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shadeaux63
Keeper of dreams
Posts: 1045
(12/26/04 11:00 am)
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Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
I'm just posting the articla,and all I can say is,Please keep all these people in your hearts and prayers.
Asian Quakes' Tsunami Kill More Than 7,000
By LELY T. DJUHARI
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) - The world's most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into villages and seaside resorts across southern and southeast Asia on Sunday, killing more than 7,000 people in six countries.
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high that swept across the Bay of Bengal, unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
In Sri Lanka, 1,000 miles west of the epicenter, more than 3,000 people were killed, the country's top police official said. At least 1,870 died in Indonesia, and 1,900 along the southern coasts of India. At least 198 were confirmed dead in Thailand, 42 in Malaysia and 2 in Bangladesh.
But officials expected the death toll to rise dramatically, with hundreds reported missing and all communications cut off to Sumatran towns closest to the epicenter. Hundreds of bodies were found on various beaches along India's southern state of Tamil Nadu, and more were expected to be washed in by the sea, officials said.
The rush of waves brought to sudden disaster to people carrying out their daily activities on the ocean's edge: Sunbathers on the beaches of the Thai resort of Phuket were washed away; a group of 32 Indians - including 15 children - were killed while taking a ritual Hindu bath to mark the full moon day; fishing boats, with their owners clinging to their sides, were picked up by the waves and tossed away.
``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.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
On Sumatra, the quake destroyed dozens of buildings - but as elsewhere, it was the wall of water that followed that caused the most deaths and devastation.
Tidal waves leveled towns in the province of Aceh on Sumatra's northern tip, the region closest to the epicenter. An Associated Press reporter saw bodies wedged in trees as the waters receded. More bodies littered the beaches.
Health ministry official Els Mangundap said 1,876 people had died across the region, including some 1,400 in the Aceh provincial capital, Banda Aceh. Communications to the town had been cut.
Relatives went through lines of bodies wrapped in blankets and sheets, searching for dead loved ones. Aceh province has long been the center of a violent insurgency against the government.
The worst known death toll so far was in Sri Lanka, where a million people were displaced from wrecked villages. Some 20,000 soldiers were deployed in relief and rescue and to help police maintain law and order. Police chief, Chandra Fernando said at least 3,000 people were dead in areas under government control.
``It is a huge tragedy,'' said Lalith Weerathunga, secretary to the Sri Lankan prime minister. ``The death toll is going up all the time.'' He said the government did not know what was happening in areas of the northeast controlled by Tamil Tiger rebels.
An AP photographer saw two dozen bodies along a four-mile stretch of beach, some of children entangled in the wire mesh used to barricade seaside homes. Other bodies were brought up from the beach, wrapped in sarongs and laid on the road, while rows of men and women lined the roads asking if anyone had seen their relatives.
Around one million people were displaced from their homes, Weerathunga said.
In India, beaches were turned into virtual open-air mortuaries, with bodies of people caught in the tidal wave being washed ashore.
In Tamil Nadu state, just across the straits from Sri Lanka, 1,567 people were killed, said the state's top elected official, Chief Minister Jayaram Jayalalithaa.
Another 200 died in neighboring Andhra Pradesh state, 102 in Pondicherry and 28 others in Kerala and elsewhere, according to the governments in each state.
``I was shocked to see innumerable fishing boats flying on the shoulder of the waves, going back and forth into the sea, as if made of paper,'' said P. Ramanamurthy, 40, who lives in Andra Pradesh's Kakinada town. ``I had never imagined anything like this could happen.''
The huge waves struck around breakfast time on the beaches of Thailand's beach resorts - probably Asia's most popular holiday destination at this time of year, particularly for Europeans fleeing the winter cold - wiping out bungalows, boats and cars, sweeping away sunbathers and snorkelers, witnesses said.
``Initially we just heard a bang, a really loud bang,'' Gerrard Donnelly of Britain, a guest at Phuket island's Holiday Inn, told Britain's Sky News. ``We initially thought it was a terrorist attack, then the wave came and we just kept running upstairs to get on as high ground as we could.''
``People that were snorkeling were dragged along the coral and washed up on the beach, and people that were sunbathing got washed into the sea,'' said Simon Clark, 29, a photographer from London vacationing on Ngai island.
On Phi Phi island - where ``The Beach'' starring Leonardo DiCaprio was filmed - 200 bungalows at two resorts were swept out to sea.
``I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea and also my staff,'' said Chan Marongtaechar, owner of the PP Princess Resort and PP Charlie Beach Resort.
Indonesia, a country of 17,000 islands, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location on the margins of tectonic plates that make up the so-called the ``Ring of Fire'' around the Pacific Ocean basin.
The Indonesian quake struck just three days after an 8.1 quake struck the ocean floor between Australia and Antarctica, causing buildings to shake hundreds of miles away but no serious damage or injury.
Quakes reaching a magnitude 8 are very rare. A quake registering magnitude 8 rocked Japan's northern island of Hokkaido on Sept. 25, 2003, injuring nearly 600 people. An 8.4 magnitude tremor that stuck off the coast of Peru on June 23, 2001, killed 74.
Associated Press reporters Dilip Ganguly and Gemunu Amarasinghe in Colombo, Sri Lanka, K.N. Arun in Madras, India, and Sutin Wannabovorn in Phuket, Thailand, contributed to this report.
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shadeaux63
Keeper of dreams
Posts: 1047
(12/28/04 1:32 pm)
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Re: Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
The death toll is now well over 44,000,and still expected to continue climbing.This is nothing short of horrific.
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WalksWith
She Walks in Beauty and light
Posts: 97
(12/28/04 6:10 pm)
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Re: Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
My thoughts, prayers & love to all the families and friends of lost ones, the injured and the still missing.
Love & Peace
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narshaadha
Moderator
Posts: 500
(12/28/04 6:27 pm)
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Re: Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
I got this in my e-mail and wanted to share it as it involves helping our Earth Mother, as well as the people. The death toll is up to 52,000 as of this evening on yahoo news.
" Aho Friends,
From Rainbow Eagle and Mary Rainbow Snake for those who may be interested or for those who wish to participate.
Namaste,
SpiritDancer
In a message dated 12/27/2004 6:56:54 PM Eastern Standard Time, info@rainboweagle.com writes:
Aho! Community,
We want to let you know that we will be having a pipe ceremony at 9:30 p.m. on Tuesday evening (Ohio Time) 7:30 p.m. (Colorado Time) in support of the relief efforts now taking place in the Eastern part of the world. Our thoughts are with those who have lost loved ones, the survivors, those who are attempting to provide aid and Mother Earth as she makes her adjustments.
You may join us in what ever way you feel is appropriate. Some of you have personal prayer pipes that you might choose to use in support of your prayers. For those of you who are care-taking a regional or small group pipe, you might share the pipe with others who want to come together for prayer. If you can't be with us at the exact time remember that Spirit knows no time limitations so you can "tune in" whenever you are able to and still connect.
This is a time for all people to send love to our Earth Mother and to all those who are in need of balance and healing. Let us extend the spirit of community that we all experience together to those who need it so much.
Love and Blessings,
Rainbow Eagle and Mary Rainbow Snake "
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sjay66
Village Visitor
Posts: 5
(12/29/04 11:56 pm)
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Re: Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
I feel that one thing that is coming and will come from this trajedy, is the coming closer of the world and countries. It is amazing that when something like this happens how the world can come together to help our fellow humans. Maybe... just maybe it is a blessing indisguise. I know many around the world would not see it this way, but the love around the world is truly being seen at the moment, in the way of help to those countries, and people that are suffering.
It amazes me, that it takes something like this to happen to see just how the world could be, if all loved each other instead of fighting over land, religion, race or the colour of someones skin.
Lets hope we learn something from this as humans.
Just my thought... Steve
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Akuma Kijin
Defender Beast and Fowl
Posts: 155
(1/13/05 9:38 pm)
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Re: Massive earthquake has killed over 7000
that is a very uplifting way to look at it and I think your right sjay66. With any kind of luck the world will be a beter world after this.
~Sam
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