9.0 Earthquake and Consequent Tsunamis hit Asia hard

Discussion Open Forum
61

[quote=“lane119”][quote=“iris”]I had a peek into Singaporean and Taiwanese newspapers on the plane yesterday, and guess what their headlines were:

Head counts of possibly affected Singaporeans/Taiwanese

Same on German news, of course :frowning:[/quote][/quote]

It’s the same in every country, Iris. Japan, Israel, France, Sweden. The global village quickly divides when death strikes. Human nature, I guess. Count your own first.

By the way, CNN is now reporting that in Thailand, more than 700 foreign tourists are believed to be among the total of 990 dead.

“The latest figure we have is more than 990 confirmed deaths. Of these some 200 were Thais and the rest were foreigners,” an official said.

Re the future of tsunami warnings in south Asia and Australia and Taiwan, the momentum is building post 12/26

Australia says it will work to create a regional tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.

“I know it looks a bit like closing the door after the horse has bolted but there will be tsunamis again in the future,” Mr Downer said. “we will create one now.”

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Updated list of dead in Thailand:

vachiraphuket.go.th/26122547/listall.html

63

Scientists in USA saw tsunami coming
By Dan Vergano, USA TODAY

[quote]Minutes after a massive earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean on Sunday, international ocean monitors knew that a tsunami would likely follow. But they didn’t know whom to tell.
“We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it,” says Jeff LaDouce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. LaDouce says e-mails were dispatched to Indonesian officials, but he doesn’t know what happened to the information.

The problem is that Sunday’s earthquake struck the unmonitored Indian Ocean. An international system of buoys and monitoring stations

64

Sad how some Taiwanese would have business interests at a tyme like dis:
taipeitimes.com/News/biz/arc … 2003217068

[quote]
Indonesian assets safe from waves
TSUNAMI DAMAGE: Most Taiwanese businesses in the country are located far from areas affected by the tsunamis, and were not damaged in the calamity
By Lisa Wang
STAFF REPORTER
Tuesday, Dec 28, 2004,Page 10

Advertising Advertising
Taiwanese companies with factories in Indonesia said yesterday that no serious damage resulted from the Sunday earthquake and tsunamis that caused over 23,000 deaths in southeastern Asia.

“The strong Indonesian earthquake only caused very minor damage to Taiwanese companies with branches there, as local businessmen have few business activities in the affected areas,” the government said yesterday in a statement released after an initial survey.

…
[/quote]it continues on for several more paragraphs

but what they don’t understand is the human cost. If your family member just died from a devastating earthquake or tsunami chances are U will call in sick and go to their funeral or help your family rebuild, not show up at the factory floor and pumpout more running shoes… ppl won’t wanna work, they will grieve for lost love onez…

65

After having a look at hundreds of Monday’s front pages from all around the world at the Newseum I can tell you that the overwhelming majority of papers was NOT showing pictures of westerners.

[quote=“OutofChaos”][quote]Minutes after a massive earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean on Sunday, international ocean monitors knew that a tsunami would likely follow. But they didn’t know whom to tell.
“We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it,” says Jeff LaDouce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. LaDouce says e-mails were dispatched to Indonesian officials, but he doesn’t know what happened to the information. [/quote][/quote]

What does “putting out a bulletin” mean? To whom did they send his bulletin?

66

[quote=“hypermegaglobal”]

[quote=“OutofChaos”][quote]Minutes after a massive earthquake rocked the Indian Ocean on Sunday, international ocean monitors knew that a tsunami would likely follow. But they didn’t know whom to tell.
“We put out a bulletin within 20 minutes, technically as fast as we could do it,” says Jeff LaDouce of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. LaDouce says e-mails were dispatched to Indonesian officials, but he doesn’t know what happened to the information. [/quote][/quote]

What does “putting out a bulletin” mean? To whom did they send his bulletin?[/quote]

[quote]NOAA REACTS QUICKLY TO INDONESIAN TSUNAMI
NOAA scientists acted quickly when a warning was issued about the powerful undersea earthquake in the Indian Ocean that triggered a devastating tsunami. Within minutes following an alarm signaling the strong earthquake, the NOAA Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued an information bulletin at 8:14 p.m. EST Saturday, indicating that a magnitude 8.0 earthquake (later upgraded to magnitude 9.0) had occurred off the west coast of Northern Sumatra, Indonesia. Because the earthquake, reported to be one of the strongest in the world in the past 40 years, occurred in the Indian Ocean, not the Pacific, there was no threat of a tsunami to Hawaii, the West Coast of North America or to other coasts in the Pacific Basin

67

NOAA responded quickly - in building a model.

http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories2004/s2357.htm

The warning center = http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/

Please note regarding the warning center:

68

You watch CNN Anywhere? And you expect anything more? Nope, the international news services are chock-full of reports from all over, even from Somalia and Tanzania, where people also died from the same tsunami.
The tourist story does have news value, though, especially in countries outside Asia. In Asia itself, one would reasonably expect that the focus would be on the local tragedy, with the tourist issue meriting a mention.
But you’re not going to get balanced news reporting from CNN Anywhere. Rather watch the news sites on the internet.

69

[quote=“lane119”]HISTORICAL FOOTNOTE: READ last sentence below, SLOOOOWLYYY!

On Sunday, the Tsunami Warning system in Hawaii said this… at first:

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0059Z 26 DEC 2004
COORDINATES - 3.4 NORTH 95.7 EAST
LOCATION - OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATERA
MAGNITUDE - 8.0

EVALUATION

THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC.

NO DESTRUCTIVE TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
DATA.[/quote]

Reading the complete text of the warning, and seeing who it’s addressed to, makes the phrase “No destructive tsunami threat exists…” much more understandable. (see below).

The monitors in the Pacific knew something big was coming, but had no official channels to report to in the Indian Ocean, nor were there any plans in place to take advantage of the warning if it had been disseminated.

Must make the Pacific monitors feel kinda neutered to know what’s about to happen and yet be powerless to do anything of value with the knowledge.

[quote]TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 001
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 0114Z 26 DEC 2004

THIS BULLETIN IS FOR ALL AREAS OF THE PACIFIC BASIN EXCEPT
ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

… TSUNAMI INFORMATION BULLETIN …

THIS MESSAGE IS FOR INFORMATION ONLY. THERE IS NO TSUNAMI WARNING
OR WATCH IN EFFECT.

AN EARTHQUAKE HAS OCCURRED WITH THESE PRELIMINARY PARAMETERS

ORIGIN TIME - 0059Z 26 DEC 2004
COORDINATES - 3.4 NORTH 95.7 EAST
LOCATION - OFF W COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATERA
MAGNITUDE - 8.0

EVALUATION

THIS EARTHQUAKE IS LOCATED OUTSIDE THE PACIFIC. NO DESTRUCTIVE
TSUNAMI THREAT EXISTS BASED ON HISTORICAL EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI
DATA.

THIS WILL BE THE ONLY BULLETIN ISSUED FOR THIS EVENT UNLESS
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION BECOMES AVAILABLE.

THE WEST COAST/ALASKA TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER WILL ISSUE BULLETINS
FOR ALASKA - BRITISH COLUMBIA - WASHINGTON - OREGON - CALIFORNIA.

[/quote]

OOC

70

Watching the news tonight. 2/3 of Maldives is submerged and it may remain that way, according to what I’m hearing.

Maldives was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to and it really upsets me that I may not be able to visit the island I resorted on ever again.

Unbelievable. :frowning:

71

And right after the report on the tsunami devastation, businesses in KenDing are offering discounts to lure tourists there.

“$1788 gets you a big feast! Come play at KenDing since you obviously can’t in Phuket!”

That left a bad taste in my mouth. But I thought, there are always people who take advantage of tragedies. But on the other hand, I thought it was very bad judgement on the TV stations to report the KenDing discounts. But then again, this is Taiwan news. There’s no such thing as good news programming in Taiwan, I feel.

72

Does anybody know a disaster relief organisation which is taking donations via Paypal? I’ve got some money in my Paypal account which I can’t withdraw to my local bank account (in Luxembourg) so I’d gladly give it away (sure, I’m going to donate anyway).

73

CNN has a list of agencies seeking aid, with links to their sites. Not sure which take Paypal, but I can at least confirm Doctors Without Borders has a secure credit card donation method.

Link to CNN page:

cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/1 … index.html

74

Heard on the radio this morning that the Taiwan Red Cross are also acceprting donations, they can be contacted on 23638232 i think the number was.

75

I wonder if it might not be a better idea to donate to large intl agencies which already have ongoing relief operations. The CNN page lists most of the major orgs.

Unless you don’t have a credit card and need to donate in cash, I don’t see the sense in donating to a Taiwan org. The ongoing relief efforts need money fast for ongoing humanitarian relief and epidemic prevention efforts. If any Taiwan orgs respond, they may be another several days or longer in getting their ops ready for dispatch.

Of course, it’s all good - it just makes more sense to me to get the money as close to the immediate source of need as possible.

76

Nothing like a disaster to bring out the entrepreneurial zeal of the local workers

As you have probably all seen on the news, Phi Phi and Phuket beaches were devastated. Prices have doubled for lodging, and there are some very “entreprenurial” taxi drivers. A local coffin maker looked happy as a clam. A famous resort even blared out

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Post later deleted to be deleted.

78

The numbers are staggering. Indonesian officials have now revised that nation’s death toll dramatically upward to 27,000, boosting the overall toll from Sunday’s tsunamis to 56,000. I think the final tally will be 100,000 dead. Over.

In 20 minutes.

They say on Phi Phi Island, over 200 cottages and beach huts that were occupied with couples and groups staying there vanished into the sea. THE BEACH brought them there, the beach cost them their lives.

Voltaire once said “If you don’t want anything bad to happen to you, don’t even get out of bed in the morning.” I think this was Candide speaking in that book Voltaire wrote way back when. But in this case, sleeping in a beachside bungalow, ‘‘sleeping in’’ late on a comfy Sunday morning in Paradise, and look what happens. I think Voltaire needs to revise his saying now.

Maybe something like:

79

[quote=“914”]Watching the news tonight. 2/3 of Maldives is submerged and it may remain that way, according to what I’m hearing.

Maldives was one of the most beautiful places I’ve been to and it really upsets me that I may not be able to visit the island I resorted on ever again.

Unbelievable. :frowning:[/quote]

It’s not quite that bad. “Only” about 19 or so of the approximately 1,200 islands in the Maldives have been washed away, forever.

voanews.com/english/2004-12-28voa10.cfm

[quote]Maldives is made up of more than 1,200 islands off the southern coast of India. Maldivian Ambassador Mohammed Latheef says some of the islands may have been washed away forever.

"Being very small islands, they washed away very quickly. Quite a few were under water. Nineteen islands. These islands are scattered on 90,000 square kilometers

80

What is Simon Winchester getting at here?

[Like two bookends of calamity, earthquakes at Bam in Iran and off Sumatra in Indonesia have delineated a year of unusual seismic ferocity - a year, one might say, of living dangerously. Twelve months, almost to the very hour, before Sunday’s extraordinary release of stress at the India-Burma tectonic plate boundary, a similar jolt at the boundary of the Arabian and the Eurasian Plates devastated one of the most celebrated of Persian caravan cities. The televised images of Bam’s collapsed citadel and the sight of thousands of bodies being carried from the desert ruins haunted the world then just as the images of the drowned around the shores of the Bay of Bengal do today.

But that has not been the half of it. True, these two disasters were, in terms of their numbers of casualties, by far the most lethal. But in the 12 months that separated them, there have been many other ruinous and seismically ominous events, occurring in places that seem at first blush to be entirely disconnected.]

Is he saying the, gasp, end of the world is coming, or that it’s going to get worse? Simon?