Maybe Up To 6000 Dead, Tidal Waves Slams Thailand

[cdnvic]

Here's a BBC report from one of Phuket's emergency rooms.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/4126583.stm

Pretty good coverage on the BBC Asia/Pacific site. So far it seems to be updating the fastest.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/asia-pacific/default.stm

cv

[easa]

A terrible tragedy.

I am surprised that so many people were on the beach at 8.30 in the morning when the tidal wave hit in Patong.

Given that the earthquake occured earlier in Indonesia why wasn't there any warning for people in Phuket?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

No sunami warning system in place in this area only in Pacific ocean ( Hawaii, USA ) and other potentially effected area's in the western world !

[Johpa]

I just heard on CBC that the east coast of Africa was getting hit by the waves, and there were casualties. Has anyone heard about the Nicobar and Andaman Islands fared? They were right in the mouth of this Tsunami. 

cv

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

One of the US TV news channels also noted that the tsunami had reached the East Coast of Africa and that there were also fatalities on that continent.

[cdnvic]

EAST AFRICA: WAVE GOES MILES INLAND

Scores of people were killed and thousands driven from their homes in countries stretching from the horn of Africa down to Tanzania and out into the Indian Ocean.

At least nine people were killed in north-eastern Somalia. In some parts of the country, the wave travelled two miles inland, along riverbeds.

At least one person was killed and others feared missing on Kenya's coast.In the Seychelles, at least nine people were reported missing after a six-foot surge flooded roads and knocked out power lines.

26 December 2004 16:08

Full article with country by country coverage at:

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/enviro...sp?story=596143

cv

[organic]

Re: Krabi area

Heard from a mate who runs a hotel in the Ao Nang area, about how he saw thw big waves start to come in and started shouting & waving to a couple of boats he could see out there, even if they had've noticed, don't supposed they could've done anything. They promptly disappeared.

Be grateful if anyone posts anything else they hear from the Krabi area where I still have loads of mates.

Worst Xmas ever.

OK there's far worse happening in Darfur, it's just when people you know have (maybe) got caught up in it...

[easa]

Given that the earthquake occured earlier in Indonesia why wasn't there any warning for people in Phuket?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Because no one knows where the waves will hit...... It is rare for so many countries to be hit by waves from the same quake....might also suggest that the Indonesians had their own probs.

it is a natural disaster....dont look for scrapegoats where there arent any

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Tsunami warning systems are in use in other earthquake zones around the world.Not here. There is a major geological fault line running through the Indian Ocean which always has the potential for earthquake activity no one knows when.However a warning sytem if it had been in place in this region might have saved some lives

[buadhai]

There are some pretty interesting first person reports and comments posted here:

BBC News - Your experiences of Asian disaster

Sorry if this is a duplicate post....

[bkkgogs1]

Did anyone in Bangkok feel anything?

Someone on BBC World has said his condo building was shaking.  I was fast asleep at the time.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yes. I did, but at the time I had no Idea what was going on. Some where so scared that the left the building and where waiting outside.

This was at Silom Road.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was in my office at home at Sathorn Rd. My chair was rolling over the floor. The building was swaying. I was just about to get the kids and wife out of bed to go outside when the swaying stopped.

Edited December 27, 2004 by bkkgogs1

[taxexile]

from the u.k. daily telegraph website .

Thailand: 'I held my son's hand, we were slithering through the street and then I lost him'

By Sebastien Berger in Patong, Phuket

(Filed: 27/12/2004)

Dead: 392

Injured: more than 5,000

Affected: hundreds missing

Nation's top beach atractions among worst-hit areas

 

Bewildered and confused in a wheelchair outside the entrance to Phuket International Hospital, Andreas Grugl tried to take in the destruction of his family.

In a flat, shocked voice, he described the moment the triple swell of the tsunami engulfed the hotel he was staying in with his wife and son and another family.

"I said to all of them, 'Let's run'. Most of the people were standing still, looking at the water. I ran with my son and my wife and my friend. We came to a door which was locked and the water was coming."

The force of the impact broke open the door and swept him through as he clutched his 10-year-old son, Sebastian.

"I held my son with my hand and we were slithered through the street and then I lost my son," he said, his voice breaking.

"I felt I was crushed against a wall, a sofa crashed on me, a refrigerator crashed on me. That was the one thing I could get on. I looked around me and I saw nobody. There were no people. I was alone."

The force of the rising deluge swept him inland through the streets of Ban Tao into a brick wall. The next thing he remembers is someone taking him to a church or temple, and then to the hospital, where he was treated for leg injuries and multiple lacerations.

"I think I was the only survivor," he said. "I study all the lists from the hospital but I cannot find any name I know. To tell you the truth I don't think they are alive. None of them is alive."

As well as his son, Mr Grugl, a 40-year-old Austrian from St Pölten, was travelling with his wife, Birgit, 39, his friend Tomas Fischelmayer, his wife, Claudia, and their daughter - whose name, along with his own telephone numbers, the trauma had wiped from Mr Grugl's memory.

Several hours after the tsunami struck Thailand's premier resort island in one of its busiest weeks of the year, the seats and couches of the hospital's accident and emergency section were packed with victims, some bandaged and able to speak, others wrapped in blankets. New arrivals were treated in side rooms.

Peter Davison, the hospital manager, said it had received "hundreds" of casualties with a wide range of injuries, some of which had required amputations. "They're still coming," he said, and more were expected from outlying islands.

Witnesses said the sea on Phuket's west side, where resorts were full of European holidaymakers escaping the winter chill, retreated before three vast swells of water inundated buildings up to the second storey.

On a bed to one side of the hospital entrance lay Jonathan Delaney, 13, from Dublin, who said he felt "grand" despite the cuts to his lips, arms and feet.

"There was a crowd of people looking and I didn't know what they were looking at so I joined in," he said. "Some boats started going all over the place and the sea just started to come up.

"Everyone just ran and scattered, I ran on to a platform and tried to climb on to a balcony but the wave took me and threw me through a window."

Inside the room the rising water pinned him to the ceiling and came up to his neck. "At first it was pitch black. I just said I don't want to die now and can I see my mum again," he said calmly.

A South African woman was trapped in the same room. She and Jonathan, who was travelling with his parents and three siblings, kept talking until they both swam back out through the window and were helped on to a hotel balcony.

As he described his escape, his sister, Michelle, wept with relief. Terry Rossiter, 60, from Salisbury, Wilts, had been walking along Kata beach with his wife, Mary, 47, when "there was a lot of shouting that the water was coming in," he said.

At first he assumed that it was the tide, but moments later they were engulfed. A wall that Mrs Rossiter had climbed up collapsed underneath her. They were swept through a row of palm trees and into a gap between two hotels before they were able to climb to safety.

"I thought we were gone," said Mr Rossiter. "I was watching my wife and I couldn't do anything to help her. My mind goes blank with fear that she was going to smash into those trees. It was the most frightening thing of my life.

"We watched people being swept along. There was nothing we could do about it."

Last night the wreckage of restaurants, bars, massage parlours and shops lay scattered on the roads leading back from Patong beach.

On the roads across the hilly interior of Phuket last night hundreds of motorcycles and cars were parked as families prepared to spend the night in the open for fear of aftershocks bringing a second devastating deluge.

In Patong, holidaymakers camped around the pools of hotels on higher ground. Eighty exhausted snorkelers were rescued further south from the Emerald Caves, off Koh Mook, after a Malaysian couple died.

The others clung on and screamed for help until they were rescued, police said.

At Phuket airport, John Allen, in his 60s, from Essex, was preparing to go home. He had been left with nothing but the clothes he stood up in when the tsunami hit Ban Tao, and was dressed in shorts and a T-shirt.

"Three great swellings of water struck and took out the ground floor of the hotel," he said. "People were hanging on to trees, children were lost out of the arms of their mothers and then the mothers were just swept away."

As he spoke his wife sat nearby, crying into her hands. With tears in his eyes, a hotel worker who accompanied them to the airport, said: "I tried to save them but the water was so fast. Not one or two, but so many children and women were swept away."

Previous story:  Wave of devastation

Next story:  Sri Lanka: 'The water snatched three girls from the beach. We saw them floating in the bay'

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'Someone just pulled the plug on the ocean'

By Richard Alleyne

(Filed: 27/12/2004)

For Lorraine Lock and her family, yesterday morning began like every other on their Christmas break on the Thai island of Phuket.

 

Making their way to the third floor restaurant of the Royal Meridien resort hotel, they tucked into a tropical fruit breakfast while gazing over the tranquil clear blue sea and white sands of Nai Harn beach.

But this time as they ate their meal, something was not quite the same in this south west corner of the tropical island.

Mrs Lock, 42, said: "It was very, very still, eerily so. We had just gone to the breakfast buffet and helped ourselves when we noticed that people were gathering on the balcony.

"We were wondering what was going on and went to look. Suddenly the tide started to go out. It was like somebody had pulled the plug on the ocean. It just disappeared.

"Then a large swell, not so much a wave as a wall of water, rushed back and swamped everything away.

"All the shops and restaurants were swept off. The wash pushed cars up the hotel drive. The windows were broken and the sunbeds floated off. It was total devastation but within seconds the waters receded again back into the bay."

Mrs Lock, of Tonbridge, Kent, who was on holiday with her husband Stephen, 45, a photographer, and their three children Christopher, 15, Thomas, 14, and Emma, 11, said calm was momentarily restored until a few minutes later when the whole process repeated itself.

She said: "The tide came and went out three times in all. The third time the swell was 20ft high and it destroyed everything that was left. It took all the taxis and the cars and swept them away. It destroyed the ground floor of our hotel.

"We weren't scared to start with because the hotel was much higher than the surrounding buildings but began to worry when the staff started panicking. They said they were not trained to deal with earthquakes."

In the resort of Khao Lak, around 80 miles away, Tim Acton, 25, from Harwich, Essex, was sitting on the beach when "the wall of water" struck.

He said: "There had been no warning of any kind then suddenly a 35ft wave swept up on to the shore.

"People tried desperately to escape but it was moving too fast - people were caught up and just flung around.

"We helped half a dozen people get to hospital but we had to try three before we could find one that wasn't already full of injured people."

  Thailand: Tsuanami swell engulfs Phuket

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Edited December 27, 2004 by taxexile

[mr_lob]

Have somebody any info about Railay Beach in Krabi??? All lines are down, no contact at all. Many famlies are affraid. I am going to Krabi first in the morning.

What ever, send now to [email protected]

Regards, Robert

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i work on Railay - Sand Sea Resort is apparently gone, Rayavadee took a massive beating and Pranang Beach is no more.

[phuket Mike]

Well after responding to the first post I went out to look what was going on and got heavily involved in the whole situation. In Nai Harn there were many tourists trying to leave the area.

I took a few up to Kata Viewpoint and then went back to get my family. I didn't go to the beach because I didn't want to get in the way of the emergency services, who looked to be doing a fine job.

As the village is very close to the sea there were many rumours of more waves so the Police advised everyone to go to higher ground. We all went up to Kata Viewpoint, there were a lot of people up there and I believe some even slept up there last night.

We came back around 5pm and went to the beach were we could not believe our eyes, next to the Phuket Yacht Club Hotel there used to be a row of restaurants and shops now it's just a pile of rubble. The sunbeds from the beach are smashed up everywhere the whole area looks like a bomb site. We still don't know how many people lost there lives but at 10am the beach is normally crowded. I helped a couple who had been down there and they were very upset, they had been with 10 other members of their family who at that point were missing.

Tourists are now leaving the area in droves.

[Boon Mee]

WHY THE TSUNAMI DEATH TOLL IS SO HIGH:

None of the countries most severely affected - including India, Thailand, Indonesia and Sri Lanka - had a tsunami warning mechanism or tidal gauges to alert people to the wall of water that followed a massive earthquake, said Waverly Person of the USGS National Earthquake Information Centre.

"Most of those people could have been saved if they had had a tsunami warning system in place or tide gauges," he said yesterday. . . .

US seismologists said it was unlikely the Indian Ocean region would be hit any time soon by a similarly devastating tsunami because it takes an enormously strong earthquake to generate one.

"That's really what has created all of these problems - is that the earthquake is just so massive," said Dan Blakeman, a USGS earthquake analyst.

But Person said governments should instruct people living along the coast to move after a quake. Since a tsunami is generated at the source of an underwater earthquake, there is usually time - from 20 minutes to two hours - to get people away as it builds in the ocean.

"People along the Japanese coasts, along the coasts of California - people are taught to move away from the coasts. But a lot of these people in the area where this occurred - they probably had no kind of lessons or any knowledge of tsunamis because they are so rare."

Like an asteroid strike, it seemed too unlikely to be worth guarding against.

[buadhai]

Just heard from a friend who lives in Khao Lak, but who has a boat in Chalong Harbor. He said the harbor was relatively untouched -- some small craft overturned. I guess this is a bit of good news as I'd expected the harbor to have been a disaster zone.

[Pseacraft]

Any relationship to the Javan earthquake on Christmas day (local time)?  It's parameters are:

2004/12/24 23:54:49  -6.554  109.301 268.7

I appreciate that it was a lot deeper.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I have not been able to find a fault map for the region so my uneducated opine would be that they are not related just based on the depth and distance apart. I haven't found anyting on the USGS website putting the two together either. Also 23 of the 24 "aftershocks" have been oriented to the north from the epicenter with only one a few km to the south which would also tend to show lack of relationship. None of the aftershocks have been less the 5.4 so far.

Even with all of the tectonic activity in the IO, tsunami's are still considered rare. This has been the center point on th eUS converage as to why there isn't an effective warning system in the region like the one in the Pacific. The Pacific Center did pass the word of potential Tsunami's as a result of this massive quake to the governments in the region. Unfortunately we all know how a beaucracy tends to work.

Hopefully the massive loss of life will not be lost upon these governments and the appropriate systems will be funded and implemented.

Eric

[Paradise]

ECTV/Breaking News - Sumatra Quake Elevated to 9.0 Magnitude

From: [email protected]

December 26th 2004

EARTH CHANGES TV NEWSLETTER

Sumatra Quake Elevated to 9.0 Magnitude

by Mitch Battros – ECTV

It just keeps getting worse. Next thing you know someone will tell us it was an asteroid collision.

Latest USGS report has elevated the Sumatra seismic event at 9.0 magnitude (http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/). What’s worse is the never ending death toll which now has hit 11,500 with no end in sight. Eyewitness reports are now starting to roll in, and the picture they draw is noting short of a “nightmare”.

This just in…an eyewitness report filed the following (now 12 hours later):

Dear sisters and brothers,

Our home Tiruchirappalli is about 200 kms from Bay of Bengal, we are fine and safe. I was away from morning to attend a death case, and just returned 9.45 pm. I heard the information when I was in a interior village.

My younger brother family is in Kudaloor, I called him over phone he and his family is safe, my relatives at Chennai also OK. But my friend\\'s father in law family is at Nagapattinam which is most affected zone, no information from them. Many peoples are gone to Vellangani Matha (Christian -mother) temple which is very close Nagapattinam for Xmas, many tourists also are there this time, the number of persons died are more than 2000 at this zone.

Terrible incident, entire Tamil Nadu is at great shock now.

Developing…

Receive Free ECTV Newsletter: http://www.earthchangestv.com/newsletter.php

About Mitch: http://www.earthchangestv.com/aboutmitch.php

Mitch Battros

Prooducer - Earth Changes TV

http://www.earthchangestv.com

[ferd54]

On Thai TV I just saw that the Narenthorn Center (some sort of nationwide emergency response center) is posting names of injuries and fatalities at their website:

http://ems.narenthorn.or.th

At the top login as "user" and the password is "password".

I just checked and almost all listed are Thai, with two foreign-sounding names with nationality listed as "unknown".

I suspect the Western embassies will request that names do not be listed until they notify next of kin. Also, my wife says all listed were treated at government hospitals and the list does not include private hospitals (at least thus far).

[cdnvic]

On Thai TV I just saw that the Narenthorn Center (some sort of nationwide emergency response center) is posting names of  injuries and fatalities at their website:

http://ems.narenthorn.or.th

At the top login as "user" and the password is "password".

I just checked and almost all listed are Thai, with two foreign-sounding names with nationality listed as "unknown".

I suspect the Western embassies will request that names do not be listed until they notify next of kin. Also, my wife says all listed were treated at government hospitals and the list does not include private hospitals (at least thus far).

I can't read Thai so maybe I'm missing something, but they seem to have some people listed 2 or 3 times.

I don't suppose there's an english link I'm missing?

cv

[mr_lob]

Re: Krabi area

Heard from a mate who runs a hotel in the Ao Nang area, about how he saw thw big waves start to come in and started shouting & waving to a couple of boats he could see out there, even if they had've noticed, don't supposed they could've done anything. They promptly disappeared. 

Be grateful if anyone posts anything else they hear from the Krabi area where I still have loads of mates.

Worst Xmas ever.

 

OK there's far worse happening in Darfur, it's just when people you know have (maybe) got caught up in it...

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i live in Ao Nang - got some pics if u want them pm me. Railay and Tonsai very bad.

[joesohum]

DOES ANY ONE KNOW HOW TO FIND A LIST OF THE MISSING OR INJURED PERSONS FROM THE TSUNAMI DOWN SOUTH. I HAVE TWO FRIENDS WHO WERE THERE AND HAVENT HEARD FROM THEM YET. THEY ARE FROM THE USA. IVE TRIED RED CROSS BUT NO HELP. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

THANKS

[buadhai]

i live in Ao Nang - got some pics if u want them pm me. Railay and Tonsai very bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why don't you post them; we'd all like to see....

[cdnvic]

DOES ANY ONE KNOW HOW TO FIND A LIST OF THE MISSING OR INJURED PERSONS FROM THE TSUNAMI DOWN SOUTH. I HAVE TWO FRIENDS WHO WERE THERE AND HAVENT HEARD FROM  THEM YET. THEY ARE FROM THE USA. IVE TRIED RED CROSS BUT NO HELP. ANY OTHER SUGGESTIONS?

THANKS

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?sh...241816&st=285

There's a partial list there. The names of the forgieners are in english script, the Thais are in Thai script.

cv

[lecter]

any news from Ko Surin tai?

Not seen any as yet....

[mr_lob]

i live in Ao Nang - got some pics if u want them pm me. Railay and Tonsai very bad.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Why don't you post them; we'd all like to see....

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

i would if i could - not an option , bit of a newbie u see. so pm me your email and you can post them

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

Yesterday I posted on Bangkok Chat a simple warning 30 minutes after the tremors were felt in Bangkok. Today, my IP address there has been banned. Don't understand it, its the first time I ever used Bangkok Chat.

[Explorer]

As I could see we could only manage to cover the main tourist area on this tsunamis.

Anyone got any news on the smaller scale islands in the south - Koh Bulone Le, Koh Lipeh and The National Park Tarutao?

I have always been to these island and have friends there, i hope there are well

My prayers are with them and all the victims.

Explorer

Edited December 27, 2004 by Explorer

[johnrh]

I have some friends on Koh Tao. Does anybody know if the earthquake caused any damage in the gulf of Thailand?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I live on the Gulf side and nothing felt here. I'm sure your friends are ok. And don't be upset by cheap shots from some forum members.

[divemaster]

Hey all,

Anyone with info on Liveaboards in the Similans, and how they faired the tsunami? We have some old friends working in those waters, and would appreciate any news you might have. Thanks.

Hunter and Silke

[meemiathai]

This was a natural disaster but unlike other natural disasters humans are not powerless to take preventaive measures

I understand what you and a few guys here are trying to point out. I can see your point. But it really depends on which country you are living in and what the usual practice of this nation's government are.

I think an example here says it all.

There are people who think riding a bike is dangerous so they wear a helmet and protective gears.(this is the west) But there are people who says we have never had any accidents when riding a bike, so we don't need any protective gears.(this is Thailand or whatever less developped countries)

This is a complicated matter. Unless you are an expert here and you are sure that officials in Thailand knew what was going to happen, otherwise just leave it for the Thais to decide.

No point arguing.

Something here also for your reference:

Anybody remember two or three years ago when everybody took to the hills in Phuket because a tsunami was supposed to be coming?

When nothing happened, everybody laughed at the "foolish, gullible" people that ran.

Life has a sick sense of humour, not to mention a sense of irony.

[cdnvic]

(Kyodo) _ Thailand's Public Health Ministry said Monday it has confirmed the deaths of 431 people, more than 80 percent of them from outside Thailand, in the aftermath of Sunday's devastating tsunami that hit popular tourist destinations in the country's south.

The ministry added that as of midnight Sunday more than 1,000 people were still missing and more than 5,000 had been injured.

Whole Story

cv

Edited December 27, 2004 by cdnvic

[buadhai]

I understand what you and a few guys here are trying to point out.  I can see your point.  But it really depends on which country you are living in and what the usual practice of this nation's government are. 

I think an example here says it all.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

But, it's also a matter of values and cost vs. benefit.

Installing a tsunami warning system on every kilometer of the Indian Ocean's vast inhabited coast line would be enormously expensive. And, it would probably only be used a few times per century.

Another example: Americans now seem to believe it's worth to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to prevent the kind of attack the resulted in about 3000 deaths on 9/11. At the same time, we are unwilling to spend the much smaller amount that would be necessary to cut annual traffic fatalities in half from about 50,000 per year to 25,000. So, we won't spend ten billion to save 25,000 lives but we will spend hundreds of billions to save 3,000.

I realize I'm straying dangerously into politics here, but the point is that saving every last life is neither possible nor practical.