Largest Earthquake in 40 years hit Asia

[Adam's Apple]

Here's updated donations list as of 12/29/04 from Reuters. Can you believe how little China is kicking in?

FACTBOX-Nations pledge aid after Asia tsunami disaster
29 Dec 2004 23:30:10 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Updates with more contributions)

LONDON, Dec 29 (Reuters) - The United Nations mobilised what it called the biggest relief operation in its history following Sunday's giant wave which killed tens of thousands of people.

In just three days, some 50 to 60 nations have donated or pledged more than $220 million in cash, about the same amount of in-kind contributions and extensive logistic support, U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland said, characterising the response as "phenomenal."

The following is a list of contributions pledged, compiled from reports by Reuters bureaux and U.N. agencies.

AUSTRALIA: Increased aid to $27 million and said it, the United States, Japan and India were considering setting up a group to coordinate help. Also sent five air force transport planes with supplies and medical specialists to Sumatra, and two 15-member emergency medical teams and 12 police to Phuket.

AUSTRIA: 1 million euros ($1.4 million) in aid to countries hit.

BELGIUM: Military plane due to stop at Dubai to load most of its cargo -- UNICEF aid such as tents, vaccines.

BRITAIN: Pledged 15 million pounds ($28.9 million); plastic sheets and tents worth 250,000 pounds to Sri Lanka; 370,000 pounds to EU aid offer, $100,000 to World Health Organisation.

BRAZIL: Airforce plane with up to 10 tons of food and 6-8 tons of medicines to Thailand.

CANADA: Government aid C$40 million ($33 million). Private donations to non-governmental organisations like the Red Cross exceeds C$8.5 million ($7 million). Canada sent blankets, water tables, jerrycans and plastic sheeting to Sri Lanka; another plane off for Indonesia on Thursday.

CHINA: 21.6 million yuan ($2.6 million) of aid to India, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Maldives.

CZECH REPUBLIC: Sent drinking water and medicine to Sri Lanka and Thailand; pledged 10 million crowns ($446,000).

DENMARK: Increased aid pledge to 85 million Danish crowns ($15.6 million) after spending almost all initial 10 million crowns pledged. Aid to cover -- medical supplies, food, water, shelter, reconstruction.

UNICEF flight from Copenhagen taking supplies to the area, including oral rehydration salts and medical supplies for 150,000 people for three months.

EGYPT: Red Crescent Society sending plane with $81,000 worth of medicine and other aid as initial step.

EUROPEAN UNION: Ready to release up to 30 million euros on top of 3 million euros already allocated to IFRC.

FINLAND: Pledged 2.5 million euros spread among World Food Programme, UNICEF, WHO and IFRC. Local aid groups give 75,000 euros. Finnish Red Cross send field hospital with 15 staff to Sri Lanka and 31 aid workers to Thailand.

FRANCE: 15 million euros pledged to affected states. French authorities and aid groups decide to send 110 tonnes of aid.

GERMANY: Doubling emergency aid to 2 million euros. Medical evacuation plane to set off for Phuket, two more planes to take disaster relief teams, medicine and consular officials there. Germany's largest utility E.ON donates 1 million euros.

GREECE: Sending C-130 transport aircraft carrying 25 rescue workers to Phuket on Thursday to help with rescue operations. Sent plane to Sri Lanka with 5 tonnes of food and clothes; 150,000 euros in aid.

ISRAEL: Sent one medical team to Sri Lanka, one to Thailand. Military search and rescue team due in Sri Lanka, held up by coordination problems.

ITALY: Will send 2 Hercules aircraft, one to Sri Lanka, one to Thailand.

JAPAN: Pledged $30 million in aid, sent three navy vessels to Thailand to help rescue survivors.

KUWAIT: Pledged supplies worth $2 million, sent $100,000 immediate aid.

NETHERLANDS: Contributing 2 million euros to Red Cross-Red Crescent appeal, plus participating in EU aid programme.

NEW ZEALAND: Government is donating up to NZ$5 million in aid, sending a 10-person victim identification team to Thailand.

NORWAY: Preliminary contribution of 50 million Norwegian crowns ($8.2 million) for emergency relief, including medicine, food, clean water and shelter.

POLAND: Earmarked 1 million zlotys ($336,000) for Polish NGOs involved in relief.

QATAR - Sent urgent relief aid worth $10 million.

SAUDI ARABIA: Pledged $10 million aid package -- $5 million of food, tents and medicine via Saudi Red Crescent, $5 million for international aid groups such as the Red Cross, UNHCR.

SINGAPORE: Contributing some $1.2 million to global effort, military medical teams and supplies ready to fly to Indonesia.

SLOVAKIA: Sent plane with drinking water, tents and medicine to Sri Lanka; aid worth 6.6 million Slovak crowns ($231,660).

SLOVENIA: Donating 20 million tolars ($113,500) of aid through International Red Cross and Crescent.

SOUTH KOREA: Raises aid to $2 million, may send military cargo plane to move aid workers and supplies.

SPAIN: Sent aircraft to Sri Lanka with first aid, sanitary equipment and 19 volunteers, promised 50 million euros.

SWEDEN: Sent 2 communications specialists to help U.N. relief efforts in Sri Lanka. Sending tents and communication equipment to Maldives. Swedish Red Cross to contribute $750,000 to IFRC appeal.

SWITZERLAND: Has allotted 2 million Swiss francs in aid on six teams to bring in drinking water, food and shelter supplies.

TAIWAN: Pledged $5 million more after giving $100,000 to Indonesia, $50,000 each to Thailand, India and Sri Lanka. Sends more than 100 relief workers.

UNITED ARAB EMIRATES: Pledged $2 million in aid; its Red Crescent society to provide food, blankets and clothing.

UNITED STATES: Pledged initial $35 million. Pentagon ordered 12 vessels to region, though no decision taken on their role.

INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF THE RED CROSS: Cargo plane flying from Kenya to Sri Lanka carrying 105 tonnes of supplies, provide aid to 150,000 people in north and east. Trying to raise more than 50 million Swiss francs ($44 million).

INTERNATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE RED CROSS AND RED CRESCENT: has dispensed initial one million Swiss franc grant for relief efforts and launched appeal for 7.5 million francs.

IMF: Intends to provide assistance, no specific pledges.

UNHCR: Initially distributing $380,000 of non-food relief items, including plastic sheeting, clothing, kitchen sets.

UNICEF: Delivered 50 water tanks to southern India, 45-tonne shipment of water purification tablets and water systems due to reach Sri Lanka on Thursday. WHO and UNICEF said they were providing four emergency kits to Indonesia to cover 40,000 people for three months, providing shelter, food and clothing.

U.N. WORLD FOOD PROGRAMME: Sends 168 tonnes of commodities to Sri Lanka, plus more than 4,000 tonnes of rice, wheatflour, lentils and sugar, enough to provide 500,000 people with emergency rations for two weeks.

U.N. DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME: Provided $100,000 each to Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, the Maldives and Thailand to help assess damage and coordinate emergency needs.

U.N. POPULATION FUND: Earmarked up to $1 million and extra staff to help health needs of pregnant and nursing women.

(For more news about emergency relief visit Reuters AlertNet www.alertnet.org email: alertnet@reuters.com; +44 207 542 2432)

 

[KarlMarx]

I did a Google search on the Reichter scale - which is the scale used to measure the severity of earthquakes.... I ran across this tidbit, which was posted in 1997. FYI .... the earthquake that caused the tsunamis in Asia was measured as a 9.0 magnitude quake.

Note the emphasis on the last sentence.


1) Why is the Riechter Scale no higher than 8.9?

The Riechter scale DOES go higher than 8.9. An earthquake
of above 8.9 is EXTREMELY unlikely. The Riechter scale follows a certain
pattern. 2.0 is ten times as strong as 1.0, 3.0 is ten times as strong as
2.0, 4.0 is ten times as strong as 3.0, etc. Therefore, a 9.0 on the
Riechter scale is 100000000 times as strong as a 1.0! It would be 100
times as strong as a 7.0, which can cause extreme damage.

Here is a table (which can be found in it's entirety
at http://www.seismo.unr.edu/ftp/pub/louie/class/100/magnitude.html)

of the equivalent yield in tons of dynamite of the force equivalent of earthquakes. Note that a magnitude 9.0 earthquake has an equivalent force
of 32 billion tons of dynamite (or 32,000 megatons). This is more explosive power than all the nuclear weapons in all the arsenals in the world.



Richter Magnitude - 4.0
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 1,000 tons
Example - Small Nuclear Weapon

Richter Magnitude - 4.5
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 5,100 tons
Example - Average Tornado (total energy)

Richter Magnitude - 6.5
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 5 million tons
Example - Northridge, CA Quake, 1994

Richter Magnitude - 7.0
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 32 million tons
Example - Hyogo-Ken Nanbu, Japan Quake, 1995; Largest Thermonuclear Weapon

Richter Magnitude - 7.5
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 160 million tons
Example - Landers, CA Quake, 1992

Richter Magnitude - 8.0
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 1 billion tons
Example - San Francisco, CA Quake, 1906

Richter Magnitude - 8.5
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 5 billion tons
Example - Anchorage, AK Quake, 1964

Richter Magnitude - 9.0
TNT for Seismic Energy Yield - 32 billion tons
Example - Chilean Quake, 1960, Sumatra Earthquake of 2004

 

[NATO AIR]

haunting....

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationw...0dec30,0,4329149.story?coll=la-home-headlines

CATASTROPHE IN SOUTHERN ASIA
Tsunami Torments Minds After Breaking Bodies
Experts say the unique characteristics of the disaster complicate the healing process. In Sri Lanka, the communal culture may help.

By Mark Magnier, Times Staff Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka — It was a beautiful Sunday morning, with almost no wind, when a crowded train called the Queen of the Sea pulled out of Colombo station on schedule at 7:40 and headed down the coast.

Rumesh Priyankara was excited about his day in the country with his grandmother. A little more than an hour into the trip, however, the 14-year-old's idyll ended.

Now he can't stop remembering the other passengers' screams that the sea was coming. The massive wave that knocked over the train's coaches like toys. The watery grave that swallowed his grandmother and 800 other people on board.

The physical signs of Sunday's deadly tsunami are everywhere here. Less visible, but potentially longer lasting, are the mental wounds. And mental health experts say unique characteristics of the catastrophe are compounding the psychological recovery process.

The fact that it struck out of the blue on a beautiful morning during a holiday period, they say, sends an underlying message that even core beliefs — that sea and land are distinct, that entire communities don't just disappear in seconds — can't be taken for granted.

"We're seeing a lot of very stressed people in hospitals, given all they've suffered, including many in delirium," said Hemamali Perera, senior lecturer in psychological medicine with the Medical Faculty of Colombo. "We're seeing deep grief, distress, people unable to talk, although it's way too early to see the full impact."

Aid workers, civic groups and mental health experts say these costs will be borne over years, even decades.

"On the 26th, there wasn't even any wind, no warning whatsoever," said Lalith Samantha Dias, 35, a fisherman, huddling with a dozen neighbors near a tiny Hindu shrine outside Colombo, where they'd retreated after their houses were destroyed by the wave. "It's just so shocking. Our children are still rattled, unable to sleep."

For Sri Lanka in particular, there's also the sheer scale of the disaster. With 20,000 dead and 1 million displaced out of a relatively small population of 20 million, almost everyone knows people who have been lost or had their lives turned upside down.

"In our office alone, someone's friend went for a day at the beach and disappeared," said Sithmini Perera, the Sri Lankan communications director for World Vision, a civic group.

"My colleague's family was washed away. On the east coast, an estimated 100 children are gone. How do you deal with this?"

Also jarring is the way people died. Whereas most disasters leave their dead behind, this one stole away with many of its victims. Limited refrigeration and the high number of fatalities mean that even many recovered bodies are being buried before loved ones can see them. In a culture in which funerals often involve displaying the body for two or three days, families are being denied the closure needed to cope.

The difficulties Sri Lankans face in trying to recover mentally started surfacing almost as soon as the water receded.

Jerome Kerr-Jarrett, a 25-year-old British tourist who was swept into the sea from his cabana, headed for the hills, bleeding and exhausted after narrowly escaping death. Once at a safe elevation, he tried to get the hundreds of people gathered to start thinking about food, shelter and basic survival, he said. For hours and in some cases days, however, many people just sat there dazed.

"We tried to get them moving, but it was impossible to get through to people," Kerr-Jarrett said. "Most had just shut down."

In fact, both sets of behaviors are coping mechanisms, experts say. Though Kerr-Jarrett's quick response may have been a lifesaver, throwing yourself into a task immediately after being traumatized is a way of dealing with the shock and pain of the experience. By staying busy, you're delaying thinking about what you've been through until a time when you can better process it.

The 300 workers of the Sri Lankan Red Cross are seeing early signs of trauma that, if not treated, can turn into full-blown post-traumatic stress disorder. The selective nature of this tragedy, with coastal communities devastated but the capital and inland areas unscathed, also may prolong the adjustment process.

"People who feel that others are enjoying a better life while they've had everything washed away lose hope and no longer know how to live in this world," said Rangith Mudalige, the organization's director-general. "There's no cure, really. The only way is to assist them with the basics, to hopefully ease them back toward a normal life."

Sri Lanka's culture adds complications of its own. Although it's gradually changing, driven in large part by the war between the government and Tamil Tiger separatists, the island nation traditionally has stigmatized those with mental problems, even blaming bad karma or past misdeeds.

But because the symptoms arising now were brought on by a natural disaster that struck the entire community, the onus on the individual is lighter.

On the other hand, Sri Lanka's strong communal culture may help the healing. When someone falls ill or dies, traditionally the entire village pulls together.

People often take turns spending 24 hours a day, even for weeks, with the grieving to ward off loneliness and depression.

"I'd say 90% of the response you're seeing now is collective activity," said Siri Hettige, a sociology professor at the University of Colombo. "At my university we put out an appeal, and the response from students was overwhelming. The government is not reliable as a source of support, as in many developing countries, so the community is preeminent."

Another common response to great trauma is to ascribe blame, and here tradition may also play a role, Hettige said. News outlets have diagramed the earthquake, detailing how the tsunami was generated and why Sri Lanka was caught unawares. But a traditional belief holds that such misfortune signals God's fury with the country and its leaders.

"The Mahawansa," one of the nation's seminal books of history and tradition, details a wall of water flooding the land 2,000 years ago. The king was forced to sacrifice his daughter to regain divine favor by sending her out to sea in a ship.

Hettige predicted that people would start revisiting this ancient tale as the echo of traditional beliefs resurfaced, particularly in the less sophisticated rural areas where most of the devastation occurred.

Rumesh, the boy on the train, sat on a white plastic chair with his aunts, uncles, sleeping grandfather and other family members and described the horror he'd been through. On the wall of the motorcycle repair shop where they gathered were posters of his dead grandmother, a small memorial to the woman they all loved.

"My mother is overseas working, so my grandmother has been my mother," he said. "She loved us. I miss her terribly. I can't describe the loss."

His grandfather slept under his dead wife's picture. He hadn't spoken much since the disaster.

Rumesh said he didn't know how he survived when so many others died. "I guess it was just my fate," he said.

"We're all having a hard time," added his father, U. Ranjith Fernando, a 40-year-old bus driver. "This sort of thing shouldn't even happen to your enemies."

 

[NATO AIR]

recent developments-

White House To Send Jeb Bush To Tsunami-Affected Areas
Congress Ready To Give "Very Generous" Aid
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6769602/

US Spy Satellites Deployed For Tsunami Relief Effort
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6770108/

 

[pllove]

it is terrible!

 

[hylandrdet]

I'm mobilizing as fast as I can; in our area we're gathering as much food, supplies and clothing as possible. This is my area of expertise; I've done it too long to stop now.

What we're doing now is truly America at it finest hour!!!

 

[dilloduck]

I applaud your efforts--it's always honorable to give--you may switch to raising money tho and the other stuff you have collected can go to locals who need help--they just can't handle bulk donations like that right now and are still making need assesments--just a tip---don't want you to think that I am criticizing your efforts IN ANY WAY.

 

[padisha emperor]

Glad of this international help and cooperation.

But it is sad that humanity have to wait a tsunami who killed more than 125,000 people to be united.

 

[dilloduck]

Glad of this international help and cooperation.

But it is sad that humanity have to wait a tsunami who killed more than 125,000 people to be united.

sad indeed but don't get your hopes up on this unity stuff---- the wars will go on as scheduled

 

[padisha emperor]

oh, I know, war will go on, and probably first with the USA.

 

[Said1]

oh, I know, war will go on, and probably first with the USA.

You really ARE ignorant aren't you?? Where you raised that way, or is it just a french thing? I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt by asking, but I know way to many frenchmen to know your attitude is probably the result of generations of inbreeding! Does having a head so large your neck can't hold it up affect your social life, or are there others like you where you come from?

 

[NATO AIR]

like a mother in darfur, only this time it was mother nature that was heartless and cruel

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6772870/

Mother forced to choose which son to save
She lets go boy, 5, in raging flood; he turns up alive laterThe Associated Press
Updated: 8:59 a.m. ET Dec. 31, 2004PERTH, Australia - Struggling in the raging flood waters, Jillian Searle had to make a choice: which son to hold on and which to let go.

Searle, of Perth, Australia, was near the pool with sons Lachie, 5, and Blake, 2, when this week’s tsunami hit the Thai island resort of Phuket where she and her family were vacationing.

“I knew I had to let go of one of them and I just thought I’d better let go of the one that’s the oldest,” she told Sky News television. “A lady grabbed hold of him for a moment but she had to let him go because she was going under. And I was screaming, trying to find him, and we thought he was dead.”

Lachie was found safe two hours later after surviving the raging waters by clinging to a hotel room door.

“I cried for mom for a long time and then I was quiet,” he later told his father, Bradley Searle. With mud and water marks up to his ears, his first words to his father were: “My hands are all dirty and I need to wash my clothes.”

Jillian Searle said the family feels extremely fortunate. Thai authorities say around 3,500 bodies have been recovered along the beaches of Phuket, while an untold number remain missing and are believed to have been swept out to sea or buried in debris.

“We are just so lucky to walk away with the small children I have got,” she said. “I just can’t believe they are still here.”

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

 

[NATO AIR]

perhaps somehow there will be peace, maybe with a serious US and British push

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tm...wl_sthasia_afp/asiaquakesrilanka_041231222629

Prayers as tsunami fuels rare unity in Sri Lanka

COLOMBO (AFP) - Sri Lanka's squabbling leaders displayed rare unity at an emotional candle-light vigil for the victims of the tsunami which has killed close to 30,000 people on the island while heavy rains slowed relief operations.

Sri Lanka, which ended the year with a national day of mourning, was one of the country's hardest hit by the deadly waves triggered by a massive undersea earthquake on Sunday.

Carrying a candle in her left hand, President Chandrika Kumaratunga led public grief Friday and called on the nation of 19 million to forego New Year celebrations as a sign of respect for the dead.

Kumaratunga stook next to her arch rival opposition leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and legislator Joseph Pararajasingham, who represents a party seen as close to the Tamil Tiger guerrillas who have tried to assassinate her, at the multi-religious ceremony.

"We have lost much, but gained in strength by the knowledge of solidarity shown by the world," the president said as she thanked the international community for its spontaneous and massive support.

In Colombo, a sombre mood prevailed. Offices and private homes put up white flags as a sign of mourning while state buildings flew the national Lion flag at half-mast.

Hotels and supermarkets switched off music while church and temple bells rang out simultaneously for three minutes in remembrance of the dead. Residents, who usually organize house parties to usher in the New Year, instead took part in private candle-light vigils.

Meanwhile, a South Asian summit due to open in Bangladesh next week was put off by a month as four members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation were badly hit by the tsunamis that killed 125,000 people in 10 countries.

But as cash was pledged to help rebuild the country, overnight monsoon rains added to the gloom in eastern and southern Sri Lanka where relief workers battled to recover bodies still trapped under rubble.

The two districts were badly affected when tidal waves lashed three-quarters of Sri Lanka's densely populated coastne Sunday.

At least 28,400 people were confirmed dead Friday, of which 104 were foreigners, while nearly 5,000 were still missing and possibly dead, Kumaratunga's office said.

Aid workers said rain was hampering their efforts.

"Heavy rains overnight have damaged roads to the point where we can't move in (new) supplies," a volunteer with Christian Aid told AFP by telephone from Batticaloa.

"Transport has become a problem because the roads are damaged."

The rebel Tamil Tigers discounted fears of floating land mines said to have been washed out after the sea surge and urged international aid agencies to send staff and supplies to areas held by them in the island's north-east.

In the island's south, most of the mass funerals had been completed, but a handful of bodies continued to be found trapped under rubble, a police officer in Galle, 112 kilometres (72 miles) south of here said.

He said the law and order situation had improved in the region after initial reports of looting, snatching of valuables from dead bodies and extortion to return bodies snatched from make-shift morgues.

One relative had to pay 50 US dollars to "buy" the body of a loved one who died in the tragedy in Galle, the mass circulation Lankadeepa newspaper said.

People were also snatching any valuables left on the thousands of rotting corpses, the Island newspaper said in a report headlined: "Vultures in human form descend on the dead."

The newspaper said gangs were demanding up to 100 dollars to find bodies, most of which were stolen from hospitals.

Police on Friday recovered the bodies of 25 people who appeared to be western nationals and handed them over to an undertaker here.

Representatives from diplomatic missions were invited to help with the identification, a spokesman for the private undertaker said. He said police asked them to bury the bodies after two days.

After the tsunami drove nearly one million people out of their homes, the government was seen launching a war-like offensive involving the entire military and the public service.

Relief workers were also trying to chlorinate wells along the coastline to prevent water-borne diseases as most are full of saline water from the tidal waves while the government was struggling to keep its relief camps stocked.

"There is a lot of demand for infant food such as milk, milk products and drinking water," said Anthony Fernando, spokesman for the relief committee. "We are working with the district heads to see how such demands can be met fast."

 

[NATO AIR]

horrible, the stories only get worse and worse

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/31/tsunami.families/index.html
Sisters see spouses die; mom makes wrenching choice
Friday, December 31, 2004 Posted: 2:45 PM EST (1945 GMT)

(CNN) -- The white flags signal death. Where those pennants hang outside Sri Lankan houses, the dead are still inside.

But Mariana Sebastian Francis is one of the more fortunate mourners on the Indian Ocean island where a tsunami killed at least 41,000 people. Her husband's body isn't among the corpses rotting beyond recognition. She's already buried him.

Her sister, Suerna Sebastian Francis, 40, has done the same. Widowhood is the latest event in their tandem lives.

As they'd done for almost four decades, the Francis sisters celebrated Christmas together. Marriage hadn't separated them because they chose to live next door to each other in the village where they were born. And on December 26, they shared a traditional Sri Lankan breakfast of rice and dal, or spiced legumes.

Hours later they watched their husbands drown saving their children.

"When the second wave came, we were looking for our son, and my husband went out to search for him and found him in a tree," Mariana Francis, 39, recounted. "He rescued him, and both of them were running for their lives. Later, my son was found alive, but my husband was missing."

The two sisters charged to safety as they lost everything within 20 minutes.

"The water was rising and the sea was coming. We ran for our lives, but it caught us, and the water almost came up to our necks," said Mariana Francis, who has a 19-year-old son and 5-year-old daughter. "We managed to escape from the first wave which destroyed our house. The second wave came and took us by surprise."

Mariana Francis' hands are bandaged. But her wounds are from the funeral. After carrying her husband's coffin, she refused to stop gripping it. Fellow mourners pulled it from her grasp.

Suerna Francis, whose husband saved their one child, is not sure what the future holds. Dodangoda, their fishing community, was deprived before the tsunami lashed its shores. Now it's more vulnerable.

"We don't know what to do next," Suerna Francis said. 'We don't have a source of income."

Leaving home
A thousand miles away, across the Bay of Bengal, hundreds on the Nicobar Islands endure the same despair as the Francis sisters.

Last night, Kanaka Vassan planned to use the remains of her house as firewood to cook a meal for her family. Vassan, her husband and two children stayed in the forest for two nights without food, and she said her "children just cried and cried."

The Vassans might rebuild the house and gift shop the tsunami destroyed early this week, but many more already have decided to turn their back on home and move elsewhere.

At least one of every four of the nation's 31,000 or so citizens is dead, wounded or missing a relative. And government officials say it would be inhumane to force anyone to remain in the midst of that suffering and trauma.

With the help of the Indian military, pilots are working at all hours to take in supplies and take out survivors who want to leave. So many people have left that there aren't enough hands available to unload food, water and medicine. In exchange for a ride off the island, evacuees must unload the cargo.

 

[Avatar4321]

Glad of this international help and cooperation.

But it is sad that humanity have to wait a tsunami who killed more than 125,000 people to be united.

Well Its not our fault there are certain nations that oppose doing whats right for political reasons.

 

[padisha emperor]

No relation with the tsunami.

And don't consider the USA as the poor victim of the Iraqi crisis, in the UNO.
you're the outlaw.

 

[KarlMarx]

No relation with the tsunami.

And don't consider the USA as the poor victim of the Iraqi crisis, in the UNO.
you're the outlaw.

We're the outlaw?!?!?!? That implies that there is a law that we are breaking, does it not? But what law are we breaking? Saddam Hussein was involved with activities that broke UN resolutions, but the Security Council was on Saddam's payroll including China and FRANCE. The United States was merely enforcing the resolutions of the United Nations and at the same time taking action to protect its interests and its national security.

So the US is an outlaw and you look down at us? But Saddam, well! He was good enough for your government.... never mind that he was breaking every UN resolution... never mind that your government was helping him do it..... never mind that your government was complicit in genocide, and complicit in one of the largest mass extermination of human beings since the Nazi Holocaust.....

The Chirac government doesn't seem much better than the Vichy government when it comes to collaborating with genocidal megalomaniacs....

 

[dilloduck]

We're the outlaw?!?!?!? That implies that there is a law that we are breaking, does it not? But what law are we breaking? Saddam Hussein was involved with activities that broke UN resolutions, but the Security Council was on Saddam's payroll including China and FRANCE. The United States was merely enforcing the resolutions of the United Nations and at the same time taking action to protect its interests and its national security.

So the US is an outlaw and you look down at us? But Saddam, well! He was good enough for your government.... never mind that he was breaking every UN resolution... never mind that your government was helping him do it..... never mind that your government was complicit in genocide, and complicit in one of the largest mass extermination of human beings since the Nazi Holocaust.....

The Chirac government doesn't seem much better than the Vichy government when it comes to collaborating with genocidal megalomaniacs....

Good point---in fact if France wants him they can have Saddam as far as I'm concerned.

 

[NATO AIR]

oh man...i can't believe how devastating this tsunami was.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39780-2004Dec31.html

On the Indonesian Coast
Not a Living Soul Seen On Long Trek Home
Men's Tale Confirms Scope of Loss

By Alan Sipress
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, January 1, 2005; Page A14

MON IKEUN, Indonesia, Dec. 31 -- The bridge over the broad Raba Lhoknga River was destroyed by the tsunami waves that smashed into Aceh province, its steel girder frame snapped in two and heaved far into the waters, the road washed away without a trace.

So when Nurdin Muhammed and two fellow construction workers reached the river Friday afternoon, they swam. For five days, they had walked barefoot 100 miles along Aceh's western coast, passing what they described as flattened village after flattened village without encountering a single living soul, and they were determined to reach their native village to learn the fates of their families.

"I can't remember how many villages I passed," he said. "All the buildings were destroyed. Bodies were scattered everywhere."

When Muhammed passed even a partly standing house, he would investigate if anyone was home. But for five days, he found no one, he said. His friends confirmed his account.

"I've lost my fear," said Muhammed, a slight, skinny man with sad eyes, sunken cheeks and a sliver of a mustache. "I don't have any fear anymore."

Five days after the tsunami struck, killing an estimated 80,000 people in Indonesia, early details are emerging about the extent of devastation on Aceh's west coast, which was closest to the epicenter of the earthquake that triggered the massive waves. Indonesian officials and relief workers have speculated that the death toll was particularly high there, but with telephone lines cut and many roads severed, they have been unable to learn the full facts.

Muhammed and his two companions, all residents of a village near the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, were at a construction site in Calang, one of the region's larger towns, when the tsunami struck. "At first, I felt the earthquake," recounted Muhammed, 30. "Then the ocean pulled back and, all of a sudden, a huge wave came. Some people ran and some didn't. But those who ran were chased by the sea. Though I ran, the wave caught me, rolling me over." He survived by clinging to a durian fruit tree.

"When the water was gone, I saw many people stuck in the trees, some dead and some alive," he continued. About 400 people had lived in that neighborhood of Calang. Muhammed estimated that only 20 survived.

The next day, he set out along the coast road toward home, with his friends Imran Burhan, 23, and Zaenal Abidin, 30.

The men said they survived on coconuts, cassava, bananas and packets of instant noodles that washed onto the shore. Burhan, a small man with a gash on his right cheek, uncovered a cigarette lighter, which they used to warm the food.

He said he believed there were refugee camps in the mountains above the coast road, but the men, determined to press on toward home, did not check. Fear of new waves and the fact that the houses had become uninhabitable might have led survivors to leave them for higher ground.

The trek was slow going because more than a dozen bridges had been washed out, forcing the three men to swim or ford the waters.

"Sometimes I slept in the hills. Sometimes I slept while I walked," Muhammed recounted. "Every time I slept, I smelled the stench of bodies."

On Friday afternoon, the men reached the Raba Lhoknga River at a point in Mon Ikeun village, near the tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island. When they arrived, the setting sun was low over the ocean to their left and lush green mountains to their right were veiled in mist.

But the once-idyllic setting was scarred by rubble. Girders from the bridge sat half-submerged upriver, tangled in trees and chunks of concrete. A sole reinforced concrete support stood in the middle of the water, stripped of its two-lane roadway. Coconut palms and pine trees lay uprooted on both banks.

Two Indonesian army bases facing each other across the river in the village had been leveled. All that remained standing of the military compound on the north shore, which had housed 300 soldiers and their families, was a solitary concrete gatepost painted in green camouflage. Only six people from the camp survived, according to police Sgt. Maj. Zulkifli Hararep.

Villagers reported that of about 1,000 residents of Mon Ikeun, no more than 200 had lived. The vistas of destruction in Lhoknga subdistrict -- trucks and cars upended amid shattered homes and rice paddies transformed into lakes -- were repeated all down the coast, according to several witnesses.

Local television stations showed aerial footage from Meulaboh and Calang of entire swaths of coastline reduced to sprawling rubbish dumps.

As Muhammed and his companions stood on the roadway where it abruptly ended at the river's edge, a refugee in a bright red T-shirt on the other bank waved to them to cross. A powerboat was tied up at the far shore, but, like many vessels and vehicles in the province, it was out of fuel.

The three men waded into the 50-yard-wide river and began to swim. Then they grabbed hold of a rope strung across the river, typically used for pulling small boats across, and yanked themselves forward. After about five minutes, they emerged on the opposite beach, soaking wet. They walked nimbly over the beach, up the stony incline and back onto the road.

There they sat down on the pavement, their backs to the river, and began to recount their tale. Several relief workers who had driven from Banda Aceh to this sudden end of the road handed them plastic cups of drinking water and bread.

When they finished devouring the food, they abruptly ended their story. Muhammed said they were eager to resume their journey to their village, Ulelung Darul Imara, only four more miles down the rubble-littered road. Five days after the tsunami, they still did not know whether anyone in their families had survived.

"I just need to get home," Muhammed said. "That's why I keep walking."

 

[padisha emperor]

I think that we should tranfer the post about USA and France (karl marx's, dillo's and mine) in the thread "Europe", this thread is for the tsunami.

I will answer to you in the Europe thread