What to say <img src="/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" />. I know a buddhist monk from Sri Lanka whos entire home village is wiped out. Western news services quote the casualty numbers and their inevitable rise. Attention is given to the number of american and european dead and missing, small yet somehow more important ( the 3000 innocents at WTC included a similar international list.) I was at a restaurant listening to the T.V. coverage. Some idiot commented they were probably all muslims anyway. I 'accidentally' sent a cherry coke and ice tidal wave down his shirt. A hawaiian family here for Christmas told me about their warning system. Tidal waves are to the islands what earthquakes are here. It's cold and raining here tonight. I gave my last emergency car blanket and some food to a transient who was obviously hypothermic and drove him to a safer shelter. Events across the world make me look around at my own little corner.

25.000 dead and still around 30.000 missing. We have waitied on stand-by but there had not been a need for search and rescue support internationally. All happened in a short while those who would live have lived rest are gone for ever. I had been following the disaster through the UN Ops. Center and I am hopeless.

There is a place on bbc.co.uk where people tell their experiences please read here.

There will be much demand on water purification. People also fleed to higher ground and I am sure they will stay there for a long while. They will need food.

The numbers of casualties is mindboggling. The force of nature is humbling. Apparently the quake was strong enough to affect the Earths rotation (don't ask me how or in what way..)
I think what strkes me most is that the names of the places that were hit, read like a holiday brochure. ..There but for the grace of God go I..

Death toll reached 55 000. All the water is contaminated with sea water and human blood. Iodine tabs and boiling water is useless. It's terrible. We have to send money there. Be generous.

I hesitate to post this observation because I don't wish to diminish the tragic aspect of this event, but others have commented on that better than I can, so I will mention the following as an addition to what has already been posted:

I find it interesting from a survival standpoint that some accounts reported that the sea receeded before the main wave hit. I read some reports that hundreds of feet of sea bed were exposed that had never been exposed before. People had no idea what it meant and it actually drew onlookers to the beach where they were exposed to more danger. Some people were gathering fish that were left stranded by the receeding water. I don't know how much time this kind of "warning" would provide, but I guess that would be a good time to run for it. Even 30 seconds or a minute head-start could improve your chances if you were able to reach higher ground or a protected area. I don't recall hearing about this kind of effect before.

The sea withdrawing is one of the known "run for your life" signs you are taught about Tusnamis

I vaguely remember something like that, but I doubt I would have remembered in time. Now I will, though. Thanks for pointing that out.

Yes, the sea withdrawing from the shore is a MAJOR danger signal that means RUN!!!

But the governments there obviously don't educate their people at all about the basic signs and dangers, in a known quake area.

First, the horrendous initial losses. Then, how many more will die from dysentery and cholera and other diseases?

How does an individual send money to help something like that so the assistance actually gets to the people that need it, and not waylaid by greedy pockets? The Red Cross? Others?

Sue

A receeding shoreline may provide as much as 5 minutes warning. This and a bunch of nteresting and important facts are included in a Nation Geographic News article, The Deadliest Tsunami in History?. I specifically found it interesting that they may only be a foot tall in the open ocean and only gain height as they reacg the shallows near shore. This can make predicting difficult. Also, it actually a series of "wave trains," with the first wave not neccessarily being the worst wave.

There's also a link to a special tonight:

Tsunami on the National Geographic Channel
Watch the documentary Tsunami: Killer Waves on the
National Geographic Channel Channel tonight at at 8 and 11 p.m. ET, and again on January 14.

On a small island where would they run to?
Inflate your emergency bullet proof survival bubble?

I gave a donation to the Red Cross via their internet site and credit card.

François

Blaming governments for not educating the people is a natural, but erroneous response. Hawaii has on average 5 tsunamie alerts annually, yet many ignore them just like people who have hurricane parties. This truly is one of those '100 year events.' There are no living Krakatoa survivors that could have maintained an oral tradition of caution. My great grandmother was in the San Francisco earthquake. I am typing this on the massive oak desk she crawled under. My grandmother got under it during the Northridge quake and I can touch scars from the collapsed brick chimney. Of course,I live in an apartment complex with a cedar shake shingle roof and no firewalls in the attic. Brushfires are a annual event here. At best, the current laws mandate replacement with fire retardant materials and we are scheduled for next year. This is a good time for people to rethink possible local catastrophes.

I'm not talking about fools that make the decision to ignore the warnings (57 people at Mt. St. Helens elected to die), but the ones who never had a clue.

All the governments in the world are literate. I doubt that many of them really have to depend on oral history to survive. But their people should?

Some say ignorance is bliss. Hey, look at America! So many people here are functionally illiterate that many of them probably wouldn't recognize the signs of a tsunami, either. "Hey, George, don't that look like a gold watch out there?"

Sue

There will probably be a number of fraud "charitable organizations" that spring up to collect donations for the relief effort, but divert the money to private interests. This certainly happened after the 9/11 tragedy. The Red Cross and Unicef are both bona fide organizations that are already involved in the recovery. I am sure there are many more as well. I would personally direct my giving to the Red Cross since this is right up their alley and I have experience with them. My wife and I have not made a donation yet, but are discussing how much we should/can give.

If giving specificly for the tsunami efforts, remember that millions of dollars given to the red cross for both the '89 Northridge quake and 9/11 were diverted to other IRC intresets. They do not care where you want the money to go, they send it to where they think it should be used. I'm not saying that they are a bad organization, just that you can't expect to have a say so in the matter when the cash leaves your hand. The salvation army sends all the money given for a certain cause to that specific cause, all of it, even if there seems to be 'excess'. Because of this, and the fact that they have helped my family in times of need in the past, I tend to support them over most other relief organizations.

If you want to donate go to: Salvation Army
and click the red 'donate online' button.

-Jeff

If you donate to the Red Cross you can specify where you want the money to go. If you want your money to stay locally or go to something specific the Red Cross will honor your request. But if you just send a check without indicating where you want the money to go they use it where they see fit.

I think it varies from country to country how accountable, and honorable, the Red Cross really are. Unfortunately once the money is donated, the Red Cross do not always follow the directions of the donor.

After the Bali Nightclub Bombings, the Red Cross in Australia came under quite a bit of criticism in the media after much of the money donated (with the instruction that it was for use in Bali) was redirected away from Bali and instead to their day to day running here.

I'm not saying that the Red Cross is worse than any of the other international aid charities here (in fact they're probably the best of the bunch). Hopefully more of the money will go to where it is needed this time around.

Hello Im a new member who has been lurking on the board on and of for a few years. I live in the city of Malmoe in the south of Sweden.

Now a few days after this disaster the difficulties of survival are rather apparent.

It seems that most of the survival courses and availible litterature are on the micro or individual level of survival. Cody Lundgrens excelent book speaks of the 72 hour situation for one person or a small group. What we now see is the macro level survival large numbers of people over large areas, were there is little or no freshwater, food , medical supplies etc availible.

Rescuers and agencies are dealing with helping people with both mental and psycological traumas on a scale that has not been seen outside of a war in many many years.

So does anybody know of any litterature dealing with this form of macro level survival. How to organize a group survival etc.

Regards

/Jonas

For the people affected in this scenario, its about as close to TEOTWAWKI as you can get, not exactly the main focus of topics on this board.
I too have been pondering over the calamity and being in SE asia, feeling particularly vulnerable right now. ( Although I live in a relatively earthquake isolated area of Singapore) It makes you wonder if the PSK and other junk you carry in your pockets are really enough..... <img src="/images/graemlins/blush.gif" alt="" />

Interesting question. I think that most people, at least here in the USA, simply assume that Federal and State government agencies, augmented by non-governmental entities like the Red Cross, will eventually provide relief for large-scale catastrophes. That has been the basis of my long-term emergency planning. In other words, my preparation consists of stockpiling enough food, water, fuel, shelter, and medical supplies to last until relief comes. I have (somewhat arbitrarily) put this at two weeks. I figure that if aid does not arrive by that time, then it may not be arriving at all. I'm still trying to figure out what my fallback position will be then. Perhaps it is time to resusitate the old Y2K mentality -which I never bought into by the way- and stockpile a years worth of stuff like many of my neighbors do.

And yet I'm still pretty certain that, short of an asteroid/comet collision, help will be available and will arrive quickly.

Regards, Vince

A link to an article in The Times. Quite a scathing article in a number of places. In the end it is a plea to give money.
A short extract:
"The West will get bored first — yes, even of this. By the end of January, nobody will be talking much about the earthquake (with the exception of those forced to cancel winter holidays in Thailand and Sri Lanka). Whole towns and villages, sometimes entire islands, and the tourist and fishing industries which support them, their hotels but also their homes and boats, have been devastated. But look at the way the majority of the reports are from the tourist resorts, from Phuket and the southern beaches of Sri Lanka. The farther away from the tourist trail one goes, the less the developed world is interested. Hundreds die in floods in Bangladesh every year — this summer, two thirds of the country was swamped and more than 20 million people were left homeless — and few in the West are much bothered."

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-159-1418301,00.htm

(sorry - you'll have to copy and paste the URL to get to the page..)l

It is true. Why should the west care? Death is a part of life. Be it "natural" or not. Every one of us will die at some point. We don't know when or how, and in all reality, there is very little we can do about it. We can be prepared and equipped, but death is well beyond our control. I do not want to die, but I know it must happen. Please don't take this the wrong way, I'm not a fatalist by any means. I do all that is in my power to prevent the loss of my life, but when it happens, it happens. Who can control earthquakes? Drunk drivers? The 100,000 in SE Asia were all going to die sometime. And remember what Stalin said. To most people, the numbers thrown around today are just statistics. It could be 1,000,000 or 10,000,000. It's not going to make a difference to people who are not personaly affected. Sad but true. I see people who are dying every day here in the US. The homeless, heroin, speed, crack addicts, prostitutes, HIV, AIDS, Hep C patients, alcoholics, car crash victims. Life is fragile. I want to die of old age, but I take risks every day that put me in danger. Even living in the neighborhood that I do increased my chances of being killed. I think that most people need to accept the risks of living - including the 100% fatality rate that comes with it. Do the best you can to keep going, but only God knows when our number is up. I still feel sorry for the loss of so many people in such a short span of time, and I've prayed for the families and survivors every day since the event.

I hope you all don't think I'm some cold harted sob now. Sorry for the rant.

-Jeff

You can never have enough gear, stock, stores, junk, whatever for every situation there could be. The hope with the PSK and other gear is to make it easier to get through those situations and increase your chances of survival. Anything is better than nothing and the more the better provided you know what to do with it.

There is a bit to understand about dedicated donations. Meaning donations where the donor specifies where the donation should go.

First, I need to say that I am a National Red Cross Volunteer.

Just after 9-11, the Red Cross said it would be sure that donations for 9-11 would go to those affected. I don’t know the exact wording, but that was the intent. The result was a gigantic outpouring of donations which were, as specified, routed to those affected. Unfortunately, this restriction prevented using the donations for helping the responders (fire fighters, police, EMT’s), or any support functions. This all came from the general fund.

The Red Cross took a lot of heat for the large amount of assistance they provided to those affected by 9-11. Many said it was far in excess of the assistance normally provided. Yet the resources of the Red Cross are severely depleted. Especially after this summer. I am in Florida at the moment and the situation here is still very critical. Many are still without housing. The panhandle of Florida will probably take years to recover. The Red Cross presence in Florida and elsewhere was expensive and much of its financial strength has been exhausted.

Although my involvement with the Red Cross is mostly in the Technical area, I have gained an appreciation for the way the organization functions. It truly does provide assistance to those in need. There is no ulterior motive in their actions. No religious, political or other requirements, just assistance to those in need.

So, please consider that placing a restriction on your donations may have un-intended consequences. By all means, contribute to the charity of your choice. But if you respect the work of the charity enough to donate, please also respect their ability to decide how to best use those funds.

A link to some videos not shown on tv and some jpg images.

**The one jpg image has a warning for extreme graphic content, and he means it. It isn't pretty.**

http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html

The PSK and "other junk" we carry in our pockets are obviously not enough to defend against a moving wall of water. All you can do in this type of situation is evacuate quickly if you are aware about tsunami hazards and prepared mentally to keep your cool. But this is just one type of survival situation which belongs to the disasters category. Then again, in my humble opinion, if you happen to survive the tidal waves, the PSK could still increase the odds in your favor. For exemple you could use some items in it to help strecth out some kind of tarp and catch rain water until you get help (if you have the luck to get enough rain) I don't know, it's just an illustration. You have to adapt to the situation... The items in the PSK and EDC are based on experience return from a large range of situations. Equippment is only the tip of the iceberg of survival. Will to survive, self-control, physical fitness and knowledge are other factors. And indeed, this site focuses on the equippment part, on gear reviews. So equippement is only one link of the chain. And as in any chain you are only as strong as your weakest link.

I hope this rant makes senses... I'm not a survival expert and I don't have much experience, especially with the ocean. And I really don't think I would have done better than most of the people involved there.

François

Jeff, you are of course correct in that the dead are dead and there's not much that is going to change that. It seems that your post is missing the point, though, which is not so much about the dead, but about the living. They still have the capacity to suffer and it seems like a good thing to hold out a hand right now to try and reduce that suffering. Statistics about the dead are a way of measuring the magnitude of the disaster, but the real number that matters is the number of survivors who continue to suffer in the aftermath and who, with a little aid, can survive the critical period, get their lives back together, rebuild their communities, raise their children and the new orphans, etc.

A small report from Sweden, apparently outside of the disaster region Sweden was hit hardest, 60 dead confirmed, 3500 missing, presumed dead. This in a country with a population of nine miliion. New years day was official day of mourning, luckily non of my near and dear were in the region. Scandinavia has been hit hard and lots of money has been collected, + $30 Milions in a week in sweden alone.

Most of the injured persons have returned home even tough it took a while to organize the transport using air transport regular passengerliners and converted MD-80s to carry stretchers that have to fuel up 3 times on the way.

The media focus has been on Thailand mainly because it there were a lot of swedish tourists there. The aid efforts is mainly sent to Sri Lanka and Sumatra wich were hit the hardest.

Interesting side story on the news about a village that avoided widespread death or harm by paying attention to warning signs, even though they did not know what was coming.

First they heard a moaning sound coming from the sea. Then all of the birds started squaking and flying away. So they ran away from the sea aand up hill and were able to avoid the rushing waves.

A far more sensable reaction than the gawkers who ran down to the shore to see the exposed sea bed.