Maybe Up To 6000 Dead, Tidal Waves Slams Thailand

[The_Eye_Of_Sauron]

I've just had a look at

http://www.onethailand.com/

Looks like a good information resource to bookmark on this topic.

[taxidriver]

Hi, my wife and I have friends a Thai couple, that went to the Sillamons and they were supposed to be flying back to BKK yesterday from Phuket and we are really worried now, we both tried calling their mobiles yesterday and today, but we can't get through. My wife can't get through to the info line off the TV either.

Does anyone know about what happened in the Sillamon islands?

The main mentions are Phuket,Krabi & Phi Phi, but no talk of the Sillamons. We think they were on a boat. They are both scuba divers and they go there frequently, but we don't know much about the Sillamons. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

[andyadam]

All people in Phuket hospitals

If you use this you might want to use the "find" function in windows XP

press Ctrl and F

type in name then search

Edited December 27, 2004 by andyadam

[DaveYo]

Well, I previously mentioned the wave issue a little bit while ago when everyone was harping about the Typhoon. I did say a wave of 16 feet to 20 feet packs a powerful punch and that such is dangerous. If you don't believe me check back on the threads.

But many of you here slammed me for my comments. So now that wave did actually hit. This is your result.

Maybe next time you folks will pay attention to some of the things I say here and understand it well.

As to Governments and all that crap. You can have the best of equipment in and at your disposal, but you can never ever tell when those plates underneath our feet move!!!!!!!!!!! In fact just below us about 20 miles down or so or around 42 kilometers give or take, you are right smack at the surface of the Magma that is under very high intense extreme pressure.

In reality folks, we are living on a floating island mass and technically we are at its mercy. The plates below us are bouncing around like a basketball and its direction for the most part is pretty well determined.

So when it decides to burp, or to move, or to pass its gas, it will do so on its own. Sometimes we do get some clear indications that it will do such but that warning is indeed a short one. As of the plates, no chance as heck to ever know. You know that as well as I.

Daveyo

[wimpy]

Just heard from my close friend that was staying at his house on Koh Phratong, off Ranong. He is back in Bangkok. He was washed out to sea, and clung to a log for over four hours (he is about 73). Finally made it back to shore. Most of the houses at the resort were destroyed. 15 people are missing or dead. They were evacuated by the Thai Navy and speed boats from neighbooring resorts. <deleted> incredible!

Edited December 27, 2004 by wimpy

[DaveYo]

One other short note in all this, did anyone ever pay attention to the animals outside and the birds???????

They are your first warning indicators that something is about to happen.

My dog Tiger here, and the neighbor dogs next door and some others around here, all went crazy around 7:45 am in the morning. I even went outside here, and there was a lot of fuss going on. I even noticed the birds take flight around 7:55 am, on that same morning and I did not feel any tremors here. Maybe I am sitting on some soft bed or rock or something that absorbs the shock.

But I did get the warning. However many of us are so wrapped up in our individual lives we practically forget that the animals are the best warning indicators next to having the best million dollar detection equipment. It really never crossed my mind that an earthquake was about to take place. Now that I experienced what the animals do, I will be obviously much better prepared.

Daveyo

[Darknight]

DISASTER TOLL updated BBC news

Sri Lanka: 10,800 dead

Indonesia: 4,500 dead

India: 2,958 dead

Thailand: 839 dead

Malaysia: 44 dead

Maldives: 32 dead

Burma: 30 dead

Bangladesh: 2 dead

[damnaam]

Hi, my wife and I have friends a Thai couple, that went to the Sillamons and they were supposed to be flying back to BKK yesterday from Phuket and we are really worried now, we both tried calling their mobiles yesterday and today, but we can't get through. My wife can't get through to the info line off the TV either.

Does anyone know about what happened in the Sillamon islands?

The main mentions are Phuket,Krabi & Phi Phi, but no talk of the Sillamons. We think they were on a boat. They are both scuba divers and they go there frequently, but we don't know much about the Sillamons. Any info would be greatly appreciated, thanks!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

This should be of some comfort to you but I also let you know the situation - I'm a diving instructor and have just returned from the Similans. First the bad news - one boat is reported to have been overwhelmed due to being in shallow water when the shockwave came through, no confirmed report of deaths as yet. The other 25 - 30 odd liveaboards that were operating in the area experienced no problem at all (since a tsunami only presents a problem when it approaches shallow depths) except for one which had divers in the water when the shockwave struck - its divers got caught in a vortex/whirlpool created by wave backlash but no reported casualties. The odds are way, way in favour of your friends. Also don't forget there is only one 'mobile' mast out at Similans and I can tell you from personal experience that the coverage is extremely patchy AND what coverage there is, is in extreme demand... I hope you contact them soon! Regards.

[Translate]

Hello,

I am a Thai to English translator (vice versa) based in Pattaya, Thailand. I would be more than happy to help anybody trying to contact loved ones who may have been involved in the Tidal wave disaster in southern Thailand yesterday.

I will offer the following services "FREE OF CHARGE":

"TRANSLATION SERVICE" - Email's, letters etc translated to and from Thai and forwarded by Thai post or email to your chosen destination (please note that I can only translate Thai to English and English to Thai).

"TELEPHONE CALLS" - I will try to contact your loved ones by phone in the disaster area and pass on a message for you.

If you would like to take me up on the above offers of help please email me at [email protected] .

Regards,

Pada.

[onethailand]

I've just had a look at

http://www.onethailand.com/

Looks like a good information resource to bookmark on this topic.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Basically all I'm trying to do is coordinate the most important information in a single location - and hopefully as more people head to the site it will lessen the loads on other sites and allow people to access them... The Nation was so overloaded this morning that none of us, even locally, could get any information, with the result being that no one got any useful stuff.

Casualty counts are being updated as I get them on the radio. A lot of good information from this thread, plus Phuket Gazette, plus a couple of other sites have been compiled as well.

You should see the lame excuse I got from the Bangkok Post webmaster about how they do three daily updates, all in the wee hours... maybe it's time someone taught them a lesson.

[chuchok]

Channel 11 has full coverage at the mo in English.

[onethailand]

Channel 11 has full coverage at the mo in English.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Full English? LOL... I must check that out, if I can ever get my kid off the Playstation (he's been without for three days, being stuck in hospital with gastroenteritis). The last presenter could barely pronounce the few English words she needed to say.

[kippers]

just listening to the foreign aid coming in;

Australia A$10,000,000 + 2 planeloads aid products

EU 25 nations Euro 3,000,000

USA US$ 100,000

seems something wrong with this equation

[chuchok]

Channel 11 has full coverage at the mo in English.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Full English? LOL... I must check that out, if I can ever get my kid off the Playstation (he's been without for three days, being stuck in hospital with gastroenteritis). The last presenter could barely pronounce the few English words she needed to say.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

They have two guys and their English is better than mine..

On the news now, the Vice Health Minister asked that blood Donors go to their nearest Red Cross Facility ASAP.

[booma]

I hear long beach on Koh Lanta was not badly hit, maybe a couple of fatalities at most, all divers were safe.

I hope this is of use to anyone.

b

[onethailand]

They have two guys and their English is better than mine..

On the news now, the Vice Health Minister asked that blood Donors go to their nearest Red Cross Facility ASAP.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Oops... I was thinking ITV. Channel 11 is MCOT - and you're right, these two have much better English than their radio counterparts.

For those of you who want Thai coverage, Channel 9 has supposedly canceled all regular programming and is providing 24/7 news in Thai.

Edited December 27, 2004 by onethailand

[Paradise]

Tsunami toll has more than doubled to 21,000 No word from 45,000

"The worrying thing is that there is no news about Great Nicobar and

we have not been able to reach Great Nicobar," Port Blair councillor

Pratima Madhukrishnan said in Madras.

A councillor from the capital of the island territory said she was

alarmed nothing had been heard from Great Nicobar island, home to

about 45,000 and close to the epicentre.

COLOMBO (Reuters) - The death toll in a tsunami that slammed into

coasts from India to Indonesia has topped 21,000 as rescuers scour

the sea for missing tourists and soldiers race to recover bodies

amid growing fears of disease.

Tsunami Waves Kill Over 20,900 in Asia

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml...&storyID=644745

http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml...&storyID=644895

Sri Lankan military spokesman Daya Ratnayaka said 10,029 people had

been killed in Sri Lanka alone.

The addition of more than 5,000 dead in the Indian Ocean island

nation brought the total number of people reported dead from the

waves unleashed from the world's biggest earthquake in 40 years to

21,559, with some 5,200 injured.

Throughout the region, relatives hunted through piles of dead

stacked up in hospital corridors and prayed for the safe return of

thousands still missing.

"Death came from the sea," Satya Kumari, a construction worker

living on the outskirts of the former French enclave of Pondicherry,

India, told Reuters. "The waves just kept chasing us. It swept away

all our huts. What did we do to deserve this?"

International aid agencies rushed staff, equipment and money to the

region, warning that bodies rotting in the water were already

beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.

The wall of water up to 10 metres (33 ft) high flattened houses,

hurled fishing boats onto coastal roads, sent cars spinning through

swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucked sunbathers, babies and

fishermen off beaches and out to sea.

Along with Sri Lanka, the worst affected areas were southern India,

where officials reported up to 5,700 dead, northern Indonesia with

4,900 drowned and Thailand's southern tourist isles and beaches

where as many as 839 lost their lives.

"This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it

is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas ... so many

vulnerable communities," U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan

Egeland told CNN.

"The scale of the tragedy is massive. Sri Lanka has never been hit

by tidal waves or earthquakes or anything at all in its known

history so this is a grave tragedy which we have not been prepared

for," President Chandrika Kumaratunga told the

BBC.

The tsunami spared no one. Western tourists were killed as they

sunbathed on the beach, poor villagers were drowned in their seaside

homes and fishermen died in flimsy boats. The 21-year-old grandson

of Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej was killed on a jet-ski.

ROWS OF DEAD CHILDREN

Soldiers in Indonesia searched for bodies in treetops and in the

wreckage of homes smashed by the tsunami, triggered by the 9.0

magnitude earthquake that struck off the coast of northern Sumatra

island killing at least 4,491 people there.

"It smells so bad ... The human bodies are mixed in with dead

animals like dogs, fish, cats and goats," said marine colonel Buyung

Lelana, head of an evacuation team in Sumatra's Aceh province

searching for more dead.

Volunteers laid bodies of children in rows under sarongs at

makeshift morgues. Others were stacked in white fish crates.

"I am hoping there are still enough coffins available," said

Mustofa, mayor of Aceh's Bireuen regency.

Hundreds of thousands left homeless in Sri Lanka and fearing another

wave sheltered in temples and schools. The southern port of Galle,

famed for its historic fort, had been submerged.

Weeping relatives scrambled over hundreds of bodies piled in a

hospital in nearby Karapitiya, shirts or handkerchiefs clutched over

their noses against the stench of decaying bodies.

"We are struggling to cope. Bodies are still coming in," said

Karapitiya Teaching Hospital administrator Dr H.G. Jayaratne.

DEVASTATED REMOTE ISLES

"We are continuously recovering bodies. We are also seeing wrecked

fishing trawlers and boats by the coast," coast guard commandant

Navin Chandra Pandey said in New Delhi.

At a graveyard in southern Cuddalore, mass graves were dug using an

excavating machine to bury nearly 200 bodies.

"We must have dug some seven or eight pits and buried 25, 30, 35

bodies in each of them," said gravedigger Shekhar.

"We lined up bodies next to each other in two rows and buried them.

I've never buried so many in a single day in my life."

One of the most devastated regions was India's remote Andaman and

Nicobar islands, near the quake's epicentre, where officials said

the tsunami had killed 3,000 people.

The tsunami was so powerful it smashed boats and flooded areas along

the east African coast, 6,000 km (3,700 miles) away.

[snowleopard]

The quake was being discussed here at Thaivisa one hour before the wave hit. That means it was still 500 miles from Phuket.

Swift action would have saved lives, including that of HM's Grandson, who was regarded with affection in Thailand.

Once the initial grief is passed, questions need to be asked of the PM, and sophistry just ain't going to cut it in response.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can we please stop the "i need to blame someone exercise"

Could have , should have, this that ... Sure maybe all governements in the pacific region should resign because of this , it will surely help the people hurt ...

The simpel reason there are no measure is because of the region's culture, lack of economic power, local wars (sri lanka) etc...

Yeah sure they heed a billion dollar system to prevent something that only happened 150 years ago the last time

Get out of your western "control all" mindset. Maybe you should accept the fact that you can't control everything , especially nature.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Can we please stop the "i need to blame someone exercise" 

I think it was nature's fault.

The fault of the tectonic plates.

Snowleopard

[Darknight]

DISASTER TOLL Update BBC

Sri Lanka: 11,000 dead

Indonesia: 4,500 dead

India: 3,500 dead

Thailand: 839 dead

Malaysia: 44 dead

Maldives: 32 dead

Burma: 30 dead

Bangladesh: 2 dead

Tere are rumours that the indonesion president has more then 20.000 extra victims of the province in the tip of sumatra (Ache) Not confirmed yet.

Edited December 27, 2004 by Darknight

[george]

THAI adds more special flights, bigger planes out of Phuket

PHUKET: -- Thai Airways has announced a change to larger aircraft and two special flights from Phuket to Bangkok.

Mr Kanok Abhiradee, THAI's President, said that the airline has taken the step to facilitate transportation of the injured and others affected by the natural disaster in the South of Thailand. The special arrangements take effect from today, 27 December, onwards.

The special, additional flights include:

TG SOS1, departing Phuket at 1915 and arriving Bangkok at 2035 (358 seats).

TG SOS2, departing Phuket at 0120 and arriving Bangkok at 0240 (389 seats).

--The Nation 2004-12-27

[Darknight]

Today's timeline:

Kylie Morris : Phuket, Thailand : 1555 GMT

Phi Phi was swamped by the mass surge of water on Sunday. Officials say they'll begin to collect the bodies of the dead once they've taken care of the living.

For the moment, bodies are being laid out in makeshift morgues in village temples.

Matthew Grant : Madras, southern India : 1520 GMT

Most of the people in this part of the world are Hindus, who cremate their dead. But there have also been reports of bodies being buried in mass graves, because people just can't cope in any other way.

Sanjeev Srivastava : Delhi : 1440 GMT

The government is doing all it can to save a situation which is becoming grimmer by the hour.

Infrastructure damage is still being assessed across the region

They have asked everybody to stay away from low-lying areas till further notice, but in several parts of southern India evacuation and relief work has been hampered by heavy rains.

The state owned Indian Airlines is operating special flights to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands to airlift tourists stranded there. Four ships carrying a team of doctors, food and other relief material have also been sent to the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

Roland Buerk : Galle, Sri Lanka : 1420 GMT

The damage is really quite extraordinary. All day today people have been digging in the mud and ruins, unearthing bodies. There have been some very rapid funerals taking place.

Mostly people here are having to help themselves. The military helicopters coming in from time to time can only airlift out about five people at a time. Most other people have gone up to the coastal road to try to walk to Galle.

Now night has fallen it is completely dark; electricity is cut off. Armed soldiers have set up road blocks to try to keep order.

Navdip Dhariwal : Galle, Sri Lanka : 1325 GMT

The government has deployed ten helicopters to drop rescue teams to the worst affected areas. Over twenty-five thousand soldiers have rushed to the coast, but their efforts appear to be making little difference.

With power and communication lines down, it's still difficult to travel around the island or get information. The government is reporting that two hundred foreign tourists are now among those dead.

Those left here are anxious to leave, not out of fear of secondary shock waves, but out of concern they will be abandoned without electricity and water.

Geeta Pandey : Andaman Islands, Indian Ocean : 1215 GMT

I've seen several hundred people staying in a school building which has been turned into a makeshift shelter. A lot of people are complaining that they are not getting enough food.

Survivors of the surges have begun to bury their dead

And for many of the islanders, a lifetime of savings have disappeared in a few seconds before their eyes.

So there's a lot of apprehension and fear about what the future will be like.

Medical supplies have been sent out to the islands, and an aerial survey of the situation is being carried out right now.

Kylie Morris : Phuket, Thailand : 1155 GMT

There's a scene of complete devastation on what was the idyllic Phi Phi island. The deputy governor says it's likely more than a hundred have died there.

As many as 800 people remain stranded in hills on the island. Thailand's prime minister has appealed on national television for blood donors and for money.

Chris Hogg : Bangkok : 1100 GMT

Provincial officials say the priority now is to find those who are still injured and stranded. On Phi Phi island near Phuket, almost everything apart from the major hotels has been destroyed.

Officials suggest at least a third of those killed were foreign tourists.

Rachel Harvey : Medan, Indonesia : 1045 GMT

There's a whole area on the south west coast of Aceh, closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, where there's been no contact at all. Officials are increasingly concerned about the situation there.

It's thought there were a million people living in that area.

Rachel Harvey : Medan, Indonesia : 1020 GMT

Relief supplies are beginning to arrive in the Sumatran city of Medan ready for transport into the affected area, but the Indonesian government has yet to decide whether to allow international aid agencies to operate in Aceh.

The priority now is to help the injured and stranded

The province has been virtually sealed off for the past eighteen months because of a conflict between Indonesian security forces and separatist rebels.

It seems likely that help will in the end be accepted, but time is now critical.

Gina Wilkinson : Colombo, Sri Lanka : 0755 GMT

The worst hit regions are on the east coast - where tsunamis wiped out entire villages and fishing communities.

Land mines laid during the civil war were dislodged by flood waters and are floating off beaches and in lagoons - hampering rescue efforts.

Kylie Morris : Phuket, Thailand : 0755 GMT

The government has warned it expects the casualty figures will continue to rise as rescue workers reach outlying resorts.

The scale of the damage is yet to emerge

Among the dead are tourists from as many as 12 nations. Many Thai fishermen are still missing.

To compound the sense of tragedy here, local officials have confirmed that a grandson of the country's much loved King is among the victims.

[george]

HM King dispatches necessities to tsunami victims

BANGKOK: -- His Majesty the King has sent thousands packs of necessities to people in southern Thailand who have been affected by tides of tsunami, caused by one of the world's strongest earthquakes in the Indonesian resort island of Sumatra Sunday morning.

His Majesty KIng Bhumibol Adulyadej has dispatched the necessities, including dry and instant food, clothes and blankets, to the tsunami-strucken victims through the Rajapracha Foundation under the Patronage of His Majesty the King.

The official death toll from yesterday's waves of tsunami, reported by the Ministry of Interior's Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation, was as high as 870 this evening, with over 7,300 injured--many are foreign tourists-- and over

1,000 people still missing.

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra told local journalists this evening that he expected that the total death toll from yesterday's tsunami destruction could exceed 1,000.

He said that the government would approve a budget of over Bt10 billion to restore the tsunami-affected areas and to assist the victims.

The Indonesian government announced this morning that yesterday's earthquake in the country's Sumatra Island, which also caused tides of tsunami in six other Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Maldives, and Sri Lanka, was remeasured to be as high as 9.0 on the richter scale, the world's fourth strongest one so far, not 8.9 on the richter scale as earlier reported.

There were five aftershocks in the Andaman Sea this morning which were felt in the country's southern coastal provinces.

However, it was confirmed by local authorities that there were no casualties, damages, or the feared tsunami from the five aftershocks.

Local officials in the affected areas, have, nonetheless, evacuated over 20,000 local residents and tourists to safe places.

The country's tsunami-stricken provinces include Phuket, Phang-nga, Krabi, Trang, Ranong and Satun.

The tsunami-affected areas were reported to have begun facing shortages of water and some thefts.

--TNA 2004-12-27

[Darknight]

Eyewitness: Panic in Patong

Thousands of people have been e-mailing the BBC News website about horrific experiences as sea surges hit their homes and holiday retreats.

Troy Husum, a 28-year-old Canadian, was on holiday in Phuket, Thailand. He spoke of the devastation as the waves hit the town of Patong and how survivors are coping.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I felt the quake first at about 0915.

I went out on my balcony in the hotel where I was staying - it was a beautifully calm day - and talked to others on their balconies. The quake felt very slight so we thought little of it.

About 45 minutes later, I noticed that water had receded from Patong Bay. We'd never seen it before and we could hear people on the beach talking about it. You could even see fish flopping around on the beach, which was unusual.

I noticed small kids and tourists walking to where the water had receded, curious as to why the water had gone.

Then I saw it - I noticed people craning their necks and looking out on the horizon. You could see a wall of water about three or four stories high.

I felt like I was watching a movie, it was completely surreal.

It wasn't moving very quickly, it took between four and five minutes until I saw it hit and in that time slowly people started to realise what was happening.

Most disturbing was I saw people literally disappear when the water hit... people were literally swept away

People were saying 'Oh God, what is that?' I thought I was dreaming.

After a few seconds the wave hit and smashed against the beach.

It was incredible, it actually bent the trees, washed everything away - at least 1,000 beach umbrellas were swept along as all the water surged through.

There is a line of cars where people park by the beach and hundreds of bikes, I saw them all picked up like toys and moved along.

Most disturbing was I saw people literally disappear when the water hit.

I saw a lot running, but there were people snoozing on the beach, I saw small children hit. People were literally swept away.

A lot of injuries occurred from people being hit by debris from cars, from bikes.

Running for safety

I thought I should get some pictures because I was staying on the fourth floor of my hotel, but other people on the balconies said we had to get on the roof.

I grabbed my equipment and ran outside into the hall. People were screaming "Go! Go!" I ran up the stairs and saw the water coming.

It flowed up to the third floor, you could see it in the stairwell, some people were completely wet.

We watched the chaos from the roof. The water had already started to recede as we got there.

The hardest part for survivors was actually when water receded - the undercurrent sucked people back into the ocean.

The most frightening part was not the wave - it was the panic that ensued.

They are still pulling people out of the debris, one was a small Thai girl - she must have been there all night but she was still alive

There were car accidents, people were trying to escape as everyone was positive another wave was coming.

People - mainly local Thais - went up the roads to the mountain and slept up there for safety.

Within an hour I went back to the beach. I saw bodies. The rescue crews were panicking and there was not much control.

Bodies were pulled from the debris - most had clearly drowned. I also saw a number of fractures - one tourist had a very badly broken arm.

You could constantly hear helicopters - they flew up to about one kilometre out to sea to try to rescue people.

Last night most hotels allowed tourists to sleep for free in their lobbies or by the pool and there was still a lot of fear and misinformation about other waves.

This morning the cleanup started. All the foreigners are in disbelief, there are two or three feet of sand in all these devastated restaurants.

There are piles and piles of rubble deep inland - it looks like a bomb has gone off.

Some bars I went to the night before on the beach are completely gone,. All of the palm trees were flatted or removed. How is water capable of doing that?

They are carting out hundreds of cars and bikes and the streets are still covered with sand.

They really should have cordoned off the streets. There has been a little looting, some last night and today. I saw guys with televisions and computers.

There are people staggering around with injuries, I saw a girl with bandage on her head. Today there have also been sirens which have now died down.

They are still pulling people out of the debris. One was a small Thai girl - she must have been there all night but she was still alive.

Edited December 27, 2004 by Darknight

[gburns57au]

The quake was being discussed here at Thaivisa one hour before the wave hit. That means it was still 500 miles from Phuket.

Swift action would have saved lives, including that of HM's Grandson, who was regarded with affection in Thailand.

Once the initial grief is passed, questions need to be asked of the PM, and sophistry just ain't going to cut it in response.

And none of these people thought to ring the authorities of all the countries involved and warn them of the possible outcome, not even your good self..????

BTW...what the heck is sophistry ???

[Darknight]

BBC world shows amateur videos now from phatong.

DISASTER TOLL update

Sri Lanka: 13,000 dead

Indonesia: 4,500 dead

India: 3,500 dead

Thailand: 839 dead

Malaysia: 44 dead

Maldives: 32 dead

Burma: 30 dead

Bangladesh: 2 dead

Rumours still exist about another 20.000 people killed in Sumatra (ache) not confirmed yet.

Als o more then 30.000 people are not accounted for on the andaman and nicobar islands.

[george]

Marine police rescue stranded tourists

SATUN: -- Marine police based in the southern province of Satun said today that they would be able to rescue 400 tourists stranded on islands around the Satun coastline by the end of the day.

Marine police, who were ordered this morning by Satun Governor Manit Wattanasen to rush to the rescue of domestic and foreign tourists still stuck on Koh Lipe and Koh Adang after yesterday’s tsunami tragedy, this morning managed to evacuate 173 tourists from Koh Lipe, of whom 60 were foreigners.

The remainder of the tourists are to be taken to safety by the end of the day.

Local sources said that the tourists seemed exhausted, but pleased to have been rescued safely.

Describing yesterday’s incident, Miss Nataya Jaiwang, a student at Thaksin University, said that the sea had been calm prior to the tsunami attack, with nothing to indicate what was coming.

The first she heard of the disaster, she said, was a warning announcement from official, at which she rushed with her friends to reach higher ground.

--TNA 2004-12-27

[benlee53]

Has anything been heard about Koh Lack or loc just north of Phuket?

I have a American buddy whom was building a new house on the beach.

He has a little girl name May and his Name is David Saman.

If anyone hears or knows of him please e-mail me at [email protected]

I know its a long shot .

Thank you

Khun Ben

[NamKAheng]

Need help please to find missing people,

Ok guys lets put this board to a good use, I am trying to help somebody who is trying to reach 2 members of his family who were staying at the Sofitel Magic Lagoon Khao Lak and they don't have any contact since the tsunami.

Their name are Pierre Bailleul and it is the father and son and they have de same name so we are looking for 2 Pierre Bailleul. They are from France.

If you can find any information you can e-mail me at [email protected] and I will reply to the family in France since they are not speaking english.

Edited December 27, 2004 by NamKAheng

[britmaveric]

Asia Officials Failed to Issue Warnings

By MICHAEL CASEY, Associated Press Writer

JAKARTA, Indonesia - Asian officials conceded Monday that they failed to issue broad public warnings immediately after a massive undersea earthquake in Indonesia, which could have saved countless lives from the subsequent giant waves that smashed into nine countries as far away as Africa.

India said it would consider establishing a warning system, and Australia and Japan said they would help build it. One Australian official said it would take at least a year to set one up. A basic, regional monitoring system would cost tens of million of dollars.

Also, Thailand's Meteorological Department said the country lacked an international warning system and proper coordination to get messages of impending disasters sent across the country.

"If we had the international warning system, we could give real-time warning to people," said Seismological Bureau official Sumalee Prachuab.

Governments around the region insisted they did not know the true nature of the threat because there was no international system in place to track tidal waves in the Indian Ocean — where they are rare — and they cannot afford to buy sophisticated equipment to build one.

And what warnings there were came too little, too late.

"No one ever told us that these things can be predicted and we can be told about them," said Sumana Gamage, a shopowner in Colombo, Sri Lanka. "Next time I hope our government can do this."

Retired Sri Lankan air force chief Harry Goonetilleke said, "There should have been such an arrangement for the region. This is absolutely not acceptable."

The magnitude 9.0 earthquake — the largest in 40 years — shifted huge geological plates beneath the sea northwest of Sumatra island, causing a massive and sudden displacement of millions on tons of water.

Indonesia villages closest to the temblor's epicenter were swamped within minutes, but elsewhere the waves radiated outwards, gathering speed and ferocity until they made landfall. The waves moved at speeds topping 500 mph.

Waves began pummeling southern Thailand about one hour after the earthquake. After 2 1/2 hours, the torrents had traveled some 1,000 miles and slammed India and Sri Lanka. Malaysia, the Maldives, Myanmar, and Bangladesh were also hit. Eventually they struck Somalia, on the east coast of Africa, where hundreds were reported killed.

The death toll Monday topped 22,000, with millions left homeless.

Indonesian officials said they had no way to know that the earthquake had caused the earthquake-driven waves, or tsunamis, or how dangerous they might have been.

"Unfortunately, we have no equipment here that can warn about tsunamis," said Budi Waluyo, an official with Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency. "The instruments are very expensive and we don't have money to buy them."

But Thammasarote Smith, a former senior forecaster at Thailand's Meteorological Department, said governments could have done much more to warn people about the danger.

"The department had up to an hour to announce the emergency message and evacuate people but they failed to do so," Thammasarote was quoted as saying in The Bangkok Post newspaper. "It is true that an earthquake is unpredictable but a tsunami, which occurs after an earthquake, is predictable."

Kathawudhi Marlairojanasiri, the department's chief weather forecaster, said it issued warnings through radio and television beginning at 9 a.m. Sunday about a possible undertow along the southwest coast of Thailand, where tens of thousands of foreign tourists were vacationing.

But the warnings came after the first waves hit. A Web site warning went up three hours later — but by then, at least 700 people had died in Thailand, including a jet-skiing grandson of revered monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra refused to answer reporters' questions Tuesday about tsunami alerts.

But Australian Prime Minister John Howard said he would investigate what role his country could play in setting up an Indian Ocean warning system.

The head of the British Commonwealth bloc of Britain and its former colonies called for talks on creating a global early warning system for tsunamis. Five Commonwealth countries — India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia and Bangladesh — were among those struck by the massive waves.

"Modern technology would say you should know about these things anywhere in the globe instantly and, therefore, be able to respond to them," Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon told British Broadcasting Corp. radio.

Harley Benz of the U.S. Geological Survey (news - web sites) national earthquake information service in Golden, Colo., said a basic system of seismic sensors and tide gauges could be set up within two years.

"Putting in the sensors is the easy part," Benz said. "The difficult part here would be coordination between emergency response agencies in the region. Then, you have to deal with education, preparedness and training issues."

Scientists said seismic networks in the region recorded Sunday's earthquake, but without ocean sensors tracking the path of the waves, there was just no way to determine the direction a tsunami would travel.

"If they had tidal gauges and a tsunami warning system, many people who died would have been saved," said Waverly Person, director of the USGS (news - web sites) earthquake information service.

"They could have tracked the waves. They won't tell you how high the waves will be, but they can tell you when they will hit. Local authorities can warn citizens to get off the coast."

Such a system presumes, however, an organized communication system and widely understood procedures and discipline by hotel operators, fishing villages and local authorities to clear the coastline quickly in case of a coming disaster.

Most of developing Asia lacks such infrastructure, and casualties were by far highest in three highly impoverished areas — the coasts of eastern Sri Lanka and southeastern India, and the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island.

An international warning system in the Pacific was started in 1965, the year after tsunamis associated with a magnitude 9.2 quake struck Alaska. It is administered by the U.S-based National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Member states include all the major Pacific rim nations in North America, Asia and South America, as well as the Pacific islands, Australia and New Zealand.

Tsunamis occur only occasionally, but they are much rarer in the Indian Ocean than the Pacific, where one occurs every few years.

In Japan, a network of fiber-optic sensors records any seismic activity and passes that information to a powerful computer at the Meteorological Agency, which estimates the height, speed, destination and arrival time of any tsunamis. Within two minutes of the quake, the agency can sound the alarm.

Phil McFadden, chief scientist with the government-funded Geoscience Australia, said places close to the epicenter of the earthquake would have been hit so quickly that any warning would have come too late.

But if there had been a Pacific-style alert system covering the Indian Ocean, "there would have been time for people in Sri Lanka, across in the Maldives or somewhere like that to have done something about it," he said.

[LivinLOS]

Ben, Is that Dave that sold the house in Baan Suan Kamnan to English Steve ???

I know Steve well and met the seller (I am 99% sure thats Dave) a few times.. Remember he was relocating to invest and build in Khao Lak !!! Not trying to worry you but I have a lot of diver friends who were luckily on boats.. Khao Lak being low and flat has been hit hard, same as Phi Phi..

Steve is in S africa last I know.. Will ask in the network..