8.9 magnitude
 

I'm surprised no one has posted about this. For many of us, this is the strongest earthquake in our lifetime. I hope that the estimate of 700 people does not get much higher. What is weird for me is that I was watching the earthquake scene in the movie Superman when this was happening in real life.

Mother Nature kicking our asses. I hope any TFPers who may be near this expansive area are well.

Yahoo!

Wow, thats huge.
Last major earthquake I knew of, was the one in Iran, 50,000 people died there.
Wasn't very big, but had so many casualitys.

I too...hope the death toll is a minmal as possible. Having grown up in California, I got so used to Earthquakes, I believe I have become conditioned to them. They are a truly frieghtening experience, and I hope all is well with those who went through it.

I think its being reported now as closer to 8.5?

I think the death toll will be at least 10,000 - I think they are quotying 1,500 already

edit - death toll now being given as 3,500 and rising.

it does make you think, grant some perspective... I am sure a lot of people have the Christmas Blues, I know I have, and always do this time of year... but today I still have a home, I still have a life, I am not searching for my loved ones to see if they are amongst the dead. A lot to be thankful for.

Fox's AP feed says 5600 and rising. Suddenly feel quite useless here in my little sheltered sphere of reality, surrounded by Christmas wrapping & food.

From Yahoo link.
This freaks me out, even though this is literally on the other side of the planet from me.

I've been reading about this on the BBC news - I'd reccomend them for thorough coverage, including accounts from people who were there. It looks incredibly bad, thousands dead. Since I live about four blocks from the ocean (and also lived through a large earthquake), this sort of story really makes me think - if that earthquake had happened on this side of the Pacific it would have been my town that was washed away. :eek:

http://www.crystalinks.com/rof2.gif

The quake happened at the Western part of what is called The Ring of Fire. The Eastern part of the Ring of Fire is our (America's) West coast.

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/image...ake_map416.gif

yeah, Fox is now quoting 7,000 - I think it could be 20,000 by the end. This is a truly awful tragedy.

Here's the BBC link I've been following:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/...er/default.stm

It's sorta scary to read about some of the stuff in Phuket, people being washed from their beachside cabins or lounge chairs and washing up dead later in the day. I live in Hong Kong and was vacationing in Thailand this spring break, and I've been on those exact beaches and islands, and can see how devastating even a moderate-sized wave would be. There's not as many people as there would be in the spring or summer (it's now a chilly 84F during the days), but it's still a real tragedy.

BBC is now quoting over 9,500.

Very disturbing and sad event.

Here are the links I've been following:
http://slashdot.org/articles/04/12/2...8.shtml?tid=99 Slashdot discussion
http://www.command-post.org/nk/

I'm contacting my collegues on that side of the world to see how they are faring...

So far nothing in the immediate areas, but we'll see just what continues...

11,500 is the latest death toll! i am supprised it is not more considering most of the area is very hevely populated and not very far above sea level!!!
one thing that is pissing me off about the media's coverage of this is that the comercial chanels here is australia are not doing much in the way of covering it! it is simply a side note on the news.
this is a major catastrophy! and they are turning a blind eye!
we wouldn't be able to escape it if it were america, that all that would be on the news!

---and here I am setting around being pissed of that the frost kiled two of my plants last night----HE does have a way of getting our attention and making us evaluate what is really important...God Bless them all...VG

My family was in that region on vacation just a few months ago. I'm glad they're not there today.

wow, scary stuff. Maybe I should start watching the news. I had no idea this was going on until now. God bless those places that need it!

*clavus shakes head sadly and makes the following prediction - over 20,000 dead*

Reuters is reporting 12,300. I wonder how many more will die from disease and famine where this wave hit.

There is really nothing much to say as it won't do any good, but it seems as if the whole world is slowly falling apart in the past few years. We are plagued with natural disasters and wars. Maybe it’s a warning, maybe not, either way, something tells me we won't last much longer.

If anyone has sound information, as to places that receive donations (of money and goods) for immediate help... I for one want to help. Please keep us posted. Hopefully everyone World Wide will step up to the plate and offer assistance.

Very sad, indeed.

The world isn't falling apart. The earth has been doing stuff like this for billions of years. Only now it's happening during a time when humans are around.

Yes, but it has been happening much more often in the past several years than any time I could remember. When you look at all the natural disasters that have happened in the past 5 years, it is pretty incredible, everything from earthquake after earthquake to hurricane after hurricane. Also, wars and terrorist attacks all around the world is getting out of hand.

That's like trying to make a straight line a kilometer long with two points a cm apart.

Anyway, a friend of mine has parents sailing around the world and they're somewhere around Malaysia right now. No word yet, I really hope they're okay.

It's a terrible thing to think of an earthquake this size. No warning like a hurricane, just out of the blue. My thoughts are with those involved. :(

yeah, news clips showed flooding devastation in asia.

I just think it's wierd to think while I was playing with my new ipod, halfway across this rock we call Earth, thousands of people were dying in a massive earthquake.

Really puts things into perspective somehow.

Over 14,000 according to the BBC

May their souls rest in peace.

Over 20,000 now being reported and supposed to go higher. And the magnitude is now being reported at 9.0

I went through our little 1990 7.1 ride in the Santa Cruz mountains. Knew several people who closed up shop and moved back to the mid-west and the safety of tornadoes because of it. While we did have numerous tremors in the year preceding the big one, the invisible approach was more than they could sleep with.

This disaster is a strong lesson for our geologists and governments in handling future incidents. Earthquake watch groups around the world claim to have attempted contact with the affected areas for hours, but could find no infrastructure who would listen, let alone deal with evacuations. No doubt finger pointing will be rampant. The whole thing really is tragic.

What's amazing, fascinating, interesting, scary, frightening or whatever, is that this affected so many countries...you know what I mean? You hear of terrible quakes in Turkey, Japan, China, Mexico, even America but those are in one country and land-based (usually). This one just does a shake in the ocean floor and like ripples in a pond...produce waves that keep going until they hit something. This wave travelled thousands of kilometers and hit the African coast (Somolia..I think) and 9 were confirmed missing. Unbelievable!!

I first heard of the quake (and following tidal wave) when the count was in its 100's. the second time it was thousands and last it was above 20000. It felt weird seeing al of it unfold in front of my eyes in full colour and sound and not being able to do anything. Made me appreciate my safe and uneventfull personal Christmas.

My thoughts go out to all those involved. Good luck

Its already over 22,000 and .. I just have no idea where its going to stop . Including 3 people reported drowned in Somalia.

I just read a report it could be up to hundreds in Somalia. What a monumental tragedy.

I finally heard back from our friend in Thailand... I'm still waiting to hear from my cousin...

very sad... very very sad.

she said in a previous email that even the tall buildings in Bangkok were affected...

Opened the local paper here this morning and read about another family friend that was in the area. He's in Thailand with his wife and daughter on holidays. They're all right and their story of the destruction from the massive waves is harrowing.

The stories coming out now of people being swept out to see, dragged across coral and on and on are just terrible, I cannot imagine what it's like to be involved with something like this.

It's good to hear your friend is okay Cynthetiq.

Glad to hear some of our TFP friends are ok. I can't imagine what it must have been like going through that ordeal. The toll is now over 23,000 by some accounts and I expect it to grow even more.

Praying for those overseas......

yahoo said that over a 620-mile section of the fault line shifted. It must have taken decades for the pressure to build up that far. Even if the shift along the line was 1 inch, it was over 600 MILES of the ocean floor that shifted at the same time!

The current death toll is over 23,000.

I urge any of you who can to donate some money, no matter how small, to disaster relief funds. Choose from the following small list

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp
http://donate.wvus.org/OA_HTML/xxwvi...lpos=main1text
http://www.supportunicef.org/site/pp...1LdP0G&b=45523
http://www.oxfam.org/eng/donate.htm


Every dollar, every single dollar, counts. You can save lives from your home by donating as little as $5.

Please help.



Mr Mephisto

wow, thats alot bigger than i thought, i heard afew small things about this, but never caught anyheadlines untill this thread was posted

it's shocking that that actually disrupted earth's axis

The video footage of the wave reactions in Sri Lanka and the Maldives is just ridiculously amazing. There's nothing and then the wave slams into the coast line like nothing I've ever seen....And I'm sure the video isn't even of the tsunami wave that struck Thailand.

Mr. Mephisto was absolutely right. Donate money if you can. This terrible tragedy for those that died will be worse on those that didn't without substantial assistance. Fresh drinking water will have to be a big priority along with collection and proper disposal of the dead in order to prevent the spread of disease which is unfortunately very likely. Any amount of money that you can donate will definitely help...:(

Its when disasters like these happen that humanity should (and sometimes, but rarely, does) come together as one, and make everything possible to prevent the death of these innocents thousands. Divergences need to be put in the past, wars need to be forgotten.
The growing death toll is very scary, and will pursue its ascent if humanity does not come as one to help fellow humans.
I'm hoping and grieving for those affected by the tragedy.

Unfortunately, people will come together, but only for a short while, afterwards, everyone will forget about it and continue the hatred and such, remember 9/11? This will unfortunately be forgotten soon as well. I wish them a quick recovery either way.

Death count's up to 23,000 now :(

Just sat watching it on the news (I've been out of the loop for a few days). I was gobsmacked at the the loss of life and devastation. The power of the waves was scarily amazing. I hope the aid gets there soon.

Finally got word about our family friends sailing around the world. They were relativly unaffected as they were in Signapore.

I can't believe what an impact this has had. Terrible tragedy. Thanks for the links Mr. Mephisto.

This is when we realise we are little shits...nothing against the immense power of nature.
Men now feel safe with their PDAs and SUVs...all an illusion. We are nothing. And people dying everyday remind it to us. Makes you sad when you think about it.

What happened to my seperate Please Help thread?

It's bad form when an appeal to help disaster victims is deleted without explanation.


Mr Mephisto

My fathers close friend and his wife were staying at a resort in Phuket, Tialand when the tidal waves hit, and the first hand account was stunning. The man went down to the beach in the morning (his wife was still in their room) and he said it was a beautiful day and then all of the sudden the whole sealine like dissapeared, the ocean just receded. All the people on the beach just kind of thought well theres a full moon maybe its just a weird tide, and then someone realized what was going on and started yelling for them to get to higher grounds. It just so happens that their hotel was on a cliff overlooking the beach so he ran up to his room and watched as the 30 feet waves demolished eveyrthing on the shore.

This truely is a terrible tragedy :|

My brother's in Bangkok at the moment so he's unaffected, but he's working for various charities over there so he will probably be helping people soon. I volunteer at the Oxfam Community Aid Abroad offices here and just did eight hours non-stop at the call centre getting donations for the Earthquake/Tsunami disaster, I'm amazed at the generosity out there. The average donation is $100 or so, with a lot of $1,000 donations and one $10,000 donation from a single person. Others offered clothes and food, some said they were medical professionals prepared to go there to help, and one nice old lady offered the spare rooms in her Sydney house for anyone who needed somewhere to stay. I didn't want to tell her the expense to take three people from Sri Lanka to Sydney for a few nights would be overwhelming but in her case it was the thought that counted, but in most cases it's not the thought that counts, it really is the raw money.

just curious.... anyone have pictures of the actual wave? I have seen pictures of the flooding after but I am curious as to what a real tsunami looks like. I have no idea how big the thing really was...

Arroe, check out this animated gif at http://img159.exs.cx/img159/1683/tsunami0yw.gif I don't want to post the picture directly since it's not mine, I found it at the Something Awful forums in a post by a guy named rammark.

Ok...these "stingy" remarks are really starting to get on my nerves.....

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapc...aid/index.html

At least one place has had a ban on foriegn aid http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapc....ap/index.html
so...in the wake of a great disaster they want aid so they lift the ban, and we respond immediately... but yet the aid we (and other countries) are giving is called stingy

My heart goes out to ALL the people affected by this and this in no way is a comment about THEM but jesus christ people....some people quit whining about whats being done and be grateful that even though we havent been allowed to help with any kind of aid for a long time, other countries have stepped up to try to help with the situation.

To be honest Shani, I've read that the US gave $3 million. That's not a huge amount.

If tiny little Ireland can give 1 million Euro (about $1.3M), then surely the US could come up with more?

We shouldn't let politics enter into this terrible tragedy.


Mr Mephisto

with all due respect Mr M

another part of the article I linked to

Well, I stand corrected. I read the figure of US$3million, which to be perfectly honest I was surprised at.

I have since done a search and found the following:

What's with the UK donating less than a million?

Anyway, as I said in an earlier post, every single dollar counts. Individuals can make a difference too. See my post above for links to how YOU can help save lives...

Mr Mephisto

I am with you Mephisto, any amount seems too small given the circumstances. In defense I would hope those totals will increase as more news is heard, as specific needs become known and the extent of damage is made more clear. I would also suggest a lot of logistical support will come from Britian and the US, and that is likely not included in these dollar figures.

This tradgedy is one of the greatest of our times. Lets hope it recieves the attention that it deserves.

ack! =( hope the number doesn't get any bigger

well no one has posted the number in a while...its supposedly over 55,000 now

Here is another look at how huge this was:

Earthquake Animation

What worries me (well, at least another thing that worries me) is reading about people handling bodies with their bare hands, drinking the water with no precautions, mass graves in the open air, people using wherever they can as a toilet... all this combined is enough to create a breeding ground for a multitude of diseases.

Malaria - An infectious disease characterized by cycles of chills, fever, and sweating.

Cholera - An acute infectious disease of the small intestine, characterized by profuse watery diarrhea, vomiting, muscle cramps, severe dehydration, and depletion of electrolytes.

Dengue Fever - An infectious disease of the tropics transmitted by mosquitoes and characterized by rash and aching head and joints.

Typhoid - A communicable disease marked by fever, diarrhea, prostration, headache, splenomegaly, eruption of rose-colored spots, leukopenia, and intestinal inflammation.

Ill add another support link. Amazon has placed a huge link on their frontpage asking people to donate money to the Red Cross directly. So far, just from that link, just shy of $750,000 has been donated by over 15,000 people. Thats an average of about $50 per person. Please, do something useful. Donate here or at any of the other ones listed in this thread.

http://s1.amazon.com/exec/varzea/ts/.../PX3BEL97U9A4I

Does anyone have a link to video or pictures of a real Tsunami? I'm searching on google and turning up empty handed..

I'd love to see a tidal wave in action... these things have to be MASSIVE for it to do that much damage.

Comparing real life to Hollywood is never a good thing, but are they anything like the waves in that Deep Impact movie (I'm assuming that one was over exaggerated.. or prob because an asteroid hit the ocean)? Where it just rose up out of the sea like that and crashed inland?

"The estimated number of victims of Sunday's tsunami, triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, has now surpassed 68,000."

CBC News
Last Updated Tue, 28 Dec 2004 21:56:38 EST

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/nation...ead041228.html

Look on CNN.com. They have a bunch of videos (most interviews and such) that have clips of the waves hitting interspersed. Its unbelievable... Dont expect anything like a giant hollywood-style cresting wave crashing down on a city, its more like a massive storm surge moving very fast. Still amazing to watch this wall of water was across the land.

LoL, not even close, I've seen videos somewhere but I do not recall where exactly, here are some pictures of the waves though, nothing even close to Deep Impact.

http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket001.jpg
http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket002.jpg
http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket003.jpg
http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket005.jpg
http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket006.jpg
http://worldofgore.com/phpBB2/files/phuket008.jpg

The sydney morning herald had a journalist holidaying in the wrong (right??) place. It is pretty moving reading:
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/...996555398.html

As for the whole "singy" thing... they're saying we're gonna give billions in aid... where exactly is this money coming from?

CNN-
The United States is offering a total of $35 million, followed by Japan with $30 million. Australia has now pledged $27 million, Saudi Arabia $10 million and Germany $2.7 million.

This is quite a grim story. So many people gone in and instant. The count will continue to rise... and THEN there is the disease factor. Wow... is there anything else one could possibly say?

Having lived in SoCal for most of my life, I've gotta say that mother nature has a funny way of using our buildings and belongings against us. So, when earthquakes hit countries like India or Turkey or what have you, you see a bunch of deaths because they tend to not have the best building codes. Now this tsunami shows me that nature doesn't need to spite you with anything you own; no, it'll just fucking thrash you about with a wall of water.

All we are are specks of living matter living on the outer crust of a spinning core of molten rock that's orbiting around a huge ball of fire.

Living in the PacNW and close to the Coast, one ALWAYS notices the tsunami warning systems and the signs. I am now especially glad they are in place, along with the buoys off the coast so that we may know in advance if a tsunami is coming. We are very, very fortunate in comparison to the people of SE Asia and those along the Indian Ocean. At least we will have warning.

Google now also has relief news on their frontsite:

http://www.google.com
http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

CNN is now putting the death toll at 80,000...the numbers are just staggering.

I do wish that we were offering more aid - $35 million seems like an insulting drop in the bucket (particularly considering the hundreds of BILLIONS of dollars we are throwing at the war in Iraq, supposedly in response to the deaths of 3,000 people). These regions are going to be horribly destablized in the short term, and it will take years if not decades to recover. If nothing else, it would be politically wise of us to re-stablize these (heavily Muslim) areas and do everything we can to help.

If you read the newest reports on cnn Lurkette you'll see that when all is said and done we'll be giving over a billion in aid
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/....ap/index.html

Well people, this just in from a new report quoting the Red Cross. Unimaginable. I am actually shaking my head in disbelief.

-----

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - The Red Cross said Wednesday it feared the death toll in Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean could top 100,000.

"We're facing a disaster of unprecedented proportion in nature," said Simon Missiri, Asia Pacific chief at the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

The agency said its current estimate is 77,000, but it fears that could rise.

-----

In a sense...you're right. It does. But, bear in mind, these figures do not include "private" donations. I had an appointment last night to donate blood, and the Red Cross had a bucket there for donations to the relief fund. I'm also not sure if the $35,000,000 figure includes the costs of the C-130s flying in military food and water packets. I don't, for one moment, believe that we're not going to "step up".

I have a hard time seeing that number in my head...

but something that helps me put things like this into perspective is a simplification...

Giants Stadium in Meadowlands, NJ has a seating capacity of 78,741.

Madison Square Garden seats about 20,000.

go ahead, look at your local arena/concert hall, fill it with people to capacity and then imagine them all washed away in a moment. You may have to fill it several times if you have small venues in your town but it will help one really see what the climbing numbing number really is.

this is the phuket?
 

You're right, Cynthetiq, that's a good way to imagine something so incomprehensible. Whole families have been wiped off the earth by this. My healthy fear of the ocean doesn't seem so neurotic to me anymore!

I just donated some money to the Red Cross via that Amazon link. It's not much but all I could do.

its amazing to see how quickly that water level rose

nature is cruel thing sometimes

Jesus christ, the number is over 80,000. The number will get over a hundred 100,000 of just the "lucky" ones to die instantly. The sad part is the malnutrition, deseases, and lack of any health care. By the looks of it, it seems the number will easily hit a quarter million dead. Which is like filling the Silverdome three times over. I am trying to see if I can get my school to get a relief fund together.

So stop griping about it and donate. I donated $100 yesterday.

On the radio today it was reported the UK had pledged £15 million (about 25 million USD)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4133005.stm

The following link also contains this info.

"On Wednesday, the UK government pledged £15m ($29m) to help the first phase of the relief effort - making Britain the second largest donor after the US.

Many other governments and bodies - including Canada, European countries and the UN - are sending aid. "

I think I mentioned this before, but I've seen dozens of donations of $1,000, five or six of $5,000 and our record was a $10,000 donation by one person. That's just the cold hard cash, lots of people are (trying) to donate clothes and medical supplies, and many offering their houses to victims or even to fly over there themselves to help, whether they're professionals or just kind-hearted.

But I don't know if the donations by the major economies like the UK, Australia and the US include things like planes, personnel, medical aid and food, that sort of thing. Is it $15 million in cash, plus all the other actual supplies they send? Or is it $15 million worth of 'stuff', including cash?

Something like this really makes me wish I had some direct way to help. Donating money is well and good, but that doesnt quite feel the same as being able to step up and do something. Whether its a doctor or surgeon or a pilot flying in supplies, it really makes me wish I was able to help directly :(

I know exactly what you mean sailor.

In Australia, the government has already setup a co-ordinating system to facilitate medical staff who wish to volunteer their time and expertise. Several of the airlines are flying these volunteer teams to the affected areas free of charge.

The company I work for is even providing equipment and personnel to assist in setting up data networks (for the rescue teams) in some of the affected areas; staff are being flown out by the company.

Unfortunately, I don't think they need my rather specific skill-set. :(

It's a financial donation from me. That's all I can do.

Coincidentally, this year I purchased several "gift certificates" as stocking fillers for my immediate family. Each certificate represented a donation of $50 or so for such things as "A goat for a poor family"; "adult literacy classes for one person"; "schooling for family for one year" etc etc. The countries where these funds were to be spent included India and Sri Lanka.

Now I feel compelled to donate more for the disaster victims. A goat or an orchard is no good if the people themselves are dead. :-(


Mr Mephisto

For those who are upset about the "you aren't paying enough" that was said by a UN official... I actually saw him say these words live on Cooper 360.

At the time when he spoke the words the US government had only committed 3 million. They have since stepped up and committed more.

The reason for most of these mutterings is that despite many western countries being at the top of the list for amounts given to humanitarian and relief the relative amount is low for these countries.

The guy pointed out that what % if the GDP that is committed on an annual basis is roughly .02%... He pointed out that traditional tithes would be more in the range of 10%. He felt, like many do, that the west (he never once singeled out the US) can do more to make the world better. I don't know if he was including private donations in those amounts but would assume he wasn't.

Regardless of how you view it... there are a lot of people dead and a lot more who are going to die very soon if help doesn't arrive soon.

If you can, give money. Dropping off blankets, etc. aren't nearly as effective. Money can be spent where it is needed most and does wonders to help stimulate the local economy, that will be reeling after this terrible tragedy.

That clip is very chilling. Does anyone know if people were actually aware there was an earthquake?

This article is kinda encouraging...:
Yahoo

That's exactly the opposite of what our news organizations were reporting. So what's the truth?

That is just not true. Dead bodies CAN cause disease. The bacteria is what becomes dangerous.

It is an issue.

http://publications.paho.org/english/dead_bodies.pdf

See link. I could not get it to post here.

Well the WHO linked to that article from their site. I dunno.

I was thinking today, that I really hope those regions don't suffer any more disasters in the years to come. Unfortunately the world's quota of goodwill might be filled in this disaster and if something happens again in the near future I can't imagine the world will be so eager to help. It's sad.

That article is wishful thinking, easily disproven without much thought: what do you think makes dead bodies decompose?

Complete pants.

It's not that people will catch disases from dead bodies, but that dead bodies will contaminate drinking water.

This is the worst kind of disinformation. Why would anyone try to maintain hundreds of thousands of corpses pose no health hazard?

Mr Mephisto

The Amazon fund is up to $4.3 million with 71,000 donations. Thats about $60 a head. Im sending all the money I just got from selling this semester's textbooks as soon as the check comes in. I suppose they need it quite a bit more than I need a bigger beer fund.

And yeah Mephisto, I too think that is pretty damn misleading.

I've read quite a few articles written from the perspective of training recovery teams. They're motivated to calm fears about short-term contact vs. educating a population about long-term effects. WHO is correct about the small danger of contracting diseases while handling corpses but they're ignoring the secondary effects. (water supplies, scavengers, etc.)

I agree it's strange. Maybe they're concentrating on an accurate body count?

Or maybe on getting pictures and/or other records from every corpse before people just bury them as fast as they can, for the sake of anyone looking for the bodies later. It'd probably be a Good Thing to know who was burried where. :| They did something similar after a circus fire in Hartford Connecticut many years ago.

Now that Ill agree with. I think it would be a good thing (though slightly impractical at this point) to record images of the buried along with the locations of the grave they are in so that identification/location can be done later. By all means, get the bodies in the ground as quickly as possible, but it would be a wonderful thing to be able to have some identification so that relatives can come back later and figure out where their loved ones are.

Yeah, it might not be possible, agreed. That's a lot of corpses, but they're spread out a lot, I think. OTOH, it's hot there. And lots of these bodies spent some time in the water. Yuck. Swelling. Probably not eaten much, at least at first, since the fish weren't doing too well around then either.

What about Turkey a couple of years ago....that was a big one.

Wow, the US has upped their relief contribution to $350 million. That's a boatload of cash, and is very nice to hear.

U.S. Boosts Tsunami Aid Tenfold to $350M

I assume this doesn't even count the untold millions that people will be donating through charities, right? This is coming straight from the federal government, I would think.