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Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,200 in Asia (Update: Death toll now tops 11,500)
AP ^
| Sun, Dec 26, 2004
Posted on 12/26/2004 2:09:10 AM PST by Grzegorz 246
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To: leadpenny
Per FNC: According to Reuters death toll now over 6,000 with many missing.
41
posted on
12/26/2004 5:40:02 AM PST
by
mewzilla
To: Grzegorz 246
Reuters just reported over 6,000 dead.
To: Grzegorz 246
RealPlayer version of live TV news out of Thailand.
rtsp://203.147.61.37/encoder/live.rm
It is in English. General news, not just on the disaster.
MSPlayer version [but I can't get it to stay connected]
mms://203.144.166.27/nationchannel
43
posted on
12/26/2004 5:49:13 AM PST
by
TomGuy
(America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
To: TomGuy
44
posted on
12/26/2004 5:50:58 AM PST
by
TomGuy
(America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
To: Grzegorz 246; bd476; aculeus; Thinkin' Gal
To: Admin Moderator; All
To: Grzegorz 246
Oooooh! Will read LATER!
47
posted on
12/26/2004 6:13:54 AM PST
by
MeneMeneTekelUpharsin
(Freedom is the freedom to discipline yourself so others don't have to do it for you.)
To: csvset
Actually if the fishermen were away from the coast far enough, they're fine. Tsunami in the open ocean are only a few inches high.
To: mewzilla
Any idea on how long after the quake it took the tsunamis to hit? Had evacuations started?
I'm unaware of any evacuations taking place anywhere in the Indian Ocean. There's no tsunami warning infrastructure or network. These tsunamis hit probably 1-3 hours after the quake in most places. Places like Sri Lanka probably felt very limited shaking due to distance from the epicenter. Only warning you get is the water going out before it comes in.
To: Strategerist
I had a friend in New Guinea during the last huge SE Asian tsunami. The only warning you get is the blood-chilling sight of the ocean rushing backwards, turning a half-mile of undersea shelf into a long, sloping beach. After that, the water doubles back on you with jetspeed, like a moving sheet of glass. Once this quake happened, due to the poor detection infrastructure in the Indian Ocean, thousands of people on faraway coasts were already slated to die.
I'm just surprised that Thailand never developed such a system, specifically for the island of Phuket. I know that the universities in Bangkok do some inter-college seismic research, but I guess that never included sophisticated monitoring equipment in their own region. Or if it did, the communications capability was not robust enough to get the message to the people who needed it.
When we look back on this calamity, the lesson to take away is something as simple as a warning siren on the key beaches of India and Sri Lanka could have saved thousands. Though a lot of Indian fishermen look dirt-poor, in a group of them, one man will often have a cellphone. If there is a basic warning system in place, people will be able to take care of themselves.
50
posted on
12/26/2004 6:40:30 AM PST
by
seacapn
To: seacapn
Indian Ocean tsunami are surprisingly rare. in the 1800s and early 1900s there were a couple a few feet high, apparently.
It's difficult to get people to spend money or worry about things that haven't happened in either their lifetime or their parent's lifetime, even when geologically you can show something has happened hundreds of times in the past 30,000 years or whatever.
To: EBH
Has anyone seen any pictures or video footage of the tidal waves?
52
posted on
12/26/2004 6:50:53 AM PST
by
NJ Neocon
(Democracy is tyranny of the masses. It is three wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner)
To: Strategerist
That's very true. I guess it goes back to the fact that it's tough to take a latent threat seriously. I worry about what will happen if the New Madrid fault in Missouri really springs to life. People in the area know that an earthquake is possible, but until a big one happens, nobody really takes the threat seriously.
There are now reports trickling in all the way from the Seychelles, Madagascar, Reunion and Mauritius islands of substantial damage. Burma seems to be imposing a partial media black-out. The reported death toll will probably climb for a couple of weeks.
53
posted on
12/26/2004 6:59:24 AM PST
by
seacapn
To: NJ Neocon
I'm not too sure about video, but there are extensive photos of the damage in Thailand
on this link.
54
posted on
12/26/2004 7:01:24 AM PST
by
seacapn
To: TomGuy
Looks as thought the "Rim of Fire" has been very active lately. Except California . . .hmmmm......
55
posted on
12/26/2004 7:19:01 AM PST
by
BenLurkin
(Big government is still a big problem.)
To: seacapn
Impressive pics. Thanks for the link--and welcome to FR!
56
posted on
12/26/2004 7:29:46 AM PST
by
NautiNurse
(Silent Night, Holy Night, all is calm, all is bright...Jesus, Lord, at thy birth)
To: seacapn
I still remember the 64 quake back in Alaska, when I was a kid. As I view the damage from this quake and waves. think they are lucky that the waves were only 30 feet at most. In Alaska, the town I have worked a lot, (Valdez) everyone on the water front was killed. City docks washed away! Seward was laid to waste and Chenega was wiped off the map.
The pix's so far have been low damage in comparison...Where are the news crews on the whole thing???
57
posted on
12/26/2004 7:33:23 AM PST
by
Issaquahking
( Bush won, PROTECT OUR BORDER'S- NOW! Stop the Illegals!!!We'll handle the PC and the ACLU losers.)
To: Grzegorz 246
FoxNews just reported latest numbers killed at 9,000 and rising.
58
posted on
12/26/2004 7:33:46 AM PST
by
TomGuy
(America: Best friend or worst enemy. Choose wisely.)
To: BenLurkin
Just hearing now the toll is around 10,000...waiting for aftershocks.
59
posted on
12/26/2004 7:34:31 AM PST
by
SE Mom
(God Bless our troops.)
To: seacapn
Thanks for posting that link. I was in Phuket and Phi Phi Island over Thanksgiving...I never would have imagined they would be hit by tsunamis. Fortunately it hit at 0830. Most of the tourists are still sleeping off the effects of the previous night before hitting the beach. If it hit later in the day,I imagine hundreds of tourists would have been taken by the sea.
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