Huge earthquake wreaks havoc

[edotherocket 0]

Huge earthquake wreaks havoc

By Arjuna Wickramasinghe in Colombo

December 27, 2004

 

AT LEAST 1000 people were killed and many more were missing in Sri Lanka as tsunami waves smashed into the island, Prime Minister's top aide, Lalith Weeratunga, said.

 

The earthquake hit southern Asia, 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 US Geological Survey first struck at 7.59am (11.59am AEDT) 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 metres 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 US Geological Survey. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline," she said.

 

More than 100 tourists on diving holidays were missing on islands off southern Thailand following the tsunamis, about 70 of them in the famed Emeral Cave, a tourist official said.

 

"We don't know whether they are dead or alive," the official told Reuters from the southern city of Trang.

 

The Emeral Cave, which contains a tiny white sand beach and water turned emerald by sunshine through a hole in the top, is a major attraction for divers who have to swim underwater to get into it.

 

But 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 1000 were feared dead in Sri Lanka, the National Disaster Management Centre 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.

 

Police reports from the devastated coastal areas placed the fatalities at a minimum of 1000 dead, said Weeratunga who is the top civil servant in Premier Mahina Rajapakse's office which is coordinating the rescue and relief effort.

 

"We have police reports which place the death toll at a minimum of 1000," Weeratunga said.

 

"We don't have the full picture from some places which have been cut off."

 

An official in eastern Trincomalee said 3000 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.

 

Officials said 400 fishermen were missing in south India.

 

"Thirty-four are dead and 14 are admitted in hospital," said an official at the Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai, formerly known as Madras and the capital of Tamil Nadu state.

 

Dozens more were dead in Prakasam district in southern Andhra Pradesh and in Machalipatnam district, taking the total death toll in the state to 40, officials said.

 

The wave swept into the low-lying Maldive islands whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists, flooding two-thirds of the capital Male, said chief government spokesman Dr Ahmed Shaheed.

 

"The damage is considerable. The island is only about three feet above sea level and a wave of water four feet high swept over us," he said.

 

"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," he said.

 

"We have no communications with some of the outlying atolls. At this stage we fear the worst. We are trying to send boats to assess the damage, but our resources are stretched to the limit."

 

The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17, 1998, when three tsunamis ripped through Papua New Guinea's northwest coast, killing 2500.

 

As many as 94 people were killed today in Indonesia's Aceh province on northern Sumatra island.

 

"They were mostly drowned by the waves," Bireuen regency mayor Mustofa said by telephone, adding that hundreds of houses had been swept away.

 

Indonesia's geophysics and meteorology office put the epicentre of the earthquake at 150km off the southern coast of the island and said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale.

 

"There was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city," said Bustami, a resident of the Aceh coastal town of Lhokseumawe. "In some parts the water was up to a chest level.

 

"People are quite panicked now, some of us are walking by foot and others are on military trucks going to higher ground."

 

Residents said waves as high as five metres struck the northern coast, killing at least nine, causing widespread damage and sending thousands fleeing in panic.

 

Residents said buildings collapsed and people fled their houses.

 

Indonesia, an archipelago of 17,000 islands, lies along the Pacific Ring of Fire where plate boundaries intersect and volcanoes regularly erupt.

 

In the Thai tourist island of Phuket at least one person was killed, four were missing and 100 injured when the wave, five to 10m high, crashed onto beaches lined with luxury hotels at the peak of the tourist season.

 

"There was a very large ocean wave after the earthquake and about 100 people were injured," Suparerk Tansriratanawong, director general of Thailand's Meteorological Department, told Reuters.

 

More than 10 people were killed and 100 injured or missing in the southern Thai province of Phang Nga.

 

The prime minister called for the evacuation of areas hit by a tsunami wave in three southern provinces, including Phuket.

 

"I have ordered that rescue officials move people out of the risk area," Thaksin told reporters.

 

 

The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade was trying to determine whether any Australians were killed or injured in an earthquake which hit south east Asia today.

 

A DFAT spokesman said his department was making inquiries about the welfare of Australians in the region but so far there had been no reports of any casualties.

 

"We still don't know at this stage," he said.

 

People who have friends and family in the affected areas can contact the Foreign Affairs tsunami hotline on 1800 002214 for more information.

 

Major earthquakes around the world since early last century:

- Dec 26, 2003: Southeastern Iran, Bam, magnitude 6.5; More than 41,000 killed.

- May 21, 2003: Northern Algeria, magnitude 6.8; Nearly 2300 killed.

- March 25, 2002: Northern Afghanistan, magnitude 5.8; up to 1000 killed.

- Jan 26, 2001: India, magnitude 7.9; at least 2,500 killed. Estimates put death toll as high as 13,000.

- Sept 21, 1999: Taiwan, magnitude 7.6; 2400 killed.

- Aug 17, 1999: Western Turkey, magnitude 7.4; 17,000 killed.

- Jan 25, 1999: Western Colombia, magnitude 6; 1171 killed.

- May 30, 1998: Northern Afghanistan and Tajikistan, magnitude 6.9; as many as 5,000 killed.

- Jan 17, 1995: Kobe, Japan, magnitude 7.2; more than 6000 killed.

- Sept 30, 1993: Latur, India, magnitude 6.0; as many as 10,000 killed.

- June 21, 1990: Northwest Iran, magnitude 7.3-7.7; 50,000 killed.

- Dec 7, 1988: Northwest Armenia, magnitude 6.9; 25,000 killed.

- Sept 19, 1985: Central Mexico, magnitude 8.1; more than 9500 killed.

- Sept 16, 1978: Northeast Iran, magnitude 7.7; 25,000 killed.

- July 28, 1976: Tangshan, China; magnitude 7.8-8.2; 240,000 killed.

- Feb 4, 1976: Guatemala, magnitude 7.5; 22,778 killed.

- Feb 29, 1960: Southwest Atlantic coast in Morocco; magnitude 5.7; some 12,000 killed, town of Agadir destroyed.

- Dec 26, 1939: Erzincan province, Turkey, magnitude 7.9; 33,000 killed.

- Jan 24, 1939: Chillan, Chile, magnitude 8.3; 28,000 killed.

- May 31, 1935: Quetta, India, magnitude 7.5; 50,000 killed.

- Sept 1, 1923: Tokyo-Yokohama, Japan, magnitude 8.3; at least 140,000 killed.

 

Reuters

 

http://www.news.com.au/common/story_page/0...55E1702,00.html

 

I'm having my Christmas break at my folks' home in Brunei at the moment so this is pretty major news here at the moment.

 

It's weird that it happened a year to the day that there was a big earthquake in Iran.

[Guest Jason]

This is such a terrible natural disaster. I feel sorry for all the people who lost their lives during one of the more happier times of the year. To see that the Tsunami's destruction went all the way over to Somalia, in Africa, is just an indication of how brutal the Earthquake was. Geologists says that the Indian Ocean plates have moved 10-30 metres, which means that each times these plates keep moving more destruction is going to be caused. Indonesia and South East Asia in general are surrounded by numerous tectonic plates, and when these plates move, either Earthquakes or Volcanoes happen. With the plates moving 10-30m this means that Sea-Floor Spreading is starting to take control. Sea-Floor Spreading happens due to two plates pull away from one another. When the plates pull away from each other, the result is a destructive Earthquake or the birth of an underground volcano (When underground Volcanoes erupt, islands are made. E.g Hawaii). What I'm trying to say is that with the Sea Floor Spreading it means that the Tetonic Plates are active and trying to move, while this is happening I won't be surprised to see more disasters in the South-East Asia region, and it is a shame.

 

It is a shame because most of South-East Asia are third world countries. Buildings lack infastructure, houses lack infrastructure, and this is why Houses, buildings, and even skyscrapers were brought down during the fierce Tsunami. My thoughts and prayers go out to the people affected by this disaster.

[MrRant 0]

That's what happens when you don't celebrate Christmas.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But yeah it's sad to see. Especially the Tsunami's wiping people away.

[The Ghost of bps21 0]

All the cameras and satellites in this world...and no one can get me some video?

[BrokenTiger 0]

My country (Malaysia) is affected as well...especially the northern states. 37 people reported dead so far. An amateur footage (from a beach...aired on local news) showed people, boats, cars an other stuff thrown around by the Tsunami. That's a sight I wish to erase from my mind.

 

Ironically, MrRant...the Christmas celebration is bigger this year. There are lots of Christians too on this part of the world, sir. Just to give a clearer picture, that's all.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

A tidal wave is one of the natural disasters I want a photo of myself pointing a shotgun at.

[Highland 0]

Better make that death-toll over 20,000

 

 

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (Reuters) - The death toll in a tsunami that slammed into coasts from India to Indonesia topped 22,000 Monday as rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists and fears of disease grew as soldiers raced to recover rotting bodies.

 

Sri Lankan military spokesman Daya Ratnayaka said 10,029 people had been killed in Sri Lanka alone, while a government minister said 200 foreign tourists were feared dead.

 

Other areas worst affected areas by Sunday's tsunami were southern India, where officials reported more than 6,600 dead, northern Indonesia with about 5,000 drowned and Thailand's southern tourist isles and beaches where up to 839 lost their lives.

 

The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years triggered the wall of water up to 33 feet high that fanned out across the Bay of Bengal, flattening houses, hurling fishing boats onto roads, sending cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucking sunbathers, babies and fishermen out to sea.

 

In Banda Aceh, capital of Indonesia's Aceh province near the epicenter of the magnitude 9.0 quake, troops were still unloading piles of bodies from military trucks late Monday after the tsunami swept several kilometers inland.

 

In the center of the sprawling city, dozens of bodies were still scattered on streets, while masses of debris -- a mix of mud, ruined trucks and cars, mangled motorcycles, and wood from shattered houses -- had yet to be cleared.

 

Throughout the region, relatives hunted through piles of dead stacked up in hospital corridors and prayed for the safe return of thousands still missing as the toll rose to about 22,500.

 

"Death came from the sea," Satya Kumari, a construction worker living on the outskirts of the former French enclave of Pondicherry, India, told Reuters. "The waves just kept chasing us. It swept away all our huts. What did we do to deserve this?"

 

International aid agencies rushed staff, equipment and money to the region, warning that bodies rotting in the water were already beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.

 

Some of the dead were foreign tourists. Among those killed in Sri Lanka were at least nine Japanese who had been watching elephants in a park when the tsunami swept over them.

 

"This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas ... so many vulnerable communities," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told CNN.

 

The Geneva-based International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said it was seeking $6.5 million for emergency aid funding.

 

"The scale of the tragedy is massive. Sri Lanka has never been hit by tidal waves or earthquakes or anything at all in its known history so this is a grave tragedy which we have not been prepared for," President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the BBC.

 

The tsunami spared no one. Western tourists were killed as they sunbathed on the beach, poor villagers were drowned in their seaside homes and fishermen died in flimsy boats. The 21-year-old grandson of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej was killed on a jet-ski.

 

ROWS OF DEAD CHILDREN

 

In Aceh, on northern Sumatra island, volunteers laid children's bodies in rows under sarongs at makeshift morgues. Others were stacked in white fish crates.

 

"It smells so bad ... The human bodies are mixed in with dead animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats," said marine colonel Buyung Lelana, head of an evacuation team in Aceh searching for more dead.

 

 

 

"I am hoping there are still enough coffins available," said Mustofa, mayor of Aceh's Bireuen regency.

 

Smaller tremors followed Sunday's earthquake, the world's biggest since 1964 and the fourth-largest since 1900.

 

Families around the world anxiously sought news of loved ones on Christmas holidays. Calls from worried relatives swamped hotlines set up by foreign ministries and tour operators.

 

Thailand evacuated injured survivors from its southern beaches Monday.

 

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said it would go much higher. "We have a long way to go in collecting bodies," he told reporters after visiting Phuket, one of Asia's premier beach resorts which draws 3 million foreign tourists a year.

 

Some hospitals in Phuket began releasing informal, hand-written lists of the dead and injured in their care. Many foreigners were labeled "nationality unknown."

 

On Phuket's Patong beach, hotels and restaurants were wrecked and speed boats were rammed into buildings. Belgian tourist Christian Patouraux said he narrowly escaped the wave as he vacationed on the island of Kho Phi Phi, famed as the site of the Leonardo DiCaprio film "The Beach."

 

"I saw lots of dead bodies and many injured people, many with cuts and broken bones," he said.

 

Many foreign tourists were left destitute, all their possessions and passports lost to the waves. British travel agents said charter flights that had been due to carry more tourists to devastated areas would instead fly out empty to evacuate survivors.

 

Hundreds of thousands in Sri Lanka left homeless and fearing another wave sheltered in temples and schools. The southern port of Galle, famed for its historic fort, had been submerged.

 

Weeping relatives scrambled over hundreds of bodies piled in a hospital in nearby Karapitiya, shirts or handkerchiefs clutched over their noses against the stench of decaying flesh.

 

"We are struggling to cope. Bodies are still coming in," said Karapitiya Teaching Hospital administrator Dr H.G. Jayaratne.

 

DEVASTATED REMOTE ISLES

 

Among the missing in India were 200 Hindu pilgrims who had gone for a ritual sea bath. Hundreds scattered petals on the water and sacrificed chickens to pray for their loved ones' return.

 

"We are continuously recovering bodies. We are also seeing wrecked fishing trawlers and boats by the coast," coast guard commandant Navin Chandra Pandey said in New Delhi.

 

At a graveyard in southern Cuddalore, mass graves were dug using an excavating machine to bury nearly 200 bodies.

 

"We must have dug some seven or eight pits and buried 25, 30, 35 bodies in each of them," said gravedigger Shekhar.

 

"We lined up bodies next to each other in two rows and buried them. I've never buried so many in a single day in my life."

 

One of the most devastated regions was India's remote Andaman and Nicobar islands, near the quake's epicenter, where officials said the tsunami had killed 3,000 people.

 

The toll in the strategic islands, mostly barred to visitors and home to several primitive tribes, included at least 68 air force personnel and families at a base, officials said.

 

In the Maldives, where thousands of foreign visitors were holidaying in the beach paradise, damage appeared to be limited.

 

The tsunami was so powerful it smashed boats and flooded areas along the east African coast, 3,700 miles away. At least 14 Somalis were killed and nine were missing at sea after turbulent swells generated by the tsunami hit the coast.

 

A tsunami, a Japanese word that translates as "harbor wave," is usually caused by a sudden rise or fall of part of the earth's crust under or near the ocean.

 

It comprises a series of waves that can travel across the ocean at speeds of over 500 mph. As the tsunami enters the shallows of coastlines in its path, its velocity slows but its height increases and it can strike with devastating force.

 

 

 

It's only a matter of time before something like this happens closer to home, IMO.

Edited December 27, 2004 by Highland

[MrRant 0]

A tidal wave is one of the natural disasters I want a photo of myself pointing a shotgun at.

Weren't you going to come up here and point a shotgun at Mount St. Helens?

[King Cucaracha 0]

Scary shit. I can't imagine a 30 foot wave and just the thought of it is just crazy. The pictures they had on the news here of the wreckage were mad.

[GreatWhiteNope 0]

It's only a matter of time before something like this happens closer to home, IMO.

You mean in America?

 

A guy from the National Weather Service was on TV earlier saying the last time a Tsunami hit the US was in the 1920's, and that incident along with all prior reported Tsunamis only resulted in low-level flooding - no deaths.

 

So now everybody will be all "are we prepared AT HOME for a Tsunami?" when the odds of one occuring and causing damage to the extent we've seen in the past few days is extremely low.

[CanadianChick 0]

This is awful. And for it to come without any warning and to not be prepared for it makes it that much worse. Although, how could you prepare for this?

[MrRant 0]

Sandbags.

 

 

LOTS of sandbags.

 

Or a shotgun like AoO suggests...

[BX 0]

I think you'd need a sawed-off shotgun for something of this magnitude.

[Kahran Ramsus 0]

You mean in America?

 

Hawaii and Alaska get hit a lot.

[Lil' Bitch 0]

44, 000 people now dead

 

Jet Li almost became one of them

[BX 0]

I think it's fair to say that this is the biggest natural disaster of our time. Simply horrendous.

[Skywarp! 0]

Maybe the biggest of history? Reports are saying it will likely jump to 60,000.

[EVIL~! alkeiper 0]

Maybe the biggest of history? Reports are saying it will likely jump to 60,000.

Taking a look at my copy of the World Almanac, it stands right now as the biggest loss of life in a flood since 1939. The book lists a 1939 flood killing 200,000 in North China. Also, a 1931 flood on the Huang He River in China is reputed to have killed 3,700,000. Of all disasters, its the biggest since 1976, when an Earthquake killed 242,000 in China and Tangshan.

[tommytomlin 0]

By Liz Minchin and Misha Schubert

December 29, 2004

 

Rich nations have been tight-fisted and too slow in offering help to devastated communities in southern Asia, Australian aid agencies said yesterday.

 

 

The United Nations says it will take "many billions of dollars" and many years for countries to recover from Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis.

 

 

Australia has already donated $10 million to the relief effort, with more help to come.

 

 

But many of the world's wealthiest countries have pledged less than $40 million between them so far. Britain has chipped in only $A1.7 million, barely topping the $1.5 million that Victoria pledged yesterday.

 

 

Canada has promised $A2.5 million, Germany and Spain $A1.77 million each and France $A177,000, while Japan has offered an emergency medical team to Sri Lanka and a damage assessment group to Indonesia. The United States has given $A19.6 million.

 

 

"Clearly the international community has not responded to the challenge yet," Oxfam Community Aid Abroad executive director Andrew Hewett said.

 

 

"Rich countries need to recognise the scale of this disaster and respond accordingly and respond quickly, and that means more money and more supplies are required."

 

 

Oxfam and aid groups have praised the Australian Government's lead in the relief effort.

 

 

"The US have given twice as much as Australia in dollar terms, but given their population is about 13 times our size, Australia has probably been the most generous, most responsive donor so far," Mr Hewett said.

 

 

The Australian Council for International Development said it was disappointed by how little foreign governments had given.

 

 

"The levels of international aid at the moment are . . . probably the minutiae of an adequate response," said Jack de Groot, who heads the Catholic aid agency Caritas Australia.

 

 

Australian appeal hotlines have been swamped with calls, raising nearly $3 million by last night.

 

 

"It's been really hectic. You put down the phone and it rings again . . . people are being very generous," Red Cross volunteer Jenny Patterson said.

 

 

Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said he was developing a second and "considerably larger" aid package, to be announced today. "It may be that we can help a little in Sri Lanka and India as well, but the real focus of our effort will be on Indonesia and Thailand," he said.

 

 

Labor foreign affairs spokesman Kevin Rudd said a larger donation was warranted.

 

 

"We are now looking at a war zone spread across two continents and 10 countries," he said.

 

 

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Ric...3996552470.html

 

 

I think Australia's donation totals about $40 million now too. I understand that Australia is in the region, and I understand countries like the U.S are waiting a while before giving aid, but what's wrong with Japan? ONE medical team? Or Britain? Or France, who has given a massive $1.7 million? How come a relatively small world power like Australia can donate double the U.S contribution, forty times Britain's and a few hundred times France's?

[BX 0]

maybe cause they have a balanced budget I dunno.

[MrRant 0]

I don't remember Asia sending any money to help with forest fire costs.

 

They should be happy with ANY assistance that they get. We don't have to send anything.

[tommytomlin 0]

'Asia' doesn't send money to help with American wildfires, Australian bushfires or British whatevertheycallbushfiresinBritain because those countries can fend for themselves. I don't think the people of Phuket, with all their riches, are in a position to provide for themselves. I don't think the people of Aceh in Indonesia, who were halfway through a civil war before the tsunami killed about 30,000, have much in the way of home insurance.

 

I don't know if you're aware of this Rant, but most of the world is fucked. A few million dollars in aid from countries that can easily afford it will go a long way to helping the victims of the Tsunami.

 

But then again, those fuckers didn't send their left over rice and fishing baskets to California when the bushfires came, so screw em. Right?

[MrRant 0]

Hey... if they sent one basket of rice for a family that's house burned to the ground as a show of empathy then maybe I would care a bit more.

 

How do you know we can afford it? Wouldn't we better off building housing for our own instead?

 

I don't have anything against handing out some money but the UN getting uppity with us because it isn't as much as they want can go fuck themselves. They should be happy with the $19 million we are giving them compared to the nothing they get.

 

I personally think the $19 million can be better served here though.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

A tidal wave is one of the natural disasters I want a photo of myself pointing a shotgun at.

Weren't you going to come up here and point a shotgun at Mount St. Helens?

It never blew its top, though.

[Guest ShootingStylesPress]

CNN says 80,000 now. Whoa.

[Kurt Angle Mark 0]

Petra Nemcova, cover girl for the 2003 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, barely escaped with her life but unfortunately for her, her boyfriend is still missing.

 

"Nemcova told the New York Daily News that she survived the tsunami, which has killed at least 33,000 people, by clinging to a palm tree for eight hours, despite a broken pelvis and internal injuries."

 

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2004/more...nami/index.html

[nl5xsk1 0]

I heard on the radio this morning that the UN is bitching that the US only gave $35~million USD for the recovery. They don't think it's enough. This from an organization that receives 60% of the food & money that they annually donate from the US.

[bobobrazil1984 0]

Death toll still rising, up to 100,000 now.

[Swift Terror 0]

Here are some amateur videos: video webpage with links

[Swift Terror 0]

Damn, I just watched the video labeled "from Thailand (Thanks to Alex)". It's 1.5 MB. The camera follows a mass of water rushing inland and at the very end, right before the video stops, there are 3 guys standing there, about to be blown away by the water.