SE Asia Earthquake/Tsunami

[Filuwaúrdjan]

An earthquake with a magnitude of 8.9 has struck the coast of Indonesia, creating the inevitable Tsunamis ("tidal waves") which have struck the coasts of Sri Lanka, Thailand, the Maldives... well most of SE Asia actually.

At least 500 people have been killed (and that number will probably rise pretty sharply) and huge numbers of people have been made homeless.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Over 700 now

[Alcon]

1,000 now.

My God. Poor people.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Latest figures: over 1,200 dead in Sri Lanka

[opebo]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Over 1000 in India now. Mostly fishermen out early. 500 in Thailand.

[True Federalist (진정한 연방 주의자)]

Over 5,700 so far in six countries.

[ThePrezMex]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

Great news to hear you are fine Opebo! A friend of mine and his girlfriend were there just some days ago - I hope they are now in Laos as they had originally planned, otherwise I will start to worry.
The news are terrible.

[opebo]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

Great news to hear you are fine Opebo! A friend of mine and his girlfriend were there just some days ago - I hope they are now in Laos as they had originally planned, otherwise I will start to worry.
The news are terrible.

Yes, thanks ThePrexMex!  I do hope your friends are inland and OK.  Were they on the West coast?  Cause all the Gulf of Thailand resorts are prefectly fine.  I live no more than a hundred yards from the beach, on the second floor (the waves were three stories in Phuket!).  Scary stuff.  Everything's fine in Pattaya, though, for now.

[minionofmidas]

Over 2500 dead in Sri Lanka.
Over 2000 dead in India, a figure that, knowing India, will be corrected upwards hugely.
That 2000 figure includes 1300 in Tamil Nadu, 300 in Andhra Pradesh, 300 in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (where one official has already gone on record saying that the final tally will probably be over 1000), 100 in Kerala.
I've been to four different beach towns in Tamil Nadu - Mamallapuram, Pondicherry, Thiruchendur, Kannyakumari, plus Varkkela in Kerala - and obviously I have no way of knowing whether everybody I've seen and spoken to there is still alive.
ing hell.

[ThePrezMex]

Just to put everyone's worries to rest, I'm fine - lucky for me I'm on the other side of the peninsula. 

The west coast of Thailand, however, has been hit fairly hard, especially Phuket.  Early beach go-ers swept away. Apparently Sri Lanka and India have been hit hardest, though they're quite far away from the epicenter.

Great news to hear you are fine Opebo! A friend of mine and his girlfriend were there just some days ago - I hope they are now in Laos as they had originally planned, otherwise I will start to worry.
The news are terrible.

Yes, thanks ThePrexMex!  I do hope your friends are inland and OK.  Were they on the West coast?  Cause all the Gulf of Thailand resorts are prefectly fine.  I live no more than a hundred yards from the beach, on the second floor (the waves were three stories in Phuket!).  Scary stuff.  Everything's fine in Pattaya, though, for now.

Thanks.. I just got news from them and they are indeed in Laos now, so they are ok. They were in Phuket just some days ago!

As Lewis says, unfortunately there will be more deaths; I heard that there are still no reports from the areas controlled by the Tamil Tigers guerrillas in Sri Lanka.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Over 2500 dead in Sri Lanka.
Over 2000 dead in India, a figure that, knowing India, will be corrected upwards hugely.
That 2000 figure includes 1300 in Tamil Nadu, 300 in Andhra Pradesh, 300 in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands (where one official has already gone on record saying that the final tally will probably be over 1000), 100 in Kerala.
I've been to four different beach towns in Tamil Nadu - Mamallapuram, Pondicherry, Thiruchendur, Kannyakumari, plus Varkkela in Kerala - and obviously I have no way of knowing whether everybody I've seen and spoken to there is still alive.
ing hell.

It gets worse :-(

Sri Lanka now says 3,500 and thousands more missing. A million people have been made homeless. Burma (which looking at a map would have been badly hit) hasn't said how many people died. Some islands in the Maldives can't be contacted. And according to the BBC:

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[patrick1]

Tragic events.  Sadly this will hardly be noticed by most Americans.  That is a main gripe I have with some of my fellow countryman- we expect everyone to care and notice when something horrible happens to us but many ignore or simply don't care  when it happens on the other side of the globe.  On the bright side, the U.S. gov't usually sends quite a bit of aid and humantarian resources.

[minionofmidas]

Yeah, just read "over 10,000 dead, thousands more missing" somewhere.
MEanwhile, on ZDF, they are talking via phone to one of their employees who happened to be vacationing at Ao Nang, Thailand, and was on the way to the beach when the wave struck.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Guess what? Somalia's got hit as well

[??????????]

FNC is reporting that the crown prince of Thailand is missing as well.

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Photo from Malaysia:

[Gabu]

Wow.  What a horrible, tragic event.

My hopes and prayers go to the people of Southeast Asia.

[Schmitz in 1972]

Somalia? Do you mean by the same earthquake or by a different one?

My heart goes out to everyone in the region who has lost or is missing their loved ones. I will keep the entire region in my prayers. 8.9 really is terrifyingly high. For comparison, the 1989 San Francisco and 1994 Los Angeles earthquakes were only 6.9 and 6.6

[Filuwaúrdjan]

Somalia? Do you mean by the same earthquake or by a different one?

Same Tsunami ("tidal wave") caused by the same Earthquake. Those things are horrible.

[12th Doctor]

FNC has said that the quake was upgraded to a 9.0 making it one of the four most powerful 100 years.  Supposedly, the ocen water retracted half-a-mile before the wave hit.

[2952-0-0]

Horrible. I've been to Maldavies and Phuket. There is no way to describe this.

[WMS]

Horrific. It's up to what, 14,000+ dead now?

The toll will go up for certain considering Myanmar - assuming the government of Myanmar gives a sh**t what happened to its people - which I doubt.

[J. J.]

Horrific. It's up to what, 14,000+ dead now?

The toll will go up for certain considering Myanmar - assuming the government of Myanmar gives a sh**t what happened to its people - which I doubt.

I'm wondering about Bangladesh.  The bulk of the country is just a few feet above sea level.

[GLOBAL DICTATOR]

over 12,000 now

I agree with you Patrick. It was reported on CNN that those areas that were hit didn't have any U.S. interests that were damaged. I thought that was rather cold. I could care less if several U.S. interests over there were destroyed. It's the people, not things, that are most important!