Earthquake

Earthquake

Just makes you realise how lucky we are at Christmas, MILLIONS of people affected by the biggest quake in 40 years... I for one am gonna be making a donation to the appeals that will follow and i hope of you that can afford it will too....

All my thoughts and wishes are going out to these people..

AND my best mate is in Sri Lanka atm im hoping he is ok

Can't beileve i was in Phucket and Krabi not 18 months ago and now its ruined.......

first i've heard? been on the news this morning?

switch on sky news... it's all over the place... major, major disaster...

Ananova:

Hundreds killed as quake hits Asia

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered massive tidal waves that slammed into coastlines across Asia, killing more than 1,500 people in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centred off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where at least 94 people were killed by floods and collapsing buildings, officials said.

But the scope of the disaster became apparent only after waves as high as 20ft crashed into coastal areas throughout the Indian Ocean and Adaman Sea.

In Sri Lanka -- some 1,000 miles west of the epicentre -- officials reported 1,000 dead and more than 500,000 affected by the wall of water.

Reports from India said as many as 500 had been killed along the southern coast. Another 61 were confirmed dead in Thailand and 10 in Malaysia. Thousands of people were missing, many of them fishermen at sea, and rescue workers struggled against floodwaters to find and evacuate stranded victims.

The death toll climbed by the hour and was expected to grow even higher as more bodies were discovered. 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 US Geological Survey's Web site recorded the magnitude 8.9 earthquake off the west coast of northern Sumatra, 1,000 miles northwest of Jakarta. It was centred 25 miles below the seabed. Aftershocks struck in the magnitude 7 range.

The earthquake was the world's fifth most powerful since 1900 and the strongest since a 9.2 temblor rocked Alaska in 1964, US earthquake experts said.

The force of the event was felt unusually far afield, causing buildings to sway hundreds of miles away, from Singapore to the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand, and in Bangladesh, hours after the region's Christian communities had finished Christmas celebrations.

Initial damage centred on Banda Aceh, capital of the Indonesian province of Aceh on northern Sumatra. Dozens of buildings were destroyed, but as elsewhere, much of the death toll appeared to come from onrushing floodwaters.

Re: Earthquake

Really??? We are going near there next year. Blimey

WHAT?!?!?! look at any news site, watch any news channel... thousants dead already in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand as well as the maldives totally flooded...

Wave that hit sri lanka was 7 meters

Re: Re: Earthquake

Im not sure you will be able too hun... Its all washed away...

From the BBC website: Thousands of people have been killed across south and east Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years.
The 8.9 magnitude quake struck Aceh in Indonesia, sending a wall of water across thousands of kilometres of sea.

At least 1,500 died in Sri Lanka and more than 1,000 were killed in India.

Casualty figures are rising throughout the region including in the tourist resorts of Thailand, which were packed at the peak of the holiday season.

DISASTER TOLL
Sri Lanka: 1,500 dead
India: 1,000 dead
Thailand: 100 dead
Indonesia: 400 dead
Malaysia: 7 dead
Source: Government officials


UK rescuers fly to quake zone
In pictures: Quake disaster

At least 400 people died in Indonesia, but exact numbers for people killed, injured or missing in the countries hit, are hard to confirm.

Hundreds are still thought to be missing from coastal regions and, in Sri Lanka alone, officials say more than one million people have been affected.


Click here for map of affected area

Severe flooding hit the low-lying Maldives islands in the Indian Ocean, more than 2,500km (1,500 miles) from the quake's epicentre.

Harrowing reports of people caught in the devastation and dramatic tales of escape from the waves are emerging from around the region.

A resident of Kakinada in India's southern Andra Pradesh province, P Ramanamurthy, said he saw fishermen clinging to upturned boats being swept out to sea.

"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," he told the Associated Press news agency.

Resort 'wiped out'

In Thailand, hundreds of holiday bungalows are reported to have been destroyed on the popular Phi Phi island.


The beach in India's Madras was packed when the waves hit
Resort owner Chan Marongtaechar said he feared hundreds of people may have been lost.

"I am afraid that there will be a high figure of foreigners missing in the sea, and also my staff," he told AP after telephoning employees from Bangkok.

There has been little news from Indonesia, particularly the strife-torn region of Aceh thought to be at the heart of the earthquake, but one caller told a radio station he had seen people killed in floods, AP said.

Panicked people reportedly fled their homes in the towns of Medan and Banda Aceh, the capitals of two of Sumatra's provinces.


It's terrible - the rain and the wall of water and the horrific shaking; in so many years of living here I have not ever seen anything as terrible as this

Kareemoff Sumyun Gy,
Jakarta


Tell us your experiences
Electricity and telephone networks in the area have stopped working, making it difficult to confirm the extent of the damage, the BBC's Rachel Harvey in Jakarta reports.


Hundreds more people are hurt or homeless across the region.

In Sri Lanka, President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a national disaster and the military has been deployed to help rescue efforts.

Indonesia's location - along the Pacific geological "Ring of Fire" - makes it prone to volcanic eruptions and earthquakes.

Sunday's tremor - the fifth strongest since 1900 - had a particularly widespread effect because it seems to have taken place just below the surface of the ocean, analysts say.

Bruce Presgrave of the US Geological service told the Reuters news agency: "These big earthquakes, when they occur in shallow water... basically slosh the ocean floor... and it's as if you're rocking water in the bathtub and that wave can travel throughout the ocean."


Oh no!! Kho Phi Phi is meant to be one the lushest islands!! :cry2: How awful. Theres quite a tally of dead ppl there

Horrible horrible thing to happen.

Im totally gutted. For all the dead ppl obviously and all the beauty thats been washed away.

I love Ko Phi Phi

I can see final detah toll being in the tens of thosands..

Many tourist on Phucket beach were just washed away into the sea

Its high season there too

Puts things in perspective this time of year, we have such an easy life here but take it for granted.....


And i cant get in touch with my best mate in Sri Lanka its doing my nut in

:cry2:

I cant believe it. Was there no warning??! :shock: Im gonna be petrified going diving there now Ill be doing it around Kho Samui tho. Has it reached over to there and Kho Pha Ngan?? I cant find anything about it :spangled:

No hun those islands are on the other side so were not affected....

Fanks Will these countries recover from this? Can they afford to rebuild? Im totally gutted.

It will take years and years, torism is there main source of income in thailand so they will struggle

Cookie, dont worry about it, Iv been speaking to someone in Phuket just a hour ago and its isnt "washed away" as Spunk Trickle puts it AT ALL. Phuket was hit by a large wave that just sweapt throught the place. The wave althought not massive was really strong and sweapt the streets etc, no huge damage to the citys buildings.

You love a festive drama you do

Lastest reports are 4 or 5 tourists washed away .....