NEWS: 9.0 Quake, Tsunamis Strike SE Asia - 275,000+ Dead

Originally posted by IAF101

Do we really need to be smacked on our bottoms to sit up and pay attention!

IAF

Our bottoms should be blistered by now...and we still haven't paid any attention!

U.K. Offers `Practical Assistance' to Earthquake-Hit Countries

Dec. 26 (Bloomberg) -- The U.K. government has offered ``practical assistance'' to India, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives after an earthquake struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, resulting in more than 4,000 deaths in Asia.

``We are doing everything we can to assist but the disruption to communication in the worst-affected areas is inevitably making it difficult to confirm exactly the situation on the ground,'' Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today in an e-mailed statement.

Bloomberg
I think the help is on its way (I hope so...) -
Edited:
yes it is from brits:

�Messages of condolence from the British Government have been sent to the governments of India, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives along with offers of practical assistance. These are being co-ordinated between the FCO, DFID and MOD.

�As soon as the news came through in the small hours of this morning our emergency plans for such as situation were activated. In London Consular officials were called back from leave, regional Rapid Deployment Teams in Hong Kong and Kuala Lumpur put on stand-by. Our Ambassador in Thailand, David Fall and staff are on their way to Phuket. Every effort is being made by British High Commission Staff in Colombo, Sri Lanka (which also covers the Maldives) to provide assistance.

timesonline

[edit on 26-12-2004 by jazzgul]

I've read a few different places now that these islands, esp. the Maldives, were high end tourist destinations for european elite. I wonder if any notable business owners, power brokers, bankers were on the ground at the time, or in any of the other places that were hit.

Any large conferences going on down there. I noticed something about 10k to 20k swedes, what's the deal with that? Out of all these wealthy vacationers, how many global players got eaten by a wave of water? Just curious. Maybe Tesla rolled over in his grave too many times and altered the geomagnetics of the planet with the kinetics of his rotation. Ha!

Originally posted by IAF101
What the heck are the Indians doing? Where is America? Where are the Chinese? Where is world cooperation? Anybody?

These are times to come forward- why aren't the Chinese helping out- since they have the maximum resources in that region? Every minute the number of dead jumps by a thousand[ its 6800 now!] What are all those great military nations out there[China & India] doing? Whats the use of 10million army if you can't utilize it to save lives?Even though the quake was off the cost of Indonesia how did Sri Lanka get so badly affected?- its 1400kms away!

...
IAF

You can't just send thousands and thousands of the military without inventarization of what is needed or they will just hinder damage control and the relief efforts. At this moment across SE Asia, governments are probably trying to get an overview of the situation.

Blobber

Originally posted by Blobber
You can't just send thousands and thousands of the military without inventarization of what is needed or they will just hinder damage control and the relief efforts. At this moment across SE Asia, governments are probably trying to get an overview of the situation.

Blobber

What I mean is- aren't India, Thailand faced with constant typhoons? -Don't they have some sort of Rapid Response Teams to contend with these calamities.
India in particular should have some sort of Natural disasters cell- I've heard that India in the last decade has faced almost 2 massive earthquakes umpteen floods and a barrage of typhoons.

The military sure could help those rescue workers get to places cut off by helicopters and drop rations and amenities to all those cut off by the quakes. Also the military medical wings will be better trained to deal with this sort of mass exodus of patients.[ I presume all the militaries are trained somewhat like they are in the west]

Hell of a way to end Christmas!!

IAF

Just heard on MSNBC the death toll is up to 9000. I wonder where it will come in at the end. This really is so devastating. It boggles the mind.

Originally posted by Relentless
Just heard on MSNBC the death toll is up to 9000. I wonder where it will come in at the end. This really is so devastating. It boggles the mind.

Its so intresting, 9000 people is nothing, have we forgot the 40000 that just died this year in Iran from an earthquake?

This is so devasting to so many people. I just read this is the largest earthquake in 40 years!!!! I knew something was up with all those recent quakes all around the world and in the caribbean and knew a big one was coming somewhere.

The sad truth is that governments that oversee a large citizenry care less about the individual citizen than a smaller nation. The larger a nation gets, the less it cares about the individual. India has a lot of people. So does America. African nations have the most, while the netherlands have the fewest. Do you see my point?

As America has gotten more people, it has taken more and more freedoms and expectations away from its citizens. The same has been happening to India for longer, so it stands to reason they have a worse time of it than the US.

Another problem is that the shaking hasn't stopped, and the waves could keep coming. I think a lot of rescue operations and humanitarian missions will be delayed by the tides, and the storms that are battering the whole region. It's hard to get the scope of the event, because one news source reports a wave, and another reports an earthquake in the region, and you have to go to a third source to get the report of severe storms. A fairly sizable chunk of the globe got messed up pretty bad, and it's not exactly over yet. That is probably the primary reason for any delay in rescue operations.

Originally posted by SpittinCobra

Originally posted by Relentless
Just heard on MSNBC the death toll is up to 9000. I wonder where it will come in at the end. This really is so devastating. It boggles the mind.

Its so intresting, 9000 people is nothing, have we forgot the 40000 that just died this year in Iran from an earthquake?

I don' think we forgot about Iran, Kobra, but 9000 isn't nothing... Actualy this is a lot...And remember this are not only figures, there were REAL people -they might be your friends, relatives...

I think Iran came in at 25k people dead from that earthquake.

Ghoulish isn't it, to be able to throw around numbers like that, impervious in the digital realm, while real corpses are being counted in the physical..

There's been no reporting whatsoever on death totals in the Maldives, and those numbers could realistically be in the six figures, based on Indigo's census figures claiming 200k+ residents.

Is California still attached by the way? I've been wondering about that..

[edit on 26-12-2004 by WyrdeOne]

Originally posted by SpittinCobra

Its so intresting, 9000 people is nothing, have we forgot the 40000 that just died this year in Iran from an earthquake?

Actually, no but I don't think these numbers are anywhere near finsihed coming in and in addition, this one is affecting such a widespread area. The rate at which the reported death toll is increasing is what I find disturbing seeing the area of impact and the high possibilty that this is no where near being fully assessed yet.

I wonder how the number of deaths from natural disasters are adding up for this year compared to other years at this point.

we'll be hearing about rising death counts from this throughout the week, too many islands and major areas were affected by this and some of these islands are very remote in the first place. I wonder if there were any cruise ships in the area and if they were affected?

I know of a few luxury yachts with 100 or passengers that usually cruise the area during this time of the year, but I can't find any info on how the cruise line industry has been affected yet.

just saw the pics from India its so devastating, you could see the people being washed away.

[edit on 12-26-2004 by worldwatcher]

My dad is vacationing in Thailand right now... He really likes the island of Phuket, too. I hope he's alright...

Zip

Remember the Earthquake that hit Chile in 1960 that was a mega 9.5...The largest Ever in the World.

Link

Largest Earthquake Ever...

Link

Brace yourselves..;if you dare click on this link...

Link

I think Mount St'Helens could easily be next.Current status is Volcano Advisory (Alert Level 2); aviation color code ORANGE

Link



[edit on 26-12-2004 by Banshee]

So far, 16 magnitude 5+ earthquakes have struck one geographic area today, within an elven hour period.

Has that ever happened before?

Good morning folks. A big thank you to Indigo_Child and everyone who kept the updates coming in through the night.

Originally posted by WyrdeOne
So far, 16 magnitude 5+ earthquakes have struck one geographic area today, within an elven hour period.

Has that ever happened before?

It's pretty normal to have large aftershocks after such a massive quake.
The 1964 Alaska 9.2 recorded "11 aftershocks with magnitude greater than 6.0 on the Richter scale" in the day following the initial quake.
apsn.awcable.com...

Yahoo news

"All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.

Now that's something I haven't heard before......

PHOTOS OF PHUKET HERE

www.thaivisa.com...

these three photos are just a small indicator of how the tsunami hit the coast
notice photo #2 with the big green wave coming in.

www.thaivisa.com...

[edit on 26-12-2004 by FallenFromTheTree]

For all the death there, Rest In Peace.