This is the worst earthquake worldwide in 40 years. It's caused tsunamis which have resulted in flooding off the east, south, and western coasts of Sri Lanka. Already, reports indicate that at least 300 are dead in Sri Lanka.
I mention that first because this is where we live. The tsunamis have also flooded parts of India, Thailand, Indonesia, and other parts of south Asia.
Sri Lanka also experienced an earthquake this morning in Kandy, in the center of the country (a 6. something on the Richter scale. I don't know the times of all this, so I don't know if this was an aftershock of the other one, or what.
I found out this morning when church was cancelled immediately after the opening hymn and we were instructed to go home as quickly as we could. Some people, after leaving church, had to return to the church because their streets or homes were already flooded and they had no where else to go. Luckily, we have a potluck every Sunday after church for people who have late meetings, so there's plenty of food.
Fahim and I live far enough inland - about 20 km - that we are in no danger and have not been affected. We're lucky.
Edit: reports initially indicated it was 8.5 on the Richter scale, but was then modified to 8.9. Holy crappola!
posted
Thanks. Heard that SriLanka was hit by the tsunami, and was worried that you might be affected.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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quote: Two-thirds of the Maldives capital has been flooded after a series of tsunami waves triggered by an earthquake swamped the low-lying Indian Ocean archipelago, the chief government spokesman has said.
"The damage is considerable," Ahmed Shaheed told Reuters. "The island is only about three feet (one metre) above sea level and a wave of water four feet (1.3 metres) high swept over us."
This is where my sister and her family lives, and we haven't heard from her yet. Considering that damage is considerable, they may not have telephones or cell phone towers, so even if they're fine, which is what we're assuming for the time being, we may not hear from them in a while.
Here's to praying for them.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Estimates have now reached at least 3000 dead, with 1500 of them in Sri Lanka. You can read about it herehere and here.
The airport in the Maldives has been completely destroyed from what I've heard. That's where my brother in law works, so I'd have to say he's now out of a job. They were scheduled to visit us in January - arriving January 5th - for a three week visa to renew their tourist visas (sister, niece and nephew - brother in law has work visa). Given that the airport effectively no longer exists, I have no idea how that's going to happen. I suspect that their entire lives are now likely up in the air.
I just heard from them. Short message, no information, but I've heard from them.
Just got another message. They have no tv, so had no idea that anything had happened. I gather they've been inside all day and are in an area that's not flooded. Will find out more later. But they said all is normal with them, so this is all good! Whew! Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Wow, how terrible! I heard the news and ran to get online and see if you were okay. I'm so glad you are all right, and your sister as well. The news said hundreds of people died there and many more missing.
posted
Estimates are at 4500 dead and climbing, and it looks like at least half those are in Sri Lanka, and most of the rest are in India. Estimates are also currently at over 1 million Sri Lankan are displaced. Sri Lanka has a total population of around 20 million, so this is 5% of the population. Death, injured, and displaced counts will continue to rise.
Aftershocks are expected to continue for 3-4 days and may be as high as 7 in magnitude.
It ain't over.
What you can do:
Pray. And often. People around here will need all the prayers they can get. Donate. Whether it's the red cross or whatever organizations will step in and help, I have no idea. But when it does become clear, help out as much as you can however you can.
But as for Fahim and I, we'll likely continue being unaffected unless a major earthquake hits here. (You know, this was part of my reason in leaving Vancouver, BC - major earthquake zone. Damn, but this stuff follows me around.)
Sri Lanka has declared a national state of emergency.
posted
Shockwaves have hit Malaysia and Indonesia. Ships have been swamped and sunk.
As a side note, all regular programming has been cancelled until further notice on tv. It's all news, every channel. Interestingly enough, the news on tv is much older than what's available on the internet. The television is reporting 300 dead in Sri Lanka, whereas internet reports indicated anywhere from 1500-3500 dead in Sri Lanka.
The biggest problem in Sri Lanka - and that's caused so many to die here - is that so many people live right on the beach. There's no land available, so they live wherever they can. And a lot of people live in structures that are no more than four posts, leaves for a roof, and perhaps corrugated iron sheets leaning against the posts for walls. Homes like we're used to in the west are not affordable enough for the poor. We have church members who live in huts in the jungle who consider themselves lucky to have a roof.
Death tolls are now reporting as over 5,000. And climbing.
Another problem is that there are so many tourists right now in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Thailand, etc. Because they were escaping the cold winters elsewhere and wanted to celebrate Christmas and New Years where it's warm. It's going to take a while before a complete list of the missing is compiled.
This all just makes me want to cry.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Oh quid! I am SO glad to see you here! I got on this morning as I get ready for church specially to see if you were okay after hearing about this. I was so hoping and praying you weren't in a coastal area.
I will definately be praying for your sister and others! They are saying on the news here it is the largest recorded earthquake in all history, not just 40 years. 8.9 is just unfathomable!
I have to run -- I'm just so happy to see you here!
posted
Will the waves continue to travel around the world? Are there more coastal areas due to be hit?
Posts: 6246 | Registered: Aug 2004
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posted
I heard from my sister. They were so unaffected by this that they didn't even know that anything had happened, other than feeling some tremors during the night. Their first clue that anything happened was receiving an SMS from me asking if they were okay.
However, the airport in the Maldives is completely flooded and closed indefinitely. All flights are cancelled. My brother in law is an aircraft mechanic for puddle jumpers - sea planes. He has no idea if he still has a job. The planes may all be destroyed, for all they know. Or they may be perfectly fine. He'll go in to work tomorrow and find out. But really, job or no, they're fine.
They were supposed to fly here January 5th, but that's not going to happen given that they, unlike the many tourists there, have a place to stay and don't absolutely have to leave the country.
Sri Lanka has already put out a request for international assistance. India is sending warships - to help or to invade? I'm kidding at the last comment . . .
Now I'm starting to wonder what we - as in, those of us here - can do to help. This is an excellent opportunity to get the locals involved in helping other people, and man alive, thtey need to learn how to help others. But that's a whole other aside that I won't get into here. Or, at least, not now.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Just read the news, Quid, and immediately came over here to the 'Rack to make sure you were okay. Thanks for posting immediately, and letting us know you are okay.
Our prayers are with you and all the people in that part of the world.
posted
There's a nice map here that shows what areas are affected by tsunami, so check that out. The map is near the bottom of the page.
Considering that the Maldives - off the south west coast of India - experienced only 4 foot waves, that's pretty much as far as they go. They lose energy as they travel, you see. Of course, I'm no wave expert, and it's been decades since I learned all about wave theory in physics, but . . . yeah, they're losing energy.
However, new tsunamis will be created as the aftershocks occur, which they're expected to for a few days. We'll see how it goes.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:This is the fifth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake.
MAG UTC-TIME region y/m/d deg
6.3 11:05:01 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 6.2 10:19:30 ANDAMAN ISLANDS, INDIA REGION 6.5 9:20:01 NICOBAR ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.8 7:38:25 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.7 7:07:10 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.7 6:21:58 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 7.3 4:21:26 NICOBAR ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 6.1 3:08:42 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.9 2:59:12 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA 6 2:51:59 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.8 2:36:06 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.8 2:34:50 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA 6 2:22:02 NICOBAR ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.8 2:15:58 ANDAMAN ISLANDS,INDIA REGION 5.9 1:48:47 NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA 8.9 0:58:51 OFF THE WEST COAST OF NORTHERN SUMATRA
posted
{{{{{{{{Quid and Fahim}}}}}}}} {{{{{{{{Quid's family}}}}}}}} {{{{{{{{Everyone in Sri Lanka and all other affected areas}}}}}}}}}
Posts: 4515 | Registered: Jul 2004
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posted
Honestly, we're fine. We're not affected AT ALL. And my sister and her family are also fine. Perhaps jobless, but that's not the end of the world for them. It's a contract position which ends in another three or four months, and they're here to see the world and working their way through it. Anyway, what I'm basically saying is this: don't feel bad for us. We're okay.
But definitely pray for/send good vibes out for everyone out here who is affected.
Thanks for the good thoughts and concern and love, everyone. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
I just read about this too and saw Sri Lanka was part of it and immediately came to Hatrack to check on you. Thank God you're alright. My thoughts and prayers go out to everyone else affected. Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
Quidscribs, I'm so glad you're okay. I just saw the news, and immediately came here to make sure that you were. Thanks for the updates.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
I'm so glad you and your sister are alright. As soon as I heard about it, I ran here to see if we'd heard from you yet.
Posts: 3214 | Registered: Apr 2002
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posted
You know, I wonder what impact this will have on the orangutan? The waves wouldn't have effected them much, of course, but their populations are so low that if the quake killed many of them, it could conceivably mean the end of their species, in the wild anyway (and I doubt those we have in captivity have large enough numbers to have the necessary genetic diversity to preserve the species).
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
It was bizarre to wake up and finish the LOTR marathon, and then discover that possibly ten thousand people or more were struggling for life at the mercy of uncarring nature. As you say, it seems to be the poor and marginal that are worst effected. Like the annual news of 300 dead in the Monsoons. Only an order of magnitude greater. From the size of the aftershocks I wonder if we are not in for some more quakes around the ring of fire.
I am glad that you and your family is safe quib, you seem a decent fellow, I'd hate for you to die!
The tsunami report is negetive for the West Coast, it seems that the epicenter is on the other side of that line of islands.
posted
Same as others, quid. I heard the news and thought of you. Glad you're okay.
But this is terrible. I'm hearing radically different numbers of deaths and uniform reports of destruction and devastation.
What surprises me is yesterday, news sites were reporting a massive mid-sea earthquake. Surely someone must have guessed that this would trigger a tsunami. Why were there no warnings, or even mentions? The only worries yesterday seemed to be about the penguins (and I'm serious).
Posts: 8473 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
Even better though I am not sure 'fellow' is gender specific, at least not in all its usages. I am saddened that so many people relaxing and enjoying the beach were injured or killed, it should be out of bounds for major disasters.
quote: What surprises me is yesterday, news sites were reporting a massive mid-sea earthquake. Surely someone must have guessed that this would trigger a tsunami. Why were there no warnings, or even mentions? The only worries yesterday seemed to be about the penguins (and I'm serious).
Teshi, I don't know what time zone you're in or what time that earthquake was reported. There were apparently several during the night and this morning that are not on the US Geological Survey site, which seems to be the most accurte or comprehensivev - at least, of what I've found thus far. The 8.9 earthquake occurred at a few minutes before 7am our time. The tsunami hit a town called Unawatuna, according to eye-witness reports, which is on the south coast of Sri Lanka, at about 10 am. That's only three hours later.
How could any warning system effectively reach everyone here when only 2/3 of the country even has electricity, never mind televisions or radios? This is a third world country, remember.
Add to that the fact that television news are slow to report news, and hours behind anything available on the internet, even concerning local events.
I think you must have heard about an earlier earthquake. My sister, in the Maldives, told me they experienced an earthquake sometime last night, and Sri Lanka had an earthquake this morning as well - as in, epicentre was in Sri Lanka. Perhaps there were others in the area as well? I have no idea. I'd like to find out. I'll try to hunt down more info, but perhaps not tonight. I don't know.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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quote:And BC, quids is not a decent fellow. She's a fabulous babe. Just FYI.
Yes, but if he hadn't referred to her as fellow he couldn't have made a Princess Bride reference. A good Princess Bride reference is worth a little gender confusion.
Posts: 16059 | Registered: Aug 2000
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posted
Ah! now that sentence makes a lot more sense and is, well, let's be honest here, a lot less offensive! Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
"yesterday, news sites were reporting a massive mid-sea earthquake."
That was a different large earthquake about halfway between Antarctica and Australia. Almost entirely horizontal/sideways movement on the fault which meant little-to-none tsunami action. It's the vertical up and/or down movement on a fault which produces the large tsunami.
posted
Actually, that earthquake (between Australia and Antarctica) was three days before the one centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, and Sri Lanka is 1,000 miles away from the epicenter.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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quote: "All the planet is vibrating" from the quake, said Enzo Boschi, the head of Italy's National Geophysics Institute. Speaking on SKY TG24 TV, Boschi said the quake even disturbed the Earth's rotation.
Threw off the rotation of the earth? What are the implications of that?
And am I the only one who is thinking about The Day After Tomorrow?
And does everyone realize that this, just so far, is 3 times the number of people that died on 9/11?
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
So far no reports out of Bangladesh. Considering that a large portion of the country is barely above sealevel, and that coastal shelf is wide and shallow*, Bangladsh may be particularly hard hit.
* A wide and shallow seabotton causes the width&bredth of a tsunami wave to compact into height.
Posts: 8501 | Registered: Jul 2001
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The real-life story of this is so sad. How many individual people bleeding, dying, in painful suffering -- children losing parents, parents losing children. Lives destroyed in minutes.
[ December 26, 2004, 12:54 PM: Message edited by: Sara Sasse ]
Posts: 2919 | Registered: Aug 2004
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quote: More than 7,000 people are reported dead around southern Asia, most killed by massive tidal waves that smashed coastlines around the region after a magnitude 8.9 earthquake in Indonesia on Sunday morning, followed by reports of a 7.3 magnitude jolt in India's Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Indian Ocean.
That total is from a while ago. FOX just said the death toll was over 10,000 and still climbing, but that confirms that there were reports of another earthquake later in the morning.
I wonder if it was an aftershock or if it was yet another earthquake. And if it was another earthquake, and it was the third in a series that included the one 350 miles north of Macquarie Island, the one off Sumatra and then the one in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, what's next? Will the fact that it affected the earth's rotation have any impact of the path of the earth's rotation? And will that have changed our rotation enough to change the outcome of the meteorite that was supposed to hit in 2029? Or, more importantly, are there going to be more earthquakes in other parts of the world because of these three? Has it affected the plates of the world?
You know, Chicken Little comes out this July. I'm just getting ready.
Posts: 9871 | Registered: Aug 2001
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posted
I am sure the effect on our rotation is negligeble a testimony to the precision of our tools rather then the global disaster you fear.
Yes the Earth has lurched out of the way of the coming asteroid. Yeah! Okay that was unkind, given the circumstance, the Earth is vibrating, like a bell, it cannot leave its orbit by any means I can think of, even a caldera valcano eruption.
posted
Physics dictates that if you take all of the mass that is called the "Earth" right now, given the following three conditions:
Nothing significant hits it (like a very large asteroid). Nothing leaves the earth (like the asian plate falling off into space) No significant grafitational changes occur (like the sun suddenly loosing half it's mass)
The orbit wont change. The Earth changing it's own orbit is kind of like trying to fly by grabbing your feet and pulling them up with your arms.
(And yes, technically a few other things could cause the Earth's rotation to change, but number one they're even less likely than the stuff I listed, and two that doesn't change my point).
quote:I am sure the effect on our rotation is negligeble a testimony to the precision of our tools rather then the global disaster you fear.
Bean Counter, cut that out! You're freaking me out by saying things I agree with. Isn't that, like, the 7th seal or something?
Seriously, the fact that this had some impact on the Earth's rotation doesn't really bother me at all.
Remember that many billion ton rock shelf that is sliding toward the ocean, and that will cause a tsunami powerful enough to pretty much take out the US's East Coast when it finally falls? I'm much more worried about earthquakes of this size shaking that thing loose than I am anything else, in terms of truly global disasters.
posted
La Palma? That thing sits there like a terrorist invitation, if I were a fanatic with a nuke I would use it there instead of trying to smuggle it elsewhere. If we do not coffer dam that thing we can kiss most of western civilization goodbye. Thank God they have not thought of it....opps!
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