Posted on 12/26/2004 8:57:28 PM PST by TexKat
An aftershock measuring 5.4 on the Richter scale has rattled India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands, following the tsunami that is feared to have killed at least 7,000 people on the archipelago.
The New Delhi-based Indian Meteorological Department says about eight other aftershocks also hit the tropical island, all below magnitude 5.
The area is close to the epicentre of the magnitude 9 earthquake off Indonesia on Sunday that sent massive waves crashing across the Indian Ocean.
An aftershock of 6 was later recorded in the Andamans.
Witnesses say the sea tide has risen again in the cluster of islands, reviving fears among residents and tourists.
The Andamans lie 1200 kilometres from mainland India.
from Associated Press on Thursday, December 30, 2004
Article ID: D158452
Earthquakes rocked parts of Myanmar and northern Thailand - both countries hit by deadly tsunamis - early on Thursday, Thai authorities said. There were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
In a statement, the Thai Meteorological Department said a 5.4 magnitude quake just after 8 am (0100 GMT) was quickly followed by a 5.6 magnitude temblor centred under Myanmar.
The effects could be felt in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, where buildings were swaying, the department said.
A magnitude 5 quake can cause considerable damage in built-up areas.
Thailand is struggling to deal with the death and destruction wreaked by Sunday's tsunamis on its southern tourist regions where 1,975 people are confirmed dead - many of them tourists. Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said early on Thursday that most of the 6,000 people listed as missing likely also are dead.
Myanmar has listed 90 people as killed along its coast line by the tsunamis triggered by a huge magnitude-9.0 quake under the sea near the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
Tens of thousands of Indians fled in panic from coastal areas devastated by killer tsunamis after the authorities sounded a new alert, while aid workers struggled to bring relief to the living.
The defence and home ministries issued the warning to evacuate two kilometres (1.2 miles) inland after a new quake shook Indonesia.
Screaming people rushed inland on foot, buses and any mode of transport they could find in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Kerala, and in Port Blair, capital of the remote Andaman islands, witnesses and correspondents said.
The giant waves killed over 80,000 people across Asia, at least 10,850 of them in India. Thousands more are missing.
Civilians, aid workers and police joined the rush along the Tamil Nadu coast, the mainland's worst-hit state, where officials told people to pull back from the shore.
"Run, the waves are coming," shouted a policeman in Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu, while Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa, who was due to visit the fishing hamlet of Akkaraipettai, abandoned her trip.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, due to tour the devastated areas by road, instead used a helicopter, officials said.
By mid-afternoon, the entire historic church town of Valainkani in Tamil Nadu was deserted as even police were seen leaving their post and heading inland, an AFP correspondent said.
In Port Blair, the lieutenant governor and his family dashed for higher ground in their official cars, accompanied by a wail of sirens.
Officials said that apart from a few isolated areas, virtually the entire coastline of Kerala state was deserted Thursday, local officials said.
Most people in the affected areas had in any case sought refuge on higher ground inland after Sunday's disaster.
Home Minister Shrivaj Patil justified the alert, which came despite assurances from meteorologists that the quake in Indonesia, which measured 5.2 on the Richter scale, was not big enough to cause tidal waves.
"We got information that a quake of about 7.5 on the Richter sale could happen," said Patil. "If that happens, collectors (senior administrators) and other officials should take precautions. We cannot say definitely whether it will happen but precautions should be taken."
An embarrassing picture emerged in the media Thursday of how India's bureaucracy bungled the first alerts of Sunday's tsunami, losing precious time that might have saved lives.
India's air force was warned that a remote base on Car Nicobar islands had been flooded well before the giant waves hit the mainland coast hundreds of kilometers away on Sunday morning, the Indian Express said.
On the civilian side, the Meteorological Department sent a warning fax out to the former science minister and not to the incumbent.
The warnings to pull back from the coast came as furious efforts got underway to dispose of decomposing corpses in the tropical heat in view of epidemic fears, with workers fumigating roads.
The stench of death hung over beaches and villages reduced to a mess of debris. Some boats flung from beaches lay atop flattened dwellings.
Volunteers appealed for fuel to burn bodies. "We need kerosene to burn the corpses," said Premananda, a Hindu social group member, in devastated Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu.
"We've dug out 70 bodies, some with our bare hands. We've dumped them in a pit. They should be given a proper funeral but there's no time for it," Premananda said.
Meanwhile, massive aerial reconnaissance was underway Thursday to find people still alive on the isolated chain of the Andamans, home to endangered tribal people and close to the epicentre of the quake which triggered Sunday's killer tsunami.
Thousands are still missing on the islands and on the mainland and many dead remained unrecorded in the race to bury corpses.
"It's now more than four days and (missing) people should be presumed dead," said Vasudeva Rao, police chief of Port Blair, capital of the Andamans, but he declined to put a figure on the number missing.
Helicopters flew over flattened villages on islands near Car Nicobar where 30,000 lived people before the tsunami hit.
Flattend houses are seen from the air in the tsunami-struck city of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, December 31, 2004. Asia's tsunami death toll soared above 125,000 on December 31 as millions struggled to find food and clean water and persistent rumors of new giant waves sent many fleeing inland in panic. (Kim Kyung-Hoon/Reuters)
Last Updated Fri, 31 Dec 2004 14:31:07 EST
CRAWFORD, TEXAS - The United States dramatically increased its pledge to tsunami victims in southern Asia Friday, raising its contribution from $35 million to $350 million US.
INDEPTH: Disaster in Asia
"Initial findings of American assessment teams on the ground indicate that the need for financial and other assistance will steadily increase in the days and weeks ahead," U.S. President George W. Bush said in statement from his ranch in Crawford, Tex.
Bush also said he would send Secretary of State Colin Powell to coastal areas around the Indian Ocean to assess the damage. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, will accompany Powell.
RELATED STORY: Canada joins U.S.-led relief coalition
The announcement followed criticism the initial contribution was too low for such a wealthy country.
The increased American donation will substantially boost worldwide donations to the relief effort, which United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan said Thursday had reached $500 million US.
Canada has pledged at least $40 million Cdn to the region, saying Friday it had joined the U.S.-led coalition to co-ordinate relief efforts.
that's alot of tax money...
no surprise...I hear Kofi cut his vaca short...there's money in them there hills Kojo!
Help the victims : Indian sand artist Sudarshan Patnaik completes a sculpture in memory of the victims of the tsunami disaster in Puri some 100 Kms south of the capital of the Indian state of Orissa, Bhubaneshwar. (AFP/Str)
In these satellite images provided by Space Imaging, the coastline of Khao Lak, Thailand is shown before the tsunami attack on Jan. 3, 2003, left, and after the tsunami on right, taken Dec. 29, 2004. (AP Photo/Space Imaging)
In these satellite images provdied by Space Imaging, the Indonesian province of Aceh is shown before the tsunami attack on Jan. 10, 2003, left, and after the devasting tsunami attack on Dec. 29, 2004, right. (AP Photo/Space Imaging)
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