Killer Tsunami! Death toll now up to 150,000

[quote name='yogi99'][quote name='punqsux']im just curious, how are they comming up with these ever raising death tolls?[/quote]

I'm wondering about the same thing too. Where do they find more dead bodies?[/quote]

They base the # on the # of missing. If your an only child and your parents both die it's going to take some time before people realise your entire family was wiped out. A disaster of this magnatude can wipe out an entire town. No one knows the status of these towns untill someone goes there or someone says "hey my town of 400 people are all dead" or "Hey that town of 400 people isn't there any more". That's how the death toll gets bigger.

It's like the WTC disaster, tons of people went missing. Some ended up in hospitals, but sadly many were just under what was left of the towers.

The same thing is happening here. Only now you have the reality that many people got pulled into the sea and they'll never be seen again.

I'm sure someone had video of the wave. The wave hit too many places for someone to not have tape of it. I'm thinking it's just going to take some time to find the tape and have it reach the media since there must be alot of chaos going on over there. I really do feel bad for those people.
 
I don't understand earthquakes. I realize that they don't happen far inland, and I realize WHAT they are, but I don't realize people's mentality towards them.

I mean, okay, say you're in cali, in a field in a small shack.. just for kicks, let's say you're working a renissance festival. Knives, swords, whathaveyou, everywhere. Would I be wrong in thinking that it'd be safer to go outside? Just go outside and bounce around for a bit until it's over then go back in, and as long as you're in a level field and the ground doesn't start cracking beneath you or something, you'd be fine. Isn't that right? Would you really be like.. 10x safer if you went outside?

//blames ignorance on earthquakes on living in TN his whole life.
 
[quote name='Scorch']I don't understand earthquakes. I realize that they don't happen far inland, and I realize WHAT they are, but I don't realize people's mentality towards them.

I mean, okay, say you're in cali, in a field in a small shack.. just for kicks, let's say you're working a renissance festival. Knives, swords, whathaveyou, everywhere. Would I be wrong in thinking that it'd be safer to go outside? Just go outside and bounce around for a bit until it's over then go back in, and as long as you're in a level field and the ground doesn't start cracking beneath you or something, you'd be fine. Isn't that right? Would you really be like.. 10x safer if you went outside?

//blames ignorance on earthquakes on living in TN his whole life.[/quote]

I live in SoCal and they teach us about earthquakes in school when we are little kids. You don't run out side. Most people don't have knife collections so we don't have to worrry about that problem you mentioned. But it's safer to stay inside because in CA the building have to made to withstand an earthquake. If the building isn't earthquake safe it's not getting built. Out side you run a bigger risk of getting hurt because of falling glass or falling parts of a building. Also if your ass runs out side when your watching TV or sleeping what are the odds you have your shoes on ? And when a quake hits your not going to say "OMG a quake let me get my shoes I know were they are and I'll then run outside" Again your bare feet would get hurt from and broken glass from windows, bottles or debris.

It's not the quake that kills people, shit falling down kills people. So when a quake happens, you stay inside and dive under a table and ride it out. Or you go to a door jam because they are far away from windows and pictures that may fall on you.
 
Okay, so there's a good example.. schools have playgrounds. I realize that shit falling down kills people.. so why couldn't you go on a wide open playground? Say there's 100 feet in every direction from where you are and there's nothing in that direction. Assuming the building is on flat land, would the building not just fall to the ground? It's not like the building is going to shoot out a desk or something. Things just fall down. If you have 100 ft in every direction and everything's okiedokie and there's nothing near you in that 100ft, why would you stay inside under a table and run the risk of the ceiling falling on top of you, which would probably crush the table and kill you? Why wouldn't you run outside? There's nothing around to fly out and kill you.
 
[quote name='orangemage']the death toll is at 20,000+[/quote]

Yep. I'm now seeing 21,000+.

In comparison, this is seven times the amount of people that died in the WTC attacks.

This is awful.

EDIT: Hearing that some people are saying radio stations are reporting 23,000.
 
this is outragous!!
how the hell cant the affected countries not detact the tsunami???? they must be the 3rd world countries yo. shizzzz. i feel really bad that the satelites didnt pick up the earth quake. stupid gay ass advanced technology. I guess the scientists of the freaking world need to go back to Geography 101.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Okay, so there's a good example.. schools have playgrounds. I realize that shit falling down kills people.. so why couldn't you go on a wide open playground? Say there's 100 feet in every direction from where you are and there's nothing in that direction. Assuming the building is on flat land, would the building not just fall to the ground? It's not like the building is going to shoot out a desk or something. Things just fall down. If you have 100 ft in every direction and everything's okiedokie and there's nothing near you in that 100ft, why would you stay inside under a table and run the risk of the ceiling falling on top of you, which would probably crush the table and kill you? Why wouldn't you run outside? There's nothing around to fly out and kill you.[/quote]

As a native of California, I've been through a fair number of quakes, with the first really scary one being the Sylmar quake on February 9th, 1971 when I was six years old. I'd felt tremors before but this was the first time I felt in real danger.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylmar_earthquake

The thing is, earthquakes happen with no warning. Sometimes you get a little tremble that makes you pause, and if you're a California, start thinking about the nearest suitable place to stand if things get interesting. But this is one of those 'bullet-time' moments. If a quake is really happening that first little tremble is just a second at most ahead of the real action. It's happening right now. In a serious shake you don't think about running outside because the movement is too much to remain standing while trying to run. Even worse, in the case of the Sylmar and Northridge quakes, most people were asleep in their beds. Nothing to do but ride it out and hope the building holds up.

The patterns of destruction can be quite strange. The Northridge threw out high differential waves, so that one place would busted up, then another half a mile away but the stuff in between gets away relatively unscathed. I was the night manager of a Crown Books store very near my home. After the sun came up for us to see there was no damage to speak of, I got dressed and went over to see how the store was. Bad, real bad. Every single wall shelf was emptied and every floor shelf was overturned. If it had been that bad at my house we would had injuries and serious property damage for sure.

Earthquakes can happen in places you might not expect. See this map for damage causing quakes in US history. Note the high activity zones deep inland. The New Madrid Fault is feared to be capable of unleashing a jolt that would level buildings in a dozen surrounding states.
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/general/intensity_maps.html
 
It's because part of it is that most of the people are just missing. Washed out to sea never to be recovered.

So as the days pass, and the missing don't show up, it has to be assumed that they've been killed by the Tsunami.

The truth is even once they finalize the death count, it'll probably be short. We'll never know truly how many died.
 
I can see the death toll becoming much higher still. There's tons of missing people that they're not counting as dead yet. As for me, my girlfriend of 4 years' dad is visiting family in Sumatra. We haven't heard from him yet, but that's the most heavily affected region for those of you who don't know. Hope he's well, or at least alive.
 
[quote name='levi333'][quote name='sisco1986'][quote name='JSweeney'][quote name='Wshakspear'][quote name='eldad9']And nobody sees the connection between weather anomalies and global warming...[/quote]
WHAT? CANT HEAR YOU, IM USING HAIRSPRAY[/quote]
Huh? I missed that... I was just bleeding the freon out of my air conditioner..[/quote]

Theres an indian crying behind me.[/quote]

Hahaha, thats priceless. Thanks for the laugh.[/quote]

WTF? That is so wrong. Please shut up.
 
Dude.


Not cool.

If I was religious I would pray for them.

Just feel lucky that you don't live there.
 
[quote name='m_d_amore']And noone thinks it was India or pakistan testing a nuke or something????[/quote]

If it was a nuke, we would know.
 
[quote name='m_d_amore']And noone thinks it was India or pakistan testing a nuke or something????[/quote]

Well, nukes don't cause aftershocks.
 
[quote name='ananag112'][quote name='levi333'][quote name='sisco1986'][quote name='JSweeney'][quote name='Wshakspear'][quote name='eldad9']And nobody sees the connection between weather anomalies and global warming...[/quote]
WHAT? CANT HEAR YOU, IM USING HAIRSPRAY[/quote]
Huh? I missed that... I was just bleeding the freon out of my air conditioner..[/quote]

Theres an indian crying behind me.[/quote]

Hahaha, thats priceless. Thanks for the laugh.[/quote]

WTF? That is so wrong. Please shut up.[/quote]

..apparently you've never seen the commercials.
 
[quote name='Scorch']Okay, so there's a good example.. schools have playgrounds. I realize that shit falling down kills people.. so why couldn't you go on a wide open playground? Say there's 100 feet in every direction from where you are and there's nothing in that direction. Assuming the building is on flat land, would the building not just fall to the ground? It's not like the building is going to shoot out a desk or something. Things just fall down. If you have 100 ft in every direction and everything's okiedokie and there's nothing near you in that 100ft, why would you stay inside under a table and run the risk of the ceiling falling on top of you, which would probably crush the table and kill you? Why wouldn't you run outside? There's nothing around to fly out and kill you.[/quote]

You don't realise we live in CA, most of the people live in huge ass cities like LA. We don't have 100ft of open space. Also if every building had it's people run out, they would get trampled. Remember how they tell people to evacuate a fire slowly ? Well if the earth is moving it's alot more scrary then some fire alarm. Also if everyone ran outside do you have any idea how many people would be on the sidewalks ? And when people run out of buildings they usally don't stop when the hit the curb, so you would have people running out into the street. And having people run out into the streets is never safe.
 
[quote name='Cracka'][quote name='ananag112'][quote name='levi333'][quote name='sisco1986'][quote name='JSweeney'][quote name='Wshakspear'][quote name='eldad9']And nobody sees the connection between weather anomalies and global warming...[/quote]
WHAT? CANT HEAR YOU, IM USING HAIRSPRAY[/quote]
Huh? I missed that... I was just bleeding the freon out of my air conditioner..[/quote]

Theres an indian crying behind me.[/quote]

Hahaha, thats priceless. Thanks for the laugh.[/quote]

WTF? That is so wrong. Please shut up.[/quote]

..apparently you've never seen the commercials.[/quote]

The one with the native american? I believe I saw it awhile back, but it is still wrong IMO in that context. Maybe I am just overly sensitive about this beause I am Indian.

BTW: What is the new politically correct term for "Native American?"
 
One thing that suprises me is that no one has yet shown a picture of the Tsunami at it's peak. Nearly everything I've seen shows the wave at most ten feet in height. But in Sri-Lanka they were reporting it at thirty feet.

This is literally an event of biblical porportions. The likes of which has not been seen in three hundred years. And this Tsunami may have been more devastating. This may be the most devastating natural distaster since the great freeze of the 12th Century. It's one of the greatest in recorded history, up there with the great flood.
 
[quote name='m_d_amore']And noone thinks it was India or pakistan testing a nuke or something????[/quote]

I don't think you appreciate the amount of energy involved in a 9.0 earthquake. This would not only exceed anything in our arsenal, it would be the largest man-made energy release ever. Add to that the difficulty of placing and detonating such an incredibly expensive device in the right deep water location to cause the displacement needed to generate these massive water movements.

No one RATIONAL thinks this was anything other than nature doing its thing. Comparable events have occurred long before the existence or even theoretical existenc eof nuclear weaponry.
 
[quote name='KingDox'][quote name='Scorch']Okay, so there's a good example.. schools have playgrounds. I realize that shit falling down kills people.. so why couldn't you go on a wide open playground? Say there's 100 feet in every direction from where you are and there's nothing in that direction. Assuming the building is on flat land, would the building not just fall to the ground? It's not like the building is going to shoot out a desk or something. Things just fall down. If you have 100 ft in every direction and everything's okiedokie and there's nothing near you in that 100ft, why would you stay inside under a table and run the risk of the ceiling falling on top of you, which would probably crush the table and kill you? Why wouldn't you run outside? There's nothing around to fly out and kill you.[/quote]

You don't realise we live in CA, most of the people live in huge ass cities like LA. We don't have 100ft of open space. Also if every building had it's people run out, they would get trampled. Remember how they tell people to evacuate a fire slowly ? Well if the earth is moving it's alot more scrary then some fire alarm. Also if everyone ran outside do you have any idea how many people would be on the sidewalks ? And when people run out of buildings they usally don't stop when the hit the curb, so you would have people running out into the street. And having people run out into the streets is never safe.[/quote]

Plenty of California is non-urban, that isn't really the issue. The big factor that most people who've never experienced an earthquake don't get is that, unlike tha movies and TV that try to milk for duration by showing many simultaneous events so that it seems to be occurring over the course of minutes, an earthquake is immediate. It happening RIGHT NOW and there isn't time or stability to think about running outside.

After the Northridge quake, my place of employment in Thousand Oaks was closed for several days due to cracks in the building and resulting doubts about its safety. So we had to wait in line for inspectors to come by and verify whether it was structural or cosmetic. So were sent over to the Simi Valley store to help clean up there and get it open. At one point me and another employee were in the back room sorting out inventory when a major aftershock hit. All we could is look at each other with tense expressions. Going anywhere really wasn't an option. When it was over we came forward to find all of the others were hanging out in the parking lot but admitted they hadn't reached the door befor eit was over. We made a big show of calling them wimps and pussies but really it wasn't like we'd had any choice in staying where we were at the time.
 
[quote name='Admiral Ackbar']One thing that suprises meis that no one has yet shown a picture of the Tsunami at it's peak. Nearfly everything I;'ve seen shows the wave at most ten feet in height. But in Sri-Lanka they were reporting it at thirty feet.

This is literally an event of biblical porportions. The likes of which has not been seen in three hundred years. And this TSunami may have been more devastating.[/quote]

I imagine that anyone close enough to get a good pic of the wave at its peak was killed.

Also, since nuclear weapons were mentioned...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6759529/site/newsweek/

What about other events, like say the detonation of a nuclear bomb?
This quake was more powerful. It has been calculated that the energy released on Sunday was 23,000 times that of the explosion of the nuclear bomb at Hiroshima (Japan). A large portion of the earth’s crust—1,000 km (620 miles) in length by 100 km (62 miles) in width running from Western Sumatra to Myanmar—moved. And that is where they are feeling the aftershocks now.

 
I heard this on the local homepage news, but i didn't know of the scale of this disaster. My prayers go out to them. Just kinda makes you wonder on the condition of our planet or brings up one of those world ending movies.
 
I watched the ABC Nightly news yesterday and there were a few amateur recordings of the waves as they rolled into the hotel resorts and beaches.
They also showed some crazy historical footage of these hitting Japan in the past .
The big thing they need to curtail now is the onset of disease and lack of water and food. Unfortunately many of the roads were completely washed out making it extremely difficult for relief to get to those that need it most.
 
tsunami_122804.jpg
 
[quote name='Admiral Ackbar']The death toll nearly doubled overnight to 40,000.

As many as half the dead could be children.[/quote]


wow

i was watching last night and the death toll was like 23,000 and then they said they just got word from an island of about 25,000 people that around 80% of the island was killed. I was hoping they had included those people in the death toll already but apparently they hadn't.

from what they said on the news, when the earthquake happened, there were children playing on the beach. The waters receded reallly fast, so the children chased the water out looking for sea shells and stuff. Then the huge ass wave came down on top of them.


oh yea, fox news says death toll is up to 44,000

and they also said more people may die from disease resulting from this disaster than those killed by the actual wave.
 
this thread has been my only source of news on this, because i think its just too depressing to read more about, but this is really really sad =o\
 
i hope my friend from malaysia is ok even though i have lost touch with her about 4 years ago. this really is depressing...
 
Damn. Sad sad stuff.

I have a friend that's in Bangladesh right now. I don't think they're very affected, but i wrote her an e-mail to try and find out anyway... :( sux.
 
HOW YOU CAN HELP

The following aid agencies are accepting contributions for assistance that they or their affiliates will provide for those affected by the earthquake and tsunamis in Asia.

American Red Cross

International Response Fund

P.O. Box 37243

Washington, D.C. 20013

800-HELP NOW

www.redcross.org

Catholic Relief Services

P.O. Box 17090

Baltimore, MD 21203-7090

888-HELP-CRF

www.catholicrelief.org

Direct Relief International

27 South La Patera Lane

Santa Barbara, CA 93117

805-964-4767

www.directrelief.org

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières

P.O. Box 2247

New York, NY 10116-2247

888-392-0392

www.doctorswithoutborders.org

Evangelical Lutheran Church in America's (ELCA) International Disaster Response (IDR) agency

www.elca.org/disaster/sasiatsunami.html

International Medical Corps

11500 West Olympic Blvd., Suite 506

Los Angeles, CA 90064

800-481-4462

www.imcworldwide.org

International Orthodox Christian Charities

Middle East Crisis Response

P.O. Box 630225

Baltimore, MD 21263-0225

877-803-4622

www.iocc.org

Mercy Corps

P.O. Box 2669

Portland, OR 97208

800-852-2100

www.mercycorps.org

Operation USA

8320 Melrose Avenue, Ste. 200

Los Angeles, CA 90069

800-678-7255

www.opusa.org
 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cholera

It may seem bizarre after how many were killed by water but the single biggest need the survivors will face is the need for safe drinking water. The deaths by cholera and some similar pathogens in the wake of floods and situations like this can double the already stunning numbers.
 
If I may say, more people may watch Fox, but they're frankly fools. Of all the media channels, only CNN is giving this decent coverage. Every time I turn on CNN they have new information, new innterviews, on the scene pictures, and the latest video.

I just turned on MSNBC. They have some wack new age Guru discussing how to avoid Alzeihmers. On Fox news they're discussing Illegal Immigration.

One of the worse natural disasters in the history of mankind... Something that occurs once every five hundred years or so... Rivaled by Krakatoa, Cascadia, and the Little Ice Age of the 14th century. That dwarfs Hurricane Mitch or the Iranian Earthquake that occured just a year ago and killed 30,000. Something that could see 200,000 dead after when everything is through.

Yet CNN is the one that's breaking all the news. They just showed a new bit of amazing video. Of some guys taping from the second floor of their hotel in Thailand and the water rushing into that level through the windows.
 
[quote name='Admiral Ackbar']theres been a Tsunami in Sri Lanka that has possiblly killed wel over a thousand
[/quote]

I would just like to point out the magnitude at this, look at Admirals original post...possibly 1000 people...now up to 40,000
 
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