackling this tragedy. I think individuals should contribute if they can as I have. But, I don't think the timing is right for finger pointing at the countries providing relief and actually trying to place blame on them for what they perceive is a country not doing enough in a tragedy like this. I would hope our government is doing everything they can and the American people are not treating this as if it is not our problem because it happened half way around the world. But, finger pointing and blaming countries providing relief at this time is a disgrace. It's almost like laying responsiblity for the disaster at those trying to help. It personally makes me sick.
http://www.redcross.org/ Please help, you can set up a box to collect money from your work or some thing
Several more photos and live videos. The one showing the tsunami devouring a beach resort in Sri Lanka is simply amazing. http://www.nbc10.com/news/4026938/detail.html ** OOPS ** : I guess KingCheetah already posted this.
Petra Nemcova ( http://pnemcova.kmmod.com/index.htm ) broke her pelvis and was found clinging to a palm tree in Phuket. her photographer-boyfriend is still missing. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/more/12/28/nemcova.tsunami/index.html?cnn=yes
I was reading that the area where the movie "The Beach" starring Leonardo Dicaprio was filmed was hit hard. Did they end up building a bunch of resorts on that same beach where they filmed that movie after that production? Or, were there already a bunch of resorts on that island before the movie? I thought that island was undeveloped before the movie. I was kind of surprised when I heard there were resorts there that had been wiped out. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised as they were probably just taking advantage of the movie location to make money on tourism but I did not know that area was developed. Anyone been there and know anything about that island? Just curious.
