From National Geographic, one of my favourite reading sources on science & discoveries. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2004/12/1228_041228_tsunami.html <Excerpt> Warning Signs • An earthquake is a natural tsunami warning. If you feel a strong quake do not stay in a place where you are exposed to a tsunami. If you hear of an earthquake be aware of the possibility of a tsunami and listen to the radio or television for additional information. Remember that an earthquake can trigger killer waves thousands of miles across the ocean many hours after the event generated a tsunami. • Witnesses have reported that an approaching tsunami is sometimes preceded by a noticeable fall or rise in the water level. If you see the ocean receding unusually rapidly or far it's a good sign that a big wave is on its way. Go to high ground immediately. Many people were killed by the Indian Ocean tsunami because they went down to the beach to view the retreating ocean exposing the seafloor. Apparently they were unaware that this phenomenon precedes a killer wave. Experts believe that a receding ocean may give people as much as five minutes' warning to evacuate the area. • Because tsunamis can approach the shore as fast as 100 miles per hour (160 kilometers per hour) it is often too late to get away if you see one. An approaching tsunami is not something to be admired unless you are safely on high ground. • Remember that a tsunami is a series of waves and that the first wave may not be the most dangerous. The danger from a tsunami can last for several hours after the arrival of the first wave. A tsunami wave train may come as a series of surges that are five minutes to an hour apart. The cycle may be marked by a repeated retreat and advance of the ocean. Stay out of danger until you hear it is safe. Survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami reported that the sea surged out as fast and as powerfully as it came ashore. Many people were seen being swept out to sea when the ocean retreated. • A tsunami surge may be small at one point of the shore and large at another point a short distance away. Do not assume that because there is minimal sign of a tsunami in one place it will be like that everywhere else. • Tsunamis can travel up rivers and streams that lead to the ocean. Stay away from rivers and streams that lead to the ocean as you would stay away from the beach and ocean if there is a tsunami. • It's always a good idea to keep a store of emergency supplies that include sufficient medications, water, and other essentials sufficient for at least 72 hours. Tsunami, earthquake, hurricane—an emergency can develop with little or no warning. Advice for Sailors • NOAA advises that since tsunami wave activity is imperceptible in the open ocean, vessels should not return to port if they are at sea and a tsunami warning has been issued for the area. Tsunamis can cause rapid changes in water level and unpredictable, dangerous currents in harbors and ports. Boat owners may want to take their vessels out to sea if there is time and they are allowed to do so by port authorities. People should not stay on their boats moored in harbors. Tsunamis often destroy boats and leave them wrecked above the normal waterline. • Heightened awareness of the potential for a tsunami to inundate the U.S. western coastline has caused NOAA, the U.S. Geological Survey, and the Federal Emergency Management Administration to initiate a program to predict tsunamis more accurately. As a tsunami traverses the ocean, a network of sensitive recorders on the sea floor measures pressure changes in the overhead water, sending the information to sensors on buoys, which, in turn, relay the data to satellites for immediate transmission to warning centers. • The Tsunami Warning System (TWS) in the Pacific, comprised of 26 member countries, monitors seismological and tidal stations throughout the Pacific region. The system evaluates potentially tsunamigenic earthquakes and issues tsunami warnings. There is no international warning system for tsunamis in the Indian Ocean. • Use your common sense. If you feel or hear of a strong earthquake do not wait for an official tsunami warning. Tell your family and friends to join you in leaving for high ground. </Excerpt>
For those in Canada wishing to donate... ...the following organizations are accepting donations to help: HELPING TSUNAMI VICTIMS: The following non-profit organizations are among those collecting donations to help survivors of the Dec. 26 tsunami: Canadian Red Cross 1-800-418-1111 (or donate through your local Red Cross office) UNICEF Canada 1-800-567-4483 UNICEF Canada 2200 Yonge St., Suite 1100 Toronto, Ont. M4S 2C6 Oxfam Canada 1-800-466-9326 Asian Earthquake/Floods Relief, Oxfam Canada 200-215 Spadina Avenue Toronto, Ont. M5T 2C7 World Vision Canada 1-800-268-5528 CARE Canada 1-800-267-5232 Mennonite Central Committee 1-888-622-6337 Canadian Tamil Congress 416-751-8777 Canadian Relief Organization for Peace in Sri Lanka 416-429-2822
I just found out today my regular badminton partner went to Phuket on Christmas day. We've been playing tournaments together for about 8 years. Can't get hold of him...... He could be one of those.....
let's hope he will be ok. it is quite sad, as this is the very peak season for going to SE Asia, being the winter in many countries and also xmas holidays. most hotels and flights are full of people. a friend of my mom's was in Phuket and their son and wife were hit by the waves, luckily, they were saved by grabbing onto a big boulder.
One of my colleaque was suppose to be at Phuket this Christmas. He made a change because the ticket is half the price in mid January. That turn out to be life saving move.
I felt very sorry about that. We made a lot of calls these few days just to make sure friends and relatives are still connected. My personal opinion is: since the wave is gone for a while, we should try our very best to help those get affected...these few days, i just kept on asking ppl to donate... sorry. let pray for them.
True... no word could describe this... Death toll in Indonesia alone has reached 32.000 and is expected to rise significantly. Some hardest-hit area in western coast of Aceh still unaccesible so victims of those area still unacounted for. One of my dear cousin is still missing in Banda Aceh.... Very sad
My friend turned up safe. Haven't got the full details - they only lost a camera which is a heck of lot luckier than a *lot* of people. He was wondering why the tide suddenly went down so far - was going to go down to investigate (had a slight delay), and then the water came in. That delay probably saved him. Let's hope relief efforts help. Clean water is a big problem. No clean water=no health.
So sad to hear that .. =/ But don't give up there is always a chance, i wish he is ok maybe he's there for help all people who need it .. i hope
my friend said she will be donating 1 cent for every death, so far its at 71,000 deaths. Whats really scary is the possible disease wide-spread. If that happens, many more thousands will die.
"quake movement shifted islands"! "Quake may have made earth wobble"! "Permanently accelerated the earth's rotation"! check these links out http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7194479 http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=scienceNews&storyID=7195443 jug
BBC said to day that the death toll will catch 100.000 :crying: Death toll in Indonesia alone has reached 50.000 and is expected to rise significantly. I follow the news especially about Indonesia (I am an Indonesian), it seems that the gouverment was very late to act. The army/soldier and the help arrived in day 2 after the after the quake/tsunami. Just about the same time when the Belgian's Artsen Zonder Grenzen (Doctors without Boders) arrived. That's unbelievable. According to BBC and CNN news, many help go to Thailand. I wonder why ? Is it because 80 of the victims in Thailand is Wester ? If we look to the amount of victim, Indonesia and Sri Langka have the most. So..... it must be get more help ! All the victims are the poor who live in the remote areas (especially Pukhet). That's why the death toll will be increasing to more than 100.000. Netherlands has done a live-collection on TV to collect donation for the victims. To night Belgian's TV does also the same live-collection. The victims are in my prayer.
Latest Possible loss of life in Banda Acheh alone : 400,000. Area estimated to have around 400,000 inhibitants and surveying choppers and equipments are hardly picking up signs of life. YNWA.
tsunami >> Day After Tomorrow?? interesting.. http://www.nydailynews.com/news/local/story/266027p-227868c.html 'Day After Tomorrow' scenario could play out here It could happen here. A British researcher insists that it's only a matter of time before a killer tsunami like the one that swamped south Asia hits New York and the East Coast. The stage was set for the mega-disaster in 1971, when an eruption loosened a 12-mile-wide chunk of the Cumbre Vieja volcano on the Canary Islands. If and when the 500 billion tons of barely hanging rock finally barrels into the Atlantic, it could make the disaster flick "The Day After Tomorrow," look like a joke, experts say. Prof. Bill McGuire, of the Benfield Hazard Research Center at University College in London, said the largest tidal wave ever would race across the Atlantic at up to 600 mph and hit New York as well as shorelines from the Caribbean to Boston. Towering waves of up to 75 feet would engulf the city, traveling miles inland, destroying everything in their path, he told the Daily News in August. And it's not just McGuire issuing the doomsday warning. "If you peel off a side of a volcano and let it slide into the deep ocean, yes, it's going to generate a tidal wave. And from that location it will travel to the U.S.," John Mutter, a seismologist at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, agreed. It would take the wave eight to 10 hours to race across the Atlantic after the massive volcano hits lands in the ocean. "It would be extremely difficult to evacuate all those people in time," McGuire said.
scientists can identify numerous disastrous scenarios and all will happen given time but it is tomorrow, next year, decade, century or more? Our meager life is a speck in the scale of geological time. Will real estate price in NY, florida, san francisco, seattle go down because of the above article? I doubt it. Back to reality, ocean front properties are still the most expensive. Stop worrying and play more badminton Nature do what nature does.
update December 30: Death toll from the Indian Ocean tsunami, according to government and health officials Bangladesh 2 East Africa 136* India 13,230** Indonesia 79,940 Malaysia 64 Maldives 67 Burma 36 Sri Lanka 24,297 Thailand 2,400 Total 126,681 * The tsunami killed people as far away as east Africa. This figure includes Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia and Tanzania. ** Indian government says 7,368 confirmed dead and 5,900 missing and presumed dead.
Read in local papers that up to 1000 Swedes/Norway are missing in an island in Thailand. Jet Li managed to escape as he was in his hotel at that time.
