From here...




Tidal Waves Kill More Than 3,800 in Asia

World - AP Asia


By LELY T. DJUHARI, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,800 people in six countries.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.


In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 2,150 people were killed, the prime minister's office said. Indian officials said as many as 1,130 died along the southern coast. At least 408 died on Sumatra from floods and collapsing buildings. Another 168 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 28 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.


But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.

Jeez... sitting here in my landlocked home, this kind of thing is really hard to fathom.
Nature is sucky sometimes.

Reuters is now reporting over 6300 as of 1340 GMT.
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ts_nm/quake_dc

Wow. One of the unfortunate things of living in those areas, is that you're on sea level. Great places but if nature decides to shake irregularly, well, you got problems.

I'm worried. My favorite Indian girls on this "webcam site" are in Thailand.

I'm really worried. It's the Christmas holidays, and I have friends who went on vacations to Phuket and India. I hope they're OK.

Yahoo now reporting "more than 7000 dead"

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...sia_earthquake


God help those people.

Much worse than living at sea level is being poor. Wealthier is healthier.

(Not trying to be callous here. Just the truth. Give any people freedom and they will make themselves wealthier.)

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.

First the 8.5 quake then the tidal wave... I know a couple of people down there and hope they're ok.

And that has to do with the conversation how?

By the way he said "Wealthier is healthier" meaning the people with the money will probably get a doctor and help faster than people without. Jeeze like to argue for no reason?

Fox News is saying over 9000 dead now. Holy shit, marry freaking christmas!

I wish there was some video of the Tsunami wave event. A tremendous act of mother nature. Sad that so many people died, but scientifically, amazing.

I'm not sure how this relates. Los Angeles is wealthy and on the ring of fire. If it were hit with a tsunami during a summer holiday weekend, how would things have been better?

I'd also argue that the existence of a beachfront resort suggests capitalism and a substantial amount of wealth.

Thank god - my friends vacationing in India just contacted me back, and they're fine. But they are in the affected state of Kerala, where at least 121 people have been killed. It's chaos right now over there, but I'm very glad they're OK.

*EDIT* the death toll in Kerala is now over 300. yikes.

Total death toll from the tsunami as of right now: 11,300

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...ts_nm/quake_dc

This is awful...

Here's a map of it:

People as far away as east africa have been killed by tsunamis.

Holy shit, how the hell did the waves get that big?

Dude. 8.9 quake.

That's huge.

It's amazing there's been nothing on the hawaiian or california coast.

You know, it's funny. The article mentions the rarity of magnitude 8 and over quakes, and then goes on to mention the 8+ magnitude between australia and antarctica two days ago, the 8.5 in Japan a year ago, and the over 8 a year before that somewhere in that general vicinity.

That doesn't seem all that rare to me.

For the record, I believe Chile had the world's largest quake early in the 20th century. It measured around a 9.5 or greater. I will dig up the link.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/ussjal/

8.1 off the coast of new zealand two days ago.

List of largest quakes in history http://earthquake.usgs.gov/docs/sign_eqs.htm

Chile registered as 9.5 in the 1950s. I was a little off.

List of aftershocks including yesterday's sumatran quake:
6.3 2004/12/26 11:05:01 13.542 92.877 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 6.2 2004/12/26 10:19:30 13.455 92.791 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.5 2004/12/26 10:18:13 8.950 93.730 10.0 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION

MAP 6.5 2004/12/26 09:20:01 8.867 92.382 10.0 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.8 2004/12/26 07:38:25 13.119 93.051 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.7 2004/12/26 07:07:10 10.336 93.756 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.7 2004/12/26 06:21:58 10.623 92.323 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION

MAP 7.3 2004/12/26 04:21:26 6.901 92.952 10.0 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
6.1 2004/12/26 03:08:42 13.808 92.974 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.9 2004/12/26 02:59:12 3.177 94.259 10.0 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
MAP 6.0 2004/12/26 02:51:59 12.511 92.592 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.8 2004/12/26 02:36:06 12.139 93.011 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.8 2004/12/26 02:34:50 4.104 94.184 10.0 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
MAP 6.0 2004/12/26 02:22:02 8.838 92.532 10.0 NICOBAR ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.8 2004/12/26 02:15:58 12.375 92.509 10.0 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION
MAP 5.9 2004/12/26 01:48:47 5.393 94.423 10.0 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA
MAP 8.9 2004/12/26 00:58:51 3.298 95.779 10.0 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA

Reuters is now reporting almost 10,000 killed. Jeez.

edit: Just saw the 11,300....double Jeez

Wow. My sister is in India right now, but I know she is just fine as they are on the Western side of the country.

11,000 though. Holy shit.