Tidal Waves Kill More Than 120,000 in Asia
12-26-04 | 03:24 PM
#26
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This news is sad and shocking. I mean I can't imagine 11,000 people being killed like that. They said the "luckily" the wave hit in the early morning before the beaches were full of people.
12-26-04 | 05:18 PM
#27
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The problem with soemthing like this is all the aftershocks are severe enough to spawn more tidal waves.
Some of the aftershocks were as big as the Loma Prieta quake in '89. (7.1)
Some of the aftershocks were as big as the Loma Prieta quake in '89. (7.1)
12-26-04 | 06:32 PM
#29
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Originally Posted by DoogieHowser
How do you measure wealth? By money? By how many TV's a person has?
I know this is hard to conceive, but in some cultures, money is not as important as enjoying friendships or truly living.
I'd like to see everyone have the degree of freedom (both personal and economic) which we have enjoyed for a few hundred years. I suspect we'd see them get richer until they also romanticize the good old days when they had a life expectancy of forty and lived in abject poverty "in harmony with nature."
What makes you think that being wealthier makes it harder to "enjoy friendships" or "truly live"? Are they somehow mutually exclusive?
12-26-04 | 06:35 PM
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12-26-04 | 06:47 PM
#31
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Originally Posted by vhgong
12-26-04 | 07:33 PM
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From: Capitol of the Empire! Center of all Commerce and Culture! Crossroads of Civilization! NEW ROME!!!...aka New York City
Those pics look fake...that guy would be getting thousands from the papers for those shots instead of posting them on p-base
And as far as the whole rich/poor nonsence that someone brought up...1000's more will die from disease and lack of clean drinking water and inefficient rescue operations because these countries are piss poor than would have died in the US...end of story
And as far as the whole rich/poor nonsence that someone brought up...1000's more will die from disease and lack of clean drinking water and inefficient rescue operations because these countries are piss poor than would have died in the US...end of story
12-26-04 | 07:47 PM
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From: Capitol of the Empire! Center of all Commerce and Culture! Crossroads of Civilization! NEW ROME!!!...aka New York City
BTW...for the guy who said rich/poor has nothing to do with it...
Registration needed
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/War...oneclick=true#
Warnings could have saved thousands: USGS
December 27, 2004 - 6:22AM
A warning centre such as those used around the Pacific could have saved most of the thousands of people who died in Asia's earthquake and tsunamis, a US Geological Survey official said.
None of the countries most severely affected - including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka - had a tsunami warning mechanism or tidal gauges to alert people to the wall of water that followed a massive earthquake, said Waverly Person of the USGS National Earthquake Information Centre.
"Most of those people could have been saved if they had had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he said yesterday.
"And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said, referring to the governments of the devastated countries.
Person also said that because large tsunamis, or seismic sea waves, are extremely rare in the Indian Ocean, people were never taught to flee inland after they felt the tremors of an earthquake.
Tsunami warning systems and tide gauges exist around the Pacific Ocean, for the Pacific Rim as well as South America. The United States has such warning centres in Hawaii and Alaska operated by the US Geological Survey. But none of these monitors the Indian Ocean region.
The 8.9-magnitude underwater quake - one of the most powerful in history - off the Indonesian island of Sumatra devastated southern Asia and triggered waves of up to 10 metres high.
US seismologists said it was unlikely the Indian Ocean region would be hit any time soon by a similarly devastating tsunami because it takes an enormously strong earthquake to generate one.
"That's really what has created all of these problems - is that the earthquake is just so massive," said Dan Blakeman, a USGS earthquake analyst.
But Person said governments should instruct people living along the coast to move after a quake. Since a tsunami is generated at the source of an underwater earthquake, there is usually time - from 20 minutes to two hours - to get people away as it builds in the ocean.
"People along the Japanese coasts, along the coasts of California - people are taught to move away from the coasts. But a lot of these people in the area where this occurred - they probably had no kind of lessons or any knowledge of tsunamis because they are so rare."
A major tsunami, a Japanese word meaning "harbor wave," occurs in the Pacific Ocean about once a decade. It is generated by vertical movement during an earthquake and sometimes incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, according to the Web site of the US National Geophysical Data Centre.
Because of the lack of monitoring mechanisms, the US Geological Survey had no access to government or scientific information in the areas affected by the latest tsunamis.
"I've been talking to our tsunami people and they have no contact with any of these nations on the tsunamis," said Person. "We don't have anyone there. We get it from the press."
December 27, 2004 - 6:22AM
A warning centre such as those used around the Pacific could have saved most of the thousands of people who died in Asia's earthquake and tsunamis, a US Geological Survey official said.
None of the countries most severely affected - including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka - had a tsunami warning mechanism or tidal gauges to alert people to the wall of water that followed a massive earthquake, said Waverly Person of the USGS National Earthquake Information Centre.
"Most of those people could have been saved if they had had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he said yesterday.
"And I think this will be a lesson to them," he said, referring to the governments of the devastated countries.
Person also said that because large tsunamis, or seismic sea waves, are extremely rare in the Indian Ocean, people were never taught to flee inland after they felt the tremors of an earthquake.
Tsunami warning systems and tide gauges exist around the Pacific Ocean, for the Pacific Rim as well as South America. The United States has such warning centres in Hawaii and Alaska operated by the US Geological Survey. But none of these monitors the Indian Ocean region.
The 8.9-magnitude underwater quake - one of the most powerful in history - off the Indonesian island of Sumatra devastated southern Asia and triggered waves of up to 10 metres high.
US seismologists said it was unlikely the Indian Ocean region would be hit any time soon by a similarly devastating tsunami because it takes an enormously strong earthquake to generate one.
"That's really what has created all of these problems - is that the earthquake is just so massive," said Dan Blakeman, a USGS earthquake analyst.
But Person said governments should instruct people living along the coast to move after a quake. Since a tsunami is generated at the source of an underwater earthquake, there is usually time - from 20 minutes to two hours - to get people away as it builds in the ocean.
"People along the Japanese coasts, along the coasts of California - people are taught to move away from the coasts. But a lot of these people in the area where this occurred - they probably had no kind of lessons or any knowledge of tsunamis because they are so rare."
A major tsunami, a Japanese word meaning "harbor wave," occurs in the Pacific Ocean about once a decade. It is generated by vertical movement during an earthquake and sometimes incorrectly referred to as a tidal wave, according to the Web site of the US National Geophysical Data Centre.
Because of the lack of monitoring mechanisms, the US Geological Survey had no access to government or scientific information in the areas affected by the latest tsunamis.
"I've been talking to our tsunami people and they have no contact with any of these nations on the tsunamis," said Person. "We don't have anyone there. We get it from the press."
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/War...oneclick=true#
12-26-04 | 08:36 PM
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Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez
Those pics look fake...that guy would be getting thousands from the papers for those shots instead of posting them on p-base
12-26-04 | 10:00 PM
#38
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(CNN) -- A celebrity interior decorator vacationing in Sri Lanka said Monday that all he could see was "utter devastation" in the wake of a deadly tsunami that slammed the island.
"We were completely devastated yesterday morning," Nate Berkus told CNN. "There was absolutely no warning."
Berkus, a regular contributor to "The Oprah Winfrey Show," said he and a friend were sleeping in a beachfront cottage at Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's eastern coast when he heard a loud noise and the roof was ripped off.
Berkus, 33, said they were swept into the sea along with debris, animals and other people.
The two grabbed a telephone pole, he said, but lost their grips when a second large wave hit. Berkus told CNN that he climbed onto the roof of a home; his friend was missing.
Berkus said he and about 50 other survivors -- tourists and locals -- spent the rest of the night in a field, but were without water and food. Many of the group were injured, including a pregnant woman who had broken ribs, he said.
Members of the Sri Lankan army had taken a few of the injured away in helicopters, he said, and told the rest of the group that other helicopters would arrive at sunrise.
"It's just been utter devastation. Bodies everywhere," Berkus said. "I'm very scraped up, but luckily I'm OK ... against that kind of force of nature, there was nothing any of us could do."
Berkus said that lost everything he had with him.
"I'm sitting here with nothing -- no passport, no money, no anything, in shorts that somebody gave me ... the bottom line is, we desperately need help here."
Berkus is the founder of Nate Berkus Associates in Chicago, Illinois. He has made at least 20 appearances on "Oprah.
Crazy what mother nature can do.
"We were completely devastated yesterday morning," Nate Berkus told CNN. "There was absolutely no warning."
Berkus, a regular contributor to "The Oprah Winfrey Show," said he and a friend were sleeping in a beachfront cottage at Arugam Bay on Sri Lanka's eastern coast when he heard a loud noise and the roof was ripped off.
Berkus, 33, said they were swept into the sea along with debris, animals and other people.
The two grabbed a telephone pole, he said, but lost their grips when a second large wave hit. Berkus told CNN that he climbed onto the roof of a home; his friend was missing.
Berkus said he and about 50 other survivors -- tourists and locals -- spent the rest of the night in a field, but were without water and food. Many of the group were injured, including a pregnant woman who had broken ribs, he said.
Members of the Sri Lankan army had taken a few of the injured away in helicopters, he said, and told the rest of the group that other helicopters would arrive at sunrise.
"It's just been utter devastation. Bodies everywhere," Berkus said. "I'm very scraped up, but luckily I'm OK ... against that kind of force of nature, there was nothing any of us could do."
Berkus said that lost everything he had with him.
"I'm sitting here with nothing -- no passport, no money, no anything, in shorts that somebody gave me ... the bottom line is, we desperately need help here."
Berkus is the founder of Nate Berkus Associates in Chicago, Illinois. He has made at least 20 appearances on "Oprah.
Crazy what mother nature can do.
12-26-04 | 10:34 PM
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From: The Last Frontier
Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez
Those pics look fake...that guy would be getting thousands from the papers for those shots instead of posting them on p-base
Brianr
12-26-04 | 11:01 PM
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From: Region 1
Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez
Those pics look fake...that guy would be getting thousands from the papers for those shots instead of posting them on p-base
12-26-04 | 11:06 PM
#41
Originally Posted by Tommy Ceez
Those pics look fake...that guy would be getting thousands from the papers for those shots instead of posting them on p-base
12-27-04 | 12:12 AM
#42
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The death toll is up to 13,340 (per Yahoo).
And I know it's wrong, but the song "Surfing USA" keeps going through my head as I think about the tsunami with it's 20 foot waves.
And I know it's wrong, but the song "Surfing USA" keeps going through my head as I think about the tsunami with it's 20 foot waves.
12-27-04 | 12:15 AM
#44
I never thought of the term "Involuntary Surfing", until now. Everybody's surfing now...in one way or another. 
12-27-04 | 03:05 AM
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From: Hong Kong
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp..._afp/asiaquake
....the death toll is now over 17,000. And it's still increasing.
....the death toll is now over 17,000. And it's still increasing.
12-27-04 | 04:17 AM
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I heard 2 things that blew me away and I wonder if anyone else has heard this or confirmed this.
1. Sumatra was literally moved 100 feet south of it's pre-quake position.
2. The quake was so large that when it hit, the Earth's gravitation was affected.
1. Sumatra was literally moved 100 feet south of it's pre-quake position.
2. The quake was so large that when it hit, the Earth's gravitation was affected.
12-27-04 | 04:25 AM
#49
#2 is definitely not good.