Asian Tsunamis Kill at Least 20,000 People

AP ^ | 12/26/04 | DILIP GANGULY

[TexKat]

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka - Legions of rescuers spread across Asia Monday after an earthquake of epic power struck deep beneath the Indian Ocean, unleashing 20-foot tidal waves that ravaged coasts across thousands of miles and killed more than 13,340 people and left millions homeless in the fourth-largest temblor in a century.

The death toll along the southern coast of Asia — and as far west as Somalia, on the African coast, where nine people were reported lost — steadily increased as authorities sorted out a far-flung disaster caused by Sunday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake, strongest in 40 years.

Signs of the carnage were everywhere: Dozens of bodies still clad in swimming trunks lined beaches in Thailand. Villagers in Indonesia picked through the debris of destroyed houses amid the smell of rotting corpses. Hundreds of prisoners escaped a coastal jail in Sri Lanka.

More than one million people were driven from their homes in Indonesia alone, and rescuers there on Monday combed seaside villages for survivors. The Indian air force used helicopters to rush food and medicine to stricken seashore areas.

Another million were driven from their homes in Sri Lanka where some 25,000 soldiers and 10 air force helicopters were deployed in relief and rescue efforts, authorities said.

At Thailand's beach resorts, packed with Europeans fleeing the winter cold at the peak of the holiday season, families and friends had tearful reunions Monday after a day of fear that their loved ones had been swept away.

Katri Seppanen, 27, of Helsinki, Finland, walked around barefoot, in her salt water-stained T-shirt and skirt, at the Patong Hospital waiting room where she spent the night with her mother and sister. She had a bandaged cut on her leg.

"The water went back, back, back, so far away, and everyone wondered what it was — a full moon or what? Then we saw the wave come, and we ran," said a tearful Seppanen, who was on the popular Patong beach with her family. The wave washed over their heads and separated them.

Fifty-eight half-naked and swimming suit-clad corpses lay in rows outside the Patong Hospital emergency room. Three babies under the age of one were among the victims. A photo of one baby was posted on the wall of victims, the little corpse in a nearby refrigerator.

The earthquake hit at 6:58 a.m.; the tsunami came as much as 2 1/2 hours later, without warning, on a morning of crystal blue skies. Sunbathers and snorkelers, cars and cottages, fishing boats and even a lighthouse were swept away.

Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India each reported thousands dead. Deaths were also reported in Malaysia, Maldives and Bangladesh.

"It's an extraordinary calamity of such colossal proportions that the damage has been unprecedented," said Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa of India's Tamil Nadu, a southern state which reported 1,705 dead, many of them strewn along beaches, virtual open-air mortuaries.

"It all seems to have happened in the space of 20 minutes. A massive tidal wave of extreme ferocity ... smashed everything in sight to smithereens," she said.

At least three Americans were among the dead — two in Sri Lanka and one in Thailand, according to State Department spokesman Noel Clay. He said a number of other Americans were injured, but he had no details.

"We're working on ways to help. The United States will be very responsive," Clay said.

John Krueger, 34, of Winter Park, Colorado, described being inside his bungalow Sunday on Khao Luk Beach, north of Phuket, with his wife, Romina Canton, 26, of Rosario, Argentina, when the water filled it and blew it apart.

"The water rushed under the bungalow, brought our floor up and raised us to the ceiling. The water blew out our doors, our windows and the back concrete wall. My wife was swept away with the wall, and I had to bust my way through the roof," Krueger said while waiting to talk to a U.S. Embassy official at Phuket City Hall. "It was like being in a washing machine."

Canton was dragged into the ocean for more than an hour until a wave brought her back to land again, with a broken nose and foot scratches all over her body, Krueger said.

The quake was centered 155 miles south-southeast of Banda Aceh, the capital of Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra, and six miles under the Indian Ocean's seabed. The temblor leveled dozens of buildings on Sumatra — and was followed Sunday by at least a half-dozen powerful aftershocks, ranging in magnitude from almost 6 to 7.3, and one aftershock Monday that hit India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

The waves that followed the first massive jolt were far more lethal.

An Associated Press reporter in Aceh province saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches. Authorities said at least 4,448 were dead in Indonesia; the full impact of the disaster was not known, as communications were cut to the towns most affected.

The waves barreled across the Bay of Bengal, pummeling Sri Lanka, where more than 4,500 were reported killed — at least 3,000 in areas controlled by the government and about 1,500 in regions controlled by rebels, who listed the death toll on their Web site. There was an unconfirmed report of 500 more deaths on another Web site that provided no details. Some 170 children were feared lost in an orphanage. More than a million people were displaced from wrecked villages.

Devinda R. Subasinghe, the Sri Lanka ambassador to the United States, said the extensive damage will make the rescue effort more difficult. "It's going to take time to figure out access to these areas that have been impacted," Subasinghe said Monday in an interview on CNN. Up to 70 percent of the island's coastline was damaged, he said.

There was sporadic, small-scale looting in the towns of Galle and Matara, and authorities said about 200 inmates escaped from a prison, taking advantage of the chaos after guards panicked and fled when water entered the building.

About 2,300 were reported dead along the southern coasts of India. The private Aaj Tak television channel put the death toll there at up to 3,300, but the report could not be confirmed. At least 431 in Thailand, 48 in Malaysia and 32 in the Maldives, a string of coral islands off the southwestern coast of India. At least two died in Bangladesh — children who drowned as a boat with about 15 tourists capsized in high waves.

In India's Andhra Pradesh state, at least 32 Hindu devotees were drowned when they went into the sea for a religious ceremony to mark the full moon. Among them were 15 children. On Monday, bodies of women and children lay strewn on the sand.

"I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper," said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, of that state.

In Cuddalore, in the worst-hit Tamil Nadu state, survivors huddled Monday in a marriage hall turned makeshift shelter, as fire engine sirens whined outside. Broken boats law on the shore near smashed huts with only frail bamboo frames jutting out of the ground.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound in Alaska in 1964, according to geophysicist Julie Martinez of the U.S. Geological Survey.

"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.

The quake occurred at a place where several huge geological plates push against each other with massive force. The survey said a 620-mile section along the boundary of the plates shifted, motion that triggered the sudden displacement of a huge volume of water.

Scientists said the death toll might have been reduced if India and Sri Lanka had been part of an international warning system designed to advise coastal communities that a potentially killer wave was approaching. Although Thailand is part of the system, the west coast of its southern peninsula does not have the system's wave sensors mounted on ocean buoys.

As it was, there was no warning. Gemunu Amarasinghe, an AP photographer in Sri Lanka, said he saw young boys rushing to catch fish that had been scattered on the beach by the first wave.

"But soon afterward, the devastating second series of waves came," he said. He climbed onto the roof of his car, but "In a few minutes my jeep was under water. The roof collapsed.

"I joined masses of people in escaping to high land. Some carried their dead and injured loved ones. Some of the dead were eventually placed at roadside, and covered with sarongs. Others walked past dazed, asking if anyone had seen their family members."

Michael Dobbs, a reporter for The Washington Post, was swimming around a tiny island off a Sri Lankan beach at about 9:15 a.m. when his brother called out that something strange was happening with the sea.

Then, within minutes, "the beach and the area behind it had become an inland sea, rushing over the road and pouring into the flimsy houses on the other side. The speed with which it all happened seemed like a scene from the Bible — a natural phenomenon unlike anything I had experienced before," he wrote on the Post's Web site.

Dobbs weathered the wave, but then found himself struggling to keep from being swept away when the floodwaters receded.

The international airport was closed in the Maldives after a tidal wave that left 51 people missing in addition to the 32 dead.

Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the "Ring of Fire" around the Pacific Ocean basin.

The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake along the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica caused buildings to shake hundreds of miles away. The earlier temblor caused no serious damage or injury.

Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that struck off Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.

[MEG33]

School is out..That is my only explanation.

[sweetliberty]

Can we get the title updated again? It appears the death toll is now over 20,000 and still rising.

[TexKat]

Thanks sweetliberty.

[ChadGore]

Thoughts and prayers to the thousands of victims, their families and loved ones.

[Jon Alvarez]

we should only scratch the backs of those who scratch ours...if that bugs you, too bad.

[Jon Alvarez]

you're gonna make me cry...how about we divert some of the money we would have sent to the UN? You sending your check to the relief effort?

Please, I really need to know that you like me. My fragile ego cannot handle such negative feelings about old Alvy.

[Catspaw]

It's not everyday that I meet someone on Free Republic without a soul. You're the idiot du jour.

[mware]

Some scientist on Fox News was saying it may have affected the earths rotation.

[MEG33]

You are embarrassing yourself...if that's possible

[TexKat]

Tidal Waves Kill 22,000 in Nine Countries

A local resident walks next to a damaged house in downtown Galle, southern Sri Lanka, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. The death toll from massive tidal waves that struck Sri Lanka's coastline leapt to more than 12,000 on Monday as thousands of soldiers and families kept up the search for bodies. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

Villagers checking out victim's bodies at the Galle Hospital, in Galle, 117 kilometers (70 miles) south of Colombo Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. The death toll from massive tidal waves that struck Sri Lanka's coastline leapt to more than 12,000 on Monday as thousands of soldiers and families kept up the search for bodies. (AP Photo/Vincent Thian)

An aerial view of the Port Blair city and the broken jetty and boats due to tidal waves, in India's southeastern Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Thousands of people are reported dead around southern Asia and as far away as Somalia on Africas eastern coast, most killed by massive tidal waves that smashes coastlines after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake off Indonesia's coast on Sunday, followed by aftershocks in the region. (AP Photo/Manish Swarup)

Villagers look at houses destroyed by tidal waves at Velankanni near Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Nearly 3,000 people have died in India in the tidal wave disaster, with Tamil Nadu state accounting for most of the deaths, the government announced Monday. (AP Photo/Str)

Three Thais look at a hospital intake list of survivors, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004, in Phuket, Thailand. Rescue teams converged on beaches and remote islands in search of the missing Monday as authorities reported more than 430 people, including a number of foreign tourists, killed and 4,100 injured when earthquake-spawned tidal waves devastated idyllic resort areas of southern Thailand. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

Sri Lanka Air Force personnel load food supplies for tidal wave victims at a military airport in Ratmalana, Sri Lanka, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. The death toll from massive tidal waves that struck Sri Lanka's coastline leapt to more than 11,500 on Monday as thousands of soldiers and families searched for bodies a day after the disaster. (AP Photo/Gemunu Amarasinghe)

Doctors tend to Tim Massey, of San Francisco, Calif., who was caught in the tsunami and is still looking for his wife, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004, in Phuket, Thailand. Rescuers converged on beaches and islands Monday to search for survivors of earthquake-spawned tidal waves that devastated idyllic resorts of southern Thailand, killing more than 830 people. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett)

Western tourists gather while waiting for buses to take them to Bangkok at immigration office in Krabi province, southern Thailand, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Rescuers converged on beaches and islands Monday to search for survivors of earthquake-spawned tidal waves that devastated idyllic resorts of southern Thailand, killing more than 830 people. (AP Photo/Apichart Weerawong)

Villagers looks at the dead fish lying on a shore after tidal waves hit Penang Island, northwestern Malaysia, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Rescuers scoured Malaysian beach resorts and towns Monday for about 100 vacationers, fishermen and villagers missing after tidal waves killed at least 52 people and injured more than 220 others. (AP Photo/Andy Wong)

Police and volunteers conduct rescue work among houses and vehicles destroyed by tidal waves at Velankanni near Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Monday, Dec. 27, 2004. Nearly 3,000 people have died in India in the tidal wave disaster, with Tamil Nadu state accounting for most of the deaths, the government announced Monday. (AP Photo/Str)

[Central Scrutiniser]

Hey, do you have to be such a jerk?

I'm taking this very personally, I was just in Krabi about 3 and a half weeks ago, and I fear that many fo the people I met there may be dead. I've also spent lots of time in Phuket and Phi Phi. I got to know lots of expats over there and I love Thailand, seeing it destroyed in such a savage way is bad enough, but seeing some ignorant monkey-boy like you making light of it doesn't make it any easier.

Grow the hell up.

[Rebelbase]

What you say doesn't bug me. It only shows me what a demented individual you are to consider disaster relief, medicine and humanitarian aid to be subject to participation in the WOT.

What bugs me is that attitude is a disgusting stain on conservatism and reflects badly on FreeRepublic.com.

[Central Scrutiniser]

I've done liveaboards for days in the Similans, I pray that the dive masters that sometimes spend weeks out there at a time are OK, I got to know a few from repeat trips.

I didn't spend much time on Phi Phi, but have dove all around the islands, its a special place.

[Central Scrutiniser]

What bugs me is the "God is sending a message to these heathens" type of posts.

You don't hear them saying that when hurricanes hit the SE USA.

[TexKat]

Thailand

Dozens of gift shops destroyed by the tidal waves on Phi Phi island in southern Thailand. Massive rescue operations were scrambled along Asia's devastated coastlines as the death toll from a powerful earthquake and the giant tidal waves it unleashed rose to more than 23,200 and hopes faded for many thousands more still missing.(AFP/Roslan Rahman)

A man talks on his phone near smashed cars along Patong Beach, Monday, in Phuket, Thailand. (AP/Suzanne Plunkett)

A row of terrace housing workers on the Phi Phi island in southern Thailand holiday resort were destroyed by a tidal waves triggered by an earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale(AFP/Roslan Rahman)

A damaged house is seen on Phi Phi Islands in Krabi province, southern Thailand, December 27, 2004. Rescuers scoured the sea for missing tourists in Asia on Monday and fears of disease grew as emergency services struggled from the devastating tsunami that killed more than 22,000 people. Moderate aftershocks hit parts of India a day after one of Asia's worst tsunamis in decades, triggered by an earthquake off Indonesia, in which more than 6,600 were killed in India alone. The disaster spared no one. Western tourists were killed sunbathing on beaches, poor villagers drowned in homes by the sea and fishermen died in flimsy boats. The 21-year-old grandson of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej was killed on a jet-ski. REUTERS/Surapan Boonthanom

A hotel swimming pool at Patong Beach in Phuket December 27, 2004 is left with trash after the town was hit by a tsunami on Sunday. Thailand evacuated injured survivors of the devastating tidal wave, which was triggered by an earthquake, from its southern beaches on Monday as the national death toll jumped to 839. REUTERS/Bazuki Muhammad

[TexKat]

You don't hear them saying that when hurricanes hit the SE USA.

Like we had here in Florida a few months ago.

God forbid anything to happen to them or their love ones.

[Central Scrutiniser]

Yeah, some folks think God is some kind of action film director.

Its a natural disaster, it happens, its very very sad, but to ascribe it to God's vengence is just plain ignorant and stupid.

[Jon Alvarez]

so let me get this straight...these countries might be requesting the aid of the USA, yet may or may not be aiding us when we need them...pointing this out and the amount of aid we should send makes me a jerk? good grief...send your money over there if you want, not mine. I say support those countries that have supported us, not those who denounce us, refuse to help us, abandon us, and burn our flag and denounce our country...good grief, might I suggest a thicker skin?

[TexKat]

Dozens of European tourists dead or missing in Asian disaster

[Central Scrutiniser]

John, if you knew anything about the world, you would know that Thailand is one of our strongest allies, we regularly port our navy there, and they were one of the staging points for us during the Vietnam war. Trade between Thailand and US is very high. Same goes for India, one of our longest term allies.

For you to take such a stupid narrow view of this situation and apply your idiotic biases to the situation is beyond childish.

I'll bet you don't even have a passport you clod.

Maybe I should save a prayer for ignorant people...

Oh, and you are pretty tough here in print, how about you go to India and Sri Lanka and tell the poor villager that lost his family and has nothing that you don't care about them because of the UN, or your feelings on the war, or something else.

You don't represent the best part of this nation, America helps those in need because that is our nature. Nonwithstanding ignorant clods like you.