Thousands Killed by Indian Ocean Tidal Waves

keu · 28-12-2004 06:49PM

strange comming into after hours and finding people who actually care, gives me some faith in humanity again.
My sympathies to all who have suffered, and my thanks to all those decent enough to care (and those who can donate to help out.)
There is some good left in the world.

Chong · 28-12-2004 07:21PM

First and foremost my deepest sympathies to all the families whom of which have lost loved ones, homes, jobs and their lives. Its still hard to come to terms with the rising death toll. Heineken and Hefner should be ashamed of their comments, no matter what age they maybe surely they can realise, that whether the people whom have lost their lives in this tragic disaster are irish, british, white, black or asian a serious amount of ppl have lost their lives.

May all the dead rest in peace.

joe. · 28-12-2004 07:38PM

59,000 now. crazy crazy crazy

CathyMoran · 28-12-2004 07:55PM

It just does not make any sense - a total tragedy. Watching the news is making me cry - so many people killed and hurt and it could have been lower if they had had an early warning system...

A Dub in Glasgo · 28-12-2004 08:00PM

Poor part of the world therefore they have no money to spend on advance warning systems for something that is unlikely to happen. Now that it has happened, a lot of people are asking the question why they did not have the systems.

CathyMoran · 28-12-2004 08:03PM

I see your point - but surely something could have been done to alert people - some of the damage happened hours after the initial event...clutching at straws here...

Ms Beanbag · 28-12-2004 08:07PM

Were there any Irish caught up in it?

you'd think there would have been some sort of systems installed in those countries, considering earthquakes and tidal waves would be more likely to happen out there...

A Dub in Glasgo · 28-12-2004 08:09PM

You are correct, if the organisational abilities of the governments involved were prepared for this disaster, more people could have been warned and cleared from the coast lines. Unfortunately, the it appears that a combination of the unpreparedness and the Christmas holiday period conspired against that.

is_that_so · 28-12-2004 08:10PM

No doubt we'll find out soon enough. The intrepid Charlie Bird has been dispatched to Sri Lanka.

is_that_so · 28-12-2004 08:17PM

CathyMoran wrote:

I see your point - but surely something could have been done to alert people - some of the damage happened hours after the initial event...clutching at straws here...

With the exception of the Japanese , who can afford it, no other country has any type of monitoring equipment that could have warned them However a tsunami can also be caused by an earthquake which is very hard to detect ie 5 or less on Richter scale.

Anyway lots of opinions here on it.

Capt'n Midnight · 28-12-2004 08:20PM

mike65 wrote:

I woud'nt worry, the various tectonic plates move against or from each other at different rates with different pressure. The Atlantic plates are slow moving as they move apart with only minor stress points like Iceland and the Azores.

Mike.

Earthquake Tsunami is unlikley in the Atlantic , though there is Iceland, and lets not forget that Lisbon got hit by a tsunami in 1755, more likely is a lateral collapse of a volcano in the canaries or azores which could even lead to a megatsunami -

http://www.benfieldhrc.org/CentreNews/press%20releases/tsunami_more%20info.htm

for example, 123 000 year old deposits in the Bahamas that we have proposed to have been produced by tsunamis from the El Golfo I collapse in the Canaries, which is of the same age, include boulders weighing up to 2000 tons that were displaced up to 20 metres above sea level and at least half a kilometre inland....
The upshot of the model is that it predicts that between 6 and 9 hours after the collapse of the Cumbre Vieja, tsunami waves with amplitudes of around 50 metres will strike the entire western seaboard of the Atlantic: these values are consistent with the size of the giant boulders and other deposits in the Bahamas, lending support to the model

Another consequense could be that insurance companies would use this as a reason/excuse to jack up insurance premiums.

Real tragedy is that last year they decided not to implement a warning system, (there was a tsunami in New Guinea 9 Sept 2002) but I still can't understand how little / no warning was given to areas hit HOURS after the first disasters. OK they didn't have bouys monitoring waves far out to sea but an 8.9/9 earthquake out to sea invariably causes tsunami. Radio / TV could have done it - or for us first worlders a broadcast on the mobile phone network.

Has it done anything to the Antartic ice cap ?

D!ve^Bomb! · 28-12-2004 08:26PM

apparently, 20mins before the tsunami hit, the tides went out slightly, which is a sign of a tsunami coming... if someone had of noticed those 20 mins could have saved a hell of a lot of lives!!!

A Dub in Glasgo · 28-12-2004 08:28PM

That effect was shown in the film Deep Impact

is_that_so · 28-12-2004 08:31PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

Another consequense could be that insurance companies would use this as a reason/excuse to jack up insurance premiums.

Judging by the types of people killed it is fairly unlikely that there was much involvement of insurance companies, and they might find it morally difficult to justify something like that.

mike65 · 28-12-2004 08:31PM

Capt'n Midnight wrote:

more likely is a lateral collapse of a volcano in the canaries or azores which could even lead to a megatsunami -

http://www.benfieldhrc.org/CentreNews/press%20releases/tsunami_more%20info.htm

Real tragedy is that last year they decided not to implement a warning system, (there was a tsunami in New Guinea 9 Sept 2002) but I still can't understand how little / no warning was given to areas hit HOURS after the first disasters. OK they didn't have bouys monitoring waves far out to sea but an 8.9/9 earthquake out to sea invariably causes tsunami. Radio / TV could have done it - or for us first worlders a broadcast on the mobile phone network.

I was thinking about the Canaries collapse concept which was the subject of documentary a few years back. On the warning, I wrote a letter on this to Pat Kennys radio prog (dunno if he read it out). I suggested that all was required was for the US Geological Survey to phone the Red Cross who have credibility and offices in every country who could warn the local emergency services in India/Sri Lanka etc. Far fewer would have died as they would have had 2-2.5 hours to get clear of the coastal zone.

Mike.

is_that_so · 28-12-2004 08:34PM

This is a Tsunami Website with links

elivsvonchiaing · 29-12-2004 12:07AM

is_that_so wrote:

This is a Tsunami Website with links

Having looked at this it strikes me tsunami warning systems are only in place in the pacific - probably funded by Japan, Oz and the US. After this billions in damages - surely the affected countries will get together to implement a warning system that will cost mere millions!

Think it does take tragedy to prevent further tragedy tbh!

While Hugh Heffner's post was objectionable - I still think we would be a lot better off if a small comet nucleus landed on/exploded over a city of some magnitude somewhere - to get a real early warning system in place for this sort of thing - and of course development of the technology to protect ourselves!

I know this sounds callous - but if 100,000 people have to die - it is better than 6 billion.

If the Tsungusta even took place just 2:45 later Moscow would have been taken out :eek: (ie. the comet trajectory was out just by this amount of time to hit Moscow)

Capt'n Midnight · 29-12-2004 12:44AM

Warning systems are expensive, and Tsunami's are rare. On the news it said that one of the main costs was training people in evacuation etc. Training is not expensive in an area where labour costs are low by our standards, some of the regiemes in the area are not as democratic as ours, and almost all villages have TV these days. In fairness given the frequent natural disasters in the area, Tsunamis probably wern't at the top of anyones list. But they cross oceans and destroy vast areas of coastline, the "suction" when the waters recede being more dangerous than the initial flooding.

The surge was up to 10m in many areas - this is the first contour on the Discovery series of maps - and that contour was measured at super extra low tide - so the second contour might be more appropiate.

On average several hundred people die from Tsunamis in Indonisea each year ( krakotoa , tambora - and the recent New Guniea ones) but the epicentre is close so not so sure how good a warning would be

At present there are satellites used to detect submarines by a few cm displacement in the ocean level - surely these could detect them as part of a global system.

elivsvonchiaing · 29-12-2004 01:19AM

Milk of human kindess + US military is like milk and orange-juice! We need to hunt down the manufacturers of that drink to resolve this :rolleyes:

positron · 29-12-2004 05:19PM

Nearly 70,000 and they are still counting bodies washed ashore from the sea! The death toll could rise above 100,000 at this rate! Very sad indeed, and reminds us to take nothing for granted - not the nature and same with own family - we need to work to keep it all going as they are, always!

JackKelly · 29-12-2004 05:19PM

US to give 30m is it?

$30m is great and all, but it seems a bit low for the richest country in the world no?

Consider that the population of America is 294m. Even if only 200m of those are accounted for, a dollar each would give 200m worth of aid. And i cant imagine too many people crying over a dollar.

A Dub in Glasgo · 29-12-2004 05:21PM

I only hope that is their initial response. When you put it against the money the world spends on killing people, it is a tiny amount.

positron · 29-12-2004 05:23PM

I think the U.S. will donate $35 million to the region.

$35000000 - amount committed to help victims
100000 - prossible death toll
= $350 - spent to aid each victim

$147000000,000 - spent [costofwar.com] on war in Iraq
17000 - rough number of Iraqis killed
= $8,647,058 - spent to kill each Iraqi

Well, I am not complaining, even $350 goes a long way in South East Asia and some help is better than no help indeed!

Hobbes · 29-12-2004 05:38PM

newband wrote:

apparently, 20mins before the tsunami hit, the tides went out slightly, which is a sign of a tsunami coming... if someone had of noticed those 20 mins could have saved a hell of a lot of lives!!!

There is rumour that the Thai government knew long before 20 minutes.

http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=519
http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=518

D!ve^Bomb! · 29-12-2004 05:40PM

another thing... when the tides went out(apporx 100yards).. all the children ran out to collect seashells:(

joe. · 29-12-2004 06:05PM

More than 75,000 people have now been confirmed dead across south east Asia following Sunday's tidal wave disaster.

sky news

also the money doesn't matter much at the moment. what they need is water and tents and such. usa and uk have said there is more money available when needed. you don't just throw money at them and think thats okay. going to be years rebuilding

seamus · 29-12-2004 06:07PM

bmarley wrote:

More than 75,000 people have now been confirmed dead across south east Asia following Sunday's tidal wave disaster.

sky news

also the money doesn't matter much at the moment. what they need is water and tents and such. usa and uk have said there is more money available when needed. you don't just throw money at them and think thats okay. going to be years rebuilding

Water, food and shelter costs money. When places say they are providing X amount in relief, it's usually a measure of the cost of providing basic needs to the victims.

D!ve^Bomb! · 29-12-2004 06:20PM

i heard on the radio, although i don't know how they could know this for sure.. but apparently the force of the quake moved the earth off of its axis by a couple of inches... and also forced the earth to spin a little faster hence making the day shorter :eek:

alleepally · 29-12-2004 06:20PM

Amazon are taking donations too. This is useful if you have any vouchers or anything in your Amazon account this Christmas...

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/my-pay-page/PX3BEL97U9A4I/104-2867334-2853546

joe. · 29-12-2004 06:27PM

newband wrote:

i heard on the radio, although i don't know how they could know this for sure.. but apparently the force of the quake moved the earth off of its axis by a couple of inches... and also forced the earth to spin a little faster hence making the day shorter :eek:

http://science.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/12/29/1332232

Thousands Killed by Indian Ocean Tidal Waves

Comments