Thread: Tsunami disaster.

  1. #1
    Yes, my avatar is stolen anonytmouse's Avatar
    Join Date
    Dec 2002
    Posts
    2,544

    Tsunami disaster.

    My sympathies to those in the many countries affected including India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Seychelles and Thailand. The death toll will surpass 10,000 with hundreds of thousands homeless. Water borne disease will be a major problem. People, houses, cars and buildings were destroyed and swept out to sea. It was the largest earthquake to hit the earth in forty years. The seabed along the plate boundary may have dropped ten metres (30 feet) in a matter of seconds. A tsunami early warning system covering the Indian ocean, as implemented in the Pacific, would have reduced the death toll.

    BBC News Coverage

    Red Cross Appeal (up shortly)

    My mother left her brother's resort "Khao lak Paradise Resort" in Phang-nga, Thailand just 30 minutes before the wave struck. Now everything is gone, the tourists and bungalows have been swept away. She has told me that one staff member who was there survived...he said the water started to recede and that everyone went down to the beach to look, it was like that for about 10 minutes and then there was a roar. I'm so glad my Mum is OK, my uncle who owns the resort and lives close by also left with his children before the wave hit...but some of our family friends are missing.
    Sunsanee, Melbourne, Australia
    Out on a boat all day so missed the resort I was staying in being completely destroyed. Then was just about to get into the water to dive when the tidal wave struck. If we'd been under water we'd have been wiped out. Incredible scenes of destruction as we tried to return to our beach: hundreds of people stranded on remote islands; long tail boats submerged and overturned; whole trees drifting in the water; helicopters and coast guards trying to get to the injured; and the eeriest thing was sandals and flip flops floating in the water.
    Matthew Ward, Raley Beach, Thailand
    The death toll in my state, Kerala, has risen to about 300. The most devastating one was at a church in Velankanni where more than 2000 people were in morning prayer session when the tides struck. About 300 deaths are estimated in Velankanni itself and about 500 in the state as a whole. The water is found continuously flowing towards north and has now started to rise in its level.
    Jinesh K J, Trichur, Kerala, India
    I just return from the beach area and as I write this the whole of the city is still to get over the nightmare with masses of bodies along the Govt hospitals, truly mind boggling experience and the state authorities are groping in the dark over the relief measures given to battered families alongside the coastline. The City itself would have more than a 500 people dead.
    R.N. Srinivasan, Chennai, India
    Bodies were lined up along the road running along the beach in Batu Ferringhi, Penang, Malaysia. The sirens of emergency vehicles have been wailing all afternoon. Many local people were probably enjoying a Sunday at the beach when the waves hit.
    Robert Juhl, Batu Ferringhi, Malaysia
    Last edited by anonytmouse; 12-26-2004 at 01:17 PM.

  2. #2
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2004
    Location
    California
    Posts
    3,268
    My thoughts and prayers are with those in need. This is horrible

  3. #3
    It's full of stars adrianxw's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Posts
    4,829
    This ruined my day. I wish them all the best.
    Wave upon wave of demented avengers march cheerfully out of obscurity unto the dream.

  4. #4
    Just a Member ammar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    953
    It's very sad... especially that it came right after christmas...
    We should be trying to find a way to send donations, either via the red cross or something, but we shouldn't just stand and watch.
    none...

  5. #5
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Jan 2002
    Location
    Vancouver
    Posts
    2,212
    Quote Originally Posted by ammar
    It's very sad... especially that it came right after christmas...
    We should be trying to find a way to send donations, either via the red cross or something, but we shouldn't just stand and watch.

    Do they celebrate christmas in southeast asia?

  6. #6
    Crazy Fool Perspective's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2003
    Location
    Canada
    Posts
    2,640
    my cousin is in Thailand right now, no one has heard from her yet. hopefully she's ok. tis a sad, sad ordeal.

  7. #7
    train spotter
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    near a computer
    Posts
    3,868
    Got an SMS from my sister in Thailand yesterday just saying my nephew and her were OK.
    She was luckily in Patong Beach not on Phi Phi Island taking her 'Breakfast with the Sharks' tour.

    Can not contact them now.

    Wondering if there is any point in me trying to fly there and help or if I will be able to convince her to come here (if I can get in contact).

    If I had not had problems with the latest protytype's board I would have been on Phi Phi Island yesterday........
    "Man alone suffers so excruciatingly in the world that he was compelled to invent laughter."
    Friedrich Nietzsche

    "I spent a lot of my money on booze, birds and fast cars......the rest I squandered."
    George Best

    "If you are going through hell....keep going."
    Winston Churchill

  8. #8
    Redundantly Redundant RoD's Avatar
    Join Date
    Sep 2002
    Location
    Missouri
    Posts
    6,331
    My prayers are with you all indeed.

  9. #9
    Just a Member ammar's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jun 2002
    Posts
    953
    Quote Originally Posted by Brian
    Do they celebrate christmas in southeast asia?
    In fact there are alot of christians there, especially in India and the Philipines.
    none...

  10. #10
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    > Wondering if there is any point in me trying to fly there and help

    I almost think that it would do more harm than good for someone to just go there by themselves right now. Going with an aid group would be different.

    Would there be interest in me starting a CProg Donation fund? I could set up a paypal account and whoever wanted to could put money in so we could give it to the Red Cross or whoever over there.

  11. #11
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    CNN article interviewing a survivor. This is pretty amazing stuff.
    PHUKET, Thailand (CNN) -- What do you do when you see a huge wave-wall coming at you? You run. You run as fast as you can. You think: "This is surreal."

    But you keep running ... until the water lifts you off your feet and sweeps you onwards.

    It makes no difference whether you can swim or not.

    The force carries you forward, and you become a living, breathing projectile. Grab onto something and you may live.

    Surf the wave and you have a chance. Hit something solid, and you die.

    As the Boxing Day tidal wave swept him into the Phuket resort town of Patong, Australian Les Boardman, 56, from the beach suburb of Cronulla in Sydney, reached out and grabbed a post. He hung on for dear life.

    He also reached out with one hand and grabbed another man, trying to save him, but the force of the water made him let the man go.

    Just a couple of minutes earlier, on the first full day of a holiday with his wife and anxious to hit the famed Phuket blue water, Boardman had watched the tide off Patong beach recede suddenly.

    Out it went, leaving about 200 meters (yards) of exposed sand, like a giant drawing breath. He puzzled as to what this might mean.

    Only when he saw the boats racing for shore -- boats of all sizes, motors going full bore -- did he realize what was happening. He and his wife, Dianne, turned and ran for their lives.

    They got about 20 or 30 meters, heading up the soft sand to the beach road. Then, as Dianne dived under a parked car, the water hit them.

    The moving wave-wall carried Les about 5 meters upwards, to first-floor level, where he grabbed a post.

    Through a fluke of physics, the water also lifted the car from above Dianne and tossed her up, alongside her husband.

    They were both able to scramble through a first-floor window to relative safety, where they watched as more giant waves continued to roll in for the next 90 minutes.

    "I thought I was definitely gone," he said a few hours later, after he and Dianne were lifted by helicopter to Wachira Hospital, on the other side of the island.

    "How the hell anyone survived has got me licked. The second wave carried a car right towards me, but I was able to shift to one side and watch it shoot past. The worst part was, you could see the bodies going out in the water."

    The Boardmans were staying at the upscale Holiday Inn, which takes out a section of Patong about the size of a city block and is home to hundreds during the peak holiday season.

    Early-morning swimmers in the hotel's huge pool, which is surrounded by four storys of rooms, were swept out and up as the sea poured in through every passageway and corridor.

    The Boardmans were just two of many Australians being assisted with insurance queries and cash loans by Consul Robin Hamilton, who arrived in Phuket from the Thai capital Bangkok late yesterday.

    At Wachira, he was told there were 13 confirmed dead in that hospital alone.

    In the hospital forecourt, staff were keeping a tally of the names of those admitted for treatment, listing them either in capitalized English or in Thai script.

    By evening, there were 10 huge boards packed with numbers and names, including Dianne Boardman.

    As soon as her cracked and bruised ribs are healed, the Sydney couple, like many other fortunate survivors, will be heading for home.

  12. #12
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912
    My sympathies to anybody who has family over there right now.

    Would there be interest in me starting a CProg Donation fund?
    A nice idea, but I would check on the legality of doing that. A few years ago they had a problem with lots of kids collecting money with no way to track them, and set down some new rules.

  13. #13
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    > A few years ago they had a problem with lots of kids collecting money with no way to track them, and set down some new rules.

    Can you elaborate? I don't really see how people pooling the money and me handing it over is really the same, but maybe I'm missing something.

  14. #14
    Registered User
    Join Date
    Sep 2001
    Posts
    4,912
    I'm afraid I wasn't interested enough in the news at the time to remember enough to elaborate much, but I can explain myself better. They just said that there were so many kids going around trying to collect money after some distaster, that people were starting to go door to door scamming money and keeping it for themselves, that they started some campaign with licensing to make sure people knew they were giving to a bona fide charity. I personally don't think there's anything wrong with pooling donations from C Board and then giving it to the Red Cross, but I just thought you should know that there have been problems in the past because people were collecting without licenses to do so. Further than that I can't tell you where you might be able to inquire about such collections...

  15. #15
    Mayor of Awesometown Govtcheez's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2001
    Location
    MI
    Posts
    8,823
    I'll check on it tonight. An alternative would be that people could give the money to me and I could figure out a way to legally change my name to Cprogramming.com ()

    I'm not in any way trying to stop people donating on their own, if it kinda comes off like that (and I know you didn't say or imply that at all). If you're going to donate, donate, and good for you. I just thought maybe if we got an official CP pool, we could raise a little more.

    edit: And if anyone thinks I'm going to try to scam anyone, you're free to donate on your own. I've been an active member of this board for years and am not about to jeopardize that now.

Popular pages Recent additions subscribe to a feed

Similar Threads

  1. For Loop Disaster
    By Chalmers86 in forum C Programming
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 03-22-2009, 05:20 PM
  2. Tsunami vs Wavemaster
    By jrahhali in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 4
    Last Post: 09-26-2004, 07:14 PM
  3. NTFS disaster recovery
    By -=SoKrA=- in forum Tech Board
    Replies: 20
    Last Post: 04-17-2004, 02:16 AM
  4. Class + Union + Struct = Disaster??
    By Inquirer in forum C++ Programming
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: 10-28-2002, 03:55 PM
  5. disaster relief
    By iain in forum A Brief History of Cprogramming.com
    Replies: 1
    Last Post: 09-13-2001, 08:12 PM