Disaster

Esav Benyamin said:
Considering how damaging even smaller tsunami can be to coastal areas, maybe your governments should set up something like our tornado warning systems. Anyone seeing this happen can send alarms to neighboring meteorological stations to pass it on and set off sirens to warn people off the beaches. Evidently, there was some time between the close in damage and the areas further out, who coud have fled the coast.
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Malaysia hasn't been prepared for this 'cos it never happens in Malaysia. We're not in earthquake territory and countries around the area actually protect us. They actually absorb the damage.

So we don't really have warning systems other than for floods. Which are rarely that bad.

But i think the countries in these areas really need to set this up now. I just find it hard to believe that there could not have even been a 5 minute warning. Even 5 minutes could have saved thousands of lives.
 
Sri Lanka ignored earth quake warnings...so even with the systems in place it doesnt mean they'll listen to any possibility. I truely hope an alert system can be put in place, in Australia and NZ too, western australia got the northern shores hit with a minor effect of the Tsunami. But if it were closer to Java then we'd have felt full Tsunami effects, NZ got lucky last week. With the victems of this hopefully it'll wake some up and place more sensors in the ocean (we have buoy's which detect and sea height change).

It's very sad thinking of how many have lost there lives though...
 
Point44 said:
Malaysia hasn't been prepared for this 'cos it never happens in Malaysia. We're not in earthquake territory and countries around the area actually protect us. They actually absorb the damage.
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When I saw a map of the region with the concentric circles showing the effects of the quake spreading out from just around the island from Malaysia one of my first thoughts was how you guys were very lucky this time.

If the quake hit the northeast of the tip instead of the northwest of the tip, half of Malaysia would have been hammered: bottom of the page.
 
I don't think it will be that bad. There's something about the straits of malacca that is protecting Malaysia. Maybe it's too short a distance for the waves to build up power. And the map is really only showing concentric circles but the power of the earthquake wasn't shown. The circles aren't really true representations of the spread of the quake.

I'm not saying that it will never happen. But it is just unlikely.

Just think about it. Although the quake started in Sumatra, the worst hit was Sri Lanka. Although if a quake does hit Malaysia i don't know how the buildings will hold up as i don't think they were designed with quakes in mind. Any geologists care to advice on the possibility of one happening in Malaysia?

Asia Quake
 
WHERE IS GOLOK??? He wrote to me wishing me a Merry Christmas, he's in Malaysia. Anyone here heard from him??? :( Cavelady
 
There is a convergent plate boundary with the Asian Plate (Sumatra and the area north and east) over riding the Indian Ocean plate. This is called a subduction zone. The mountainous areas of Indonesia and Malaysia are a Volcanic Arc caused by partial melting of the downgoing plate.

The plates lock up and stress gets greater until the upper plate slips WRT the lower. This slip is in a direction equivalent to that in which the upper plate moves. Any tsunami generated will radiate away from the point above the quake (epicenter), but will be strongest in the direction of movement, in this case generally (south?)westerly from Sumatra. I have not seen a vector diagram of the motion of this quake and so can't quantify the direction of maximum wave generation
 
Cindy Denning said:
WHERE IS GOLOK??? He wrote to me wishing me a Merry Christmas, he's in Malaysia. Anyone here heard from him??? :( Cavelady
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Golok seems well and is posting over on the Asian Knife Nuts side of BFC. Take care.
 
I also send my hopes and prayers for the families over in SE asia. I hope this doesn't have a long lasting effect on their economy as I had the fortune to visit Singapore and Thailand a few times from 1989-1992 and found it to be beautiful country with People who were extremely friendly to the point that if you were a guest in their homes they made you feel like family as to make sure you were fed even if they didn't have much extra to feed you with
 
The death count is now over 30,000. :( This thing is going to get very very nasty over the course of the next two or more months !


Our hearts and prayers go out to those that have been touched by this disaster.
 
I have trouble comprehending this but according to the AFP news agency the death toll is now in excess of 55,000 and a toltal of over 100,000 is expected beore all this is over
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/041228/1/3piy8.html

"Logistical problems hampered a massive humanitarian relief operation along Asia's devastated shores as the death toll from a huge earthquake and killer tidal waves surged past 55,000.

With the scale of the catastrophe rapidly unfolding, the confirmed number of dead in 10 countries shot up to 55,335 and looks set to go even higher.

Indonesia's Aceh province accounted for half of those killed, or 27,174, while in Sri Lanka 17,800 were confirmed dead.

The head of Italy's civil emergency relief services, charged with coordinating all rescue operations in the region by the European Union, warned the overall death toll could surpass 100,000.

"The number of victims is destined to increase over the coming days and I fear that in the end it will be more than 100,000 deaths even if we will never know the exact figure because there is no register of the population in most of the affected countries," Guido Bertolaso, director of the Italian civil protection unit said."
 
Is it true that the Sri Lankan government is hanging the rebel areas out to dry aid-wise? If so, that is unspeakably shameful.
 
java said:
Golok seems well and is posting over on the Asian Knife Nuts side of BFC. Take care.
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Thank you Java, I wrote to him today and got frantic, should hear back from him. Thank you again.
 
Cindy Denning said:
Thank you Java, I wrote to him today and got frantic, should hear back from him. Thank you again.
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No problem! I was also worried about Samo and his family and friends traveling from his wedding ceremony. Got an e-mail from him today that put an end to my fears. Samo said that Penang suffered the worst so far. It's difficult waiting to hear from friends as everything unfolds from this distance. Still waiting to hear from friends in India.

j
 
Sri Lankan politics always rises above the people - they refused help by the Israelis.
 
Yeah, that's right, Israel had a field hosptial ready to go including doctors and nurses and lots of medical supplies, but apparently Sri Lanka can do better without.

They should perhaps let the injured people decide!
 
Sri Lanka were the ones who ignored the early warning signs...the stupid fools in power should go down to the coast and see there people, see the masses of dead washing in with the tide. It might change there pathetic perspective, IMO the way of things should always be the People before Politics.
 
Sri Lanka rejects Israel rescuers

Israel has cancelled plans to send a 150-person rescue mission to Sri Lanka after the devastated island objected to the military composition of the team.

The delegation - including 60 soldiers - had been due to set off on Tuesday to help after Sunday's tsunami disaster.

Instead, a smaller team will escort a convoy carrying emergency supplies, Israeli officials said.

Sri Lanka restored diplomatic ties with Israel in 2000, despite objections from the island's Muslim minority.

Neither side has officially explained the change of plan, although some reports say the objection came from Sri Lanka's military.

Sri Lanka Ambassador Diffa Digeratna is quoted by Jerusalem Post as saying that the change was due to the "the lack of accommodations in Colombo".

Israel's army had planned to send staff to set up field hospitals, including internal medicine and paediatric clinics, an Israeli army spokesman said.

Other Israeli agencies have sent emergency relief to Sri Lanka and other tsunami-hit countries.

Humanitarian organisation Latet sent a jumbo jet carrying 18 metric tons of supplies to Colombo, medical teams have been dispatched to Thailand and help offered to India, Haaretz reported.

A rescue-and-recovery team from the Jewish ultra-Orthodox organisation Zaka left for the region on Monday with equipment used for identifying bodies, as well as body bags.
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I'm hoping too much, but still have to hope that S.L polictions wake up and let those in that want to help the ones that need help. I'm sure it would be different if it was one of there own families down on the coast.
My heart goes out to all those affectted.
 
If you think Sri Lanka is bad have a thought for the people in Burma. The military regime in control of that place do not permit ANY reporting of disasters in the country and are highly unlikely to let any outside aid agencies in there. The people affected there are unlikely to get much help at all.
 
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