Do you worry about another tsunami ?

[phuketjock]

As I said several hours ago.

Only fools worry about things that they have no control over.

[Emdog]

I am from Oregon, and even back in the dark ages when I was in grade school they taught us the warning signs. I figure I would have enough time to get up to the seventh floor and make a pot of coffee before the wave hit.

[MrWorldwide]

OP (mrworldwide) I would suggest that you get your facts correct, Thailand did not experience a tsunami in November 2004. No country in SE Asia experienced a tsunami in November 2004.

How come you thought that it did.

I wasn't here that day but I wasn't in 'lah-lah land either"

<deleted> ...

- it's currently November, 2013 : 9 years ago (November, 2004), Thais, Sri Lankans and Indonesians were going about their business, blissfully unaware of the need for decent warning system in their neck of the woods. The Hawaiians had one and the Japanese had one, and there were people who monitored earthquakes - all under control, right ? Only it wasnt 'under control'

- in the early hours of Sunday, December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.3 earthquake off Sumatra triggered a tsunami which killed something in the order of 230,000 people and left many more homeless throughout the region.

- over 8000 deaths in Thailand and ~3000 people missing, entire communities needing to be rebuilt and billions of dollars worth of damage in both infrastructure and the hit on Thailand's tourism industry - how many would be dead if there was a better system in place ?.

The link the mods removed from my OP was a Bangkok Post story about the Thai responsible for ensuring that Phuket is ready for another disaster of this magnitude and he expressed frustration back in April of this year that he just doesn't believe he is getting the support he needs to make it happen. In short, he wanted to put it out there that Phuket isnt prepared for another tsunami / storm surge / inundation event.

In summary, I used November for the simple reason that we may well have lulled ourselves back into the same false sense of security those folk were lulled into as they holidayed in beachfront resorts throughout the region - not because I believed there was a tsunami in November. The next time you want to accuse me of living in lah-lah land, at least have the courtesy to read the links I attach to my post.

[MrWorldwide]

I should have known better than to use the term 'worry' when I should have typed 'Are you concerned about the risk of another tsunami ?'.

I'm *concerned* about the driving habits of my fellow motorists, I'm *concerned* about crime and I'm *concerned* about the risk of contracting a mosquito-borne disease, but I don't actively worry about those things - I agree that's a waste of time. Concerned about a tsunami ? Not really but I dont live on the Thai coast among people who lost family in the last disaster.

As for having no control over tsunamis, of course you do - you choose where to live and where to holiday. For those hellbent on an ocean view, you choose whether you will live in a low-lying area or up high, but looking at the Aceh vision and reading reports of the waves crashing into 30 metre high cliffs well inland from their initial impact, I wouldnt make any assumptions based purely on my choice of dwelling.

Given that so many TVers seem obsessed with the crime rate in Thailand, not to mention the possibility of civil war, its interesting that there appears to be almost zero concern about the risk of a natural disaster taking everything from you. Mai Pen Rai, right ?

(If we are going to scour the news sites anyway, surely an article where a Thai official - allegedly folk not prone to rocking the boat - is prepared to come out and say that Phuket isnt ready for another disaster should register with our frontal cortexes before the latest jet ski scam story ?)

Edited November 20, 2013 by MrWorldwide

[MrWorldwide]

As I said several hours ago.

Only fools worry about things that they have no control over.

As you seem intent on the semantics, I wonder if folk in the US Midwest should 'worry' about the possibility of a late Autumn tornado leaving them homeless at the doorstep of another freezing Winter ? Cant stop it, so why 'worry', right ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/17/washington-illinois-torna_n_4292667.html

Tornados can strike anywhere, but there is an area widely known as 'Tornado Alley' : folk still choose to live there - just as they choose to live in coastal areas throughout Asia - but they build things called storm shelters and that gives them some hope of survival each tornado season. There are still fatalities, but Americans seem to rebuild and get on with their lives - I admire their resilience. My concern is that part of the 'storm shelter' mindset is that they take tornado alarms very, very seriously and they rely on their meteorologists to give them enough warning to get into those shelters. Not seeing a whole lot of 'storm shelter' mentality in the responses thus far.

Someone posted a photo of a small 'atoll' earlier in this thread - I assume it was in PI - that had been flattened by the storm surge and suggested that it will happen again because that 'slice of paradise' will almost certainly be rebuilt. I dont know what Khao Lak or Koh Phi Phi look like today, but I would assume they were also rebuilt after 2004 - no shortage of ads for resorts on Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khao_Lak

My intent in starting this thread was to gauge the degree of apathy which has crept in over the last 9 years, and it's clear that many couldnt give a hoot - its up there with lightning strikes on their list of concerns. Fair enough - I feel much the same way about the prospect of a civil war in Thailand - but I wonder how quickly that would change the microsecond that alarm goes off and you find yourself with sand between your toes ?

End of the day, I could concern myself with the San Andreas fault, or the Yellowstone supervolcano, or greenhouse gases, but none of that bothers me for a second. I care about a relatively small corner of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and I care about the fact that said corner includes the Indonesian archipelago. Geologically, we are all sitting on a volcano, and its a long way from dormant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Indonesia

Hide under the bed ? No. Be alert but not alarmed. F'in A !

Edited November 20, 2013 by MrWorldwide

[Phil Water]

Whats the bet this will be rebuilt in a few years...

So, yes it will happen again.

Context. Where and when is this photo from?

[richard_smith237]

As I said several hours ago.

Only fools worry about things that they have no control over.

As you seem intent on the semantics, I wonder if folk in the US Midwest should 'worry' about the possibility of a late Autumn tornado leaving them homeless at the doorstep of another freezing Winter ? Cant stop it, so why 'worry', right ?

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/17/washington-illinois-torna_n_4292667.html

Tornados can strike anywhere, but there is an area widely known as 'Tornado Alley' : folk still choose to live there - just as they choose to live in coastal areas throughout Asia - but they build things called storm shelters and that gives them some hope of survival each tornado season. There are still fatalities, but Americans seem to rebuild and get on with their lives - I admire their resilience. My concern is that part of the 'storm shelter' mindset is that they take tornado alarms very, very seriously and they rely on their meteorologists to give them enough warning to get into those shelters. Not seeing a whole lot of 'storm shelter' mentality in the responses thus far.

Someone posted a photo of a small 'atoll' earlier in this thread - I assume it was in PI - that had been flattened by the storm surge and suggested that it will happen again because that 'slice of paradise' will almost certainly be rebuilt. I dont know what Khao Lak or Koh Phi Phi look like today, but I would assume they were also rebuilt after 2004 - no shortage of ads for resorts on Google.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khao_Lak

My intent in starting this thread was to gauge the degree of apathy which has crept in over the last 9 years, and it's clear that many couldnt give a hoot - its up there with lightning strikes on their list of concerns. Fair enough - I feel much the same way about the prospect of a civil war in Thailand - but I wonder how quickly that would change the microsecond that alarm goes off and you find yourself with sand between your toes ?

End of the day, I could concern myself with the San Andreas fault, or the Yellowstone supervolcano, or greenhouse gases, but none of that bothers me for a second. I care about a relatively small corner of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and I care about the fact that said corner includes the Indonesian archipelago. Geologically, we are all sitting on a volcano, and its a long way from dormant.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geology_of_Indonesia

Hide under the bed ? No. Be alert but not alarmed. F'in A !

Some seemed too concerned with the wording of your post and use of the word 'worry', rather than assimilating the context and articulating an intelligent response.

Perhaps some have adopted the 'mai-pen-rai' attitude and taken a step backwards in their intellectual evolution.

I often read responses on these forums whereby criticism is thrown towards Thai's who comment 'Farang think too mut' (foreigners think too much).. What I read in this thread is foreigners following a very similar thought process... 'why worry, don't think too much'...

This apathy places them / us at risk. Its all very good being chilled out and not concerning ourselves with issues beyond our control, however, related issues such as Emergency Response are within our control, even in Thailand. Pressure from hotels and the Tourist board can bring influence towards these response measures, this pressure is based on feedback from us, the customer and the consumer.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that we should worry ourselves silly or loose sleep over these issues, however, simply not worrying, or to choose a better term, not concerning ourselves with these issues is the same as burying our head in the sand.

Life is good - Mai Pen Rai - Until as MrWorldwide points out: The alarm goes off and you find yourself with sand between your toes....

Its happened once, it can happen again. Will it? a realist would suggest probably not, will it happen next week? a realist would also suggest, it Could...

[simon43]

Don't be too complacent my friend.

Not complacent at all, just realistic.

Simon

[MrWorldwide]

@richard_smith237, I do *get* that some folk consider another tsunami to be a very remote possibility - thats their call - but when we have a thread where TVers are prepared to discuss the possibility of a civil war and others have an ongoing obsession with the crime rate, I didn't think it would be a problem to ask about how prepared folk are for another natural disaster of that scale. Perhaps a better question might have been : have you participated in any drills and do you feel better prepared in the event of another emergency ?

The thing I find particularly interesting is that the people who generally show little or no faith in any utterance from a Thai official are prepared to blithely ignore something like this:

Director of disaster prevention office said, "I don’t think tourists here should be worried. Usually, there could be earthquakes before a tsunami. And if a quake occurs, we will immediately predict the possibility of a tsunami."

All the footage from the Japanese tsunami shows people trying to outrun ( our out-drive ..) the approaching tidal surge as the alarms blaze away in the background - they simply didnt have enough time to get everyone to safety. Compare the level of preparation in Japan, and their massive technological edge, to coastal resorts in Thailand and tell me the statement above should be 'enough' for those living in the firing line ? It's hand-holding for the tourist industry, pure and simple.

As I said earlier, it's unlikely to directly impact me personally, but if we are going to obsess over man-made disasters perhaps we should throw this into the mix.

[AYJAYDEE]

@richard_smith237, I do *get* that some folk consider another tsunami to be a very remote possibility - thats their call - but when we have a thread where TVers are prepared to discuss the possibility of a civil war and others have an ongoing obsession with the crime rate, I didn't think it would be a problem to ask about how prepared folk are for another natural disaster of that scale. Perhaps a better question might have been : have you participated in any drills and do you feel better prepared in the event of another emergency ?

The thing I find particularly interesting is that the people who generally show little or no faith in any utterance from a Thai official are prepared to blithely ignore something like this:

Director of disaster prevention office said, "I don’t think tourists here should be worried. Usually, there could be earthquakes before a tsunami. And if a quake occurs, we will immediately predict the possibility of a tsunami."

All the footage from the Japanese tsunami shows people trying to outrun ( our out-drive ..) the approaching tidal surge as the alarms blaze away in the background - they simply didnt have enough time to get everyone to safety. Compare the level of preparation in Japan, and their massive technological edge, to coastal resorts in Thailand and tell me the statement above should be 'enough' for those living in the firing line ? It's hand-holding for the tourist industry, pure and simple.

As I said earlier, it's unlikely to directly impact me personally, but if we are going to obsess over man-made disasters perhaps we should throw this into the mix.

the problem in japan was due to low lying areas extending well back from the coast.

[Latikaa]

Sometimes

[LennyW]

I just came back from a job on Sumbawa island Indonesia, i look out my window every morning and see Mount Tambora, a volcano that has been raised from level 1 to Level 2 - Restless, if that pops as it did before then there is a very real risk of a massive disaster that will surely impact Thailand as well. Best to be aware of these things, but worry - not sure?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Tambora