Largest earthquake in 40 years.

[Winky]

Ah C'Mon Ink-o-rama!
If a 8.niner\Nine-oh hit RIGHT in the middle
of one of the most densely populated areas of Kalifornia
wouldn't the death toll rival that of a nuclear attack???

As for these people getting hit by water I guess it’s not like a Hurricane.
Here we have days of warning and no one gets killed. The same event there
always wipes out thousands. Could this loss of life have been avoided?

Ha Ha Yeah can you see a major evacuation of LA county?

Where do you put 9 million people?

 

[ResearchMonkey]

...certainly not here, thats for damn sure.

 

[unclehobart]

After looking at pictures of the epicenter of the tsunami, the damage is all pretty much in the Indian Ocean.

 

[chcr]

Where do you put 9 million people?

Let alone 3 or 4 times that many. Plus, a tsunami doesn't give you much warning at all.

 

[Gato_Solo]

From what I've seen, they had plenty of warning...about 1/2 hour, to be exact. That's how long it took the wave to turn from a ribbon on the horizon to a force of death on the beaches...

 

[chcr]

From what I've seen, they had plenty of warning...about 1/2 hour, to be exact. That's how long it took the wave to turn from a ribbon on the horizon to a force of death on the beaches...

Sure, that's long enough for a thinking person to go "Holy shit, I need to get the hell out of here" and leave. Not nearly enough time to get the cops out and start warning everyone to run, which still probably wouldn't have gotten everyone to leave. In a hurricane, they have several days to pound it into people's heads. There were people who saw the water recede (still time enough to run) and never put two and two together.

 

[Gato_Solo]

Sure, that's long enough for a thinking person to go "Holy shit, I need to get the hell out of here" and leave. Not nearly enough time to get the cops out and start warning everyone to run, which still probably wouldn't have gotten everyone to leave. In a hurricane, they have several days to pound it into people's heads. There were people who saw the water recede (still time enough to run) and never put two and two together.

Still...that's plenty of time. Think I would stay if I knew it was coming? I'd roll out as soon as I heard the word. I wouldn't even take my clothes. In a case like this, only your immediate family is important. Anybody who stays behind get's what they deserve. Call it Darwin. If somebody physically can't leave, that's something else entirely.

 

[chcr]

Still...that's plenty of time. Think I would stay if I knew it was coming? I'd roll out as soon as I heard the word. I wouldn't even take my clothes. In a case like this, only your immediate family is important. Anybody who stays behind get's what they deserve. Call it Darwin. If somebody physically can't leave, that's something else entirely.

Hey, I agree with you. Hell, I'd be shoving you out of my way. Evidently a lot of people had other ideas. No way of knowing if they were too stupid or simply failed to understand the danger till it was too late. As you say, call it Darwin.

 

[chcr]

Re: Largest earthquake in 40 years; unforeseen dangers

LONDON Non-Asian countries are taking stock of their nationals caught in the earthquake and deadly tidal waves ravaging south Asia. Among the 21-thousand people who were killed are at least two dozen Europeans.

Hundreds of others are stranded, including a British man who says he reached safety, only to be surrounded by crocodiles.

Link

Evidently, there are varying definitions of safety.

 

[Gato_Solo]

Re: Largest earthquake in 40 years; unforeseen dangers

Link

Evidently, there are varying definitions of safety.

Yep. What's safer...Being washed out to sea by a huge tidal wave, or being surrounded by crocodiles, who have plenty of dead to munch on?

 

[chcr]

Re: Largest earthquake in 40 years; unforeseen dangers

Yep. What's safer...Being washed out to sea by a huge tidal wave, or being surrounded by crocodiles, who have plenty of dead to munch on?

True, true. Still can you imagine how you'd feel?

*Whew, I made it! WTF is that noise?!?!?!?!?!?*

 

[kuulani]

The scary thing for me is that my husband & his friends are planning a surf trip to Indo in a few months ... what if this happened while they were there

 

[Gato_Solo]

The scary thing for me is that my husband & his friends are planning a surf trip to Indo in a few months ... what if this happened while they were there

Doubtful. That was one hell of a pressure release...

 

[A.B.Normal]

The scary thing for me is that my husband & his friends are planning a surf trip to Indo in a few months ... what if this happened while they were there

It's not something that happens every couple of months.

Largest earthquake in 40 years.

 

[Luis G]

It's not something that happens every couple of months.

But they will most likely get some more earthquakes soon. Not as strong as this one but still powerful.

 

[unclehobart]

Such aftershocks are the very thing that prevent 100% effort rescue missions... the fear of a second round of disaster.

 

[Leslie]

Sri Lanka: 18,706 dead
Indonesia: 27,174 dead
India: 4,371 dead
Thailand: 1,400 dead
Maldives: 52 dead
Malaysia: 44 dead
Burma: 30 dead
Bangladesh: 2 dead
Somalia: 100 dead
Kenya: 1 dead
Seychelles: 3 dead
Tanzania: 10 dead

BBC

 

[AlladinSane]

Holy shit! Nothing barely like that has ever ocurred in Brazil. I it happened would get evreyone unaware...
The death count is almost 60.000 right now
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=564&ncid=564&e=3&u=/nm/20041228/ts_nm/quake_dc_87

 

[Winky]

Y'know there is something basically wrong with this whole thing...

 

[tank girl]

My question is;

Why were there no warnings released?

the tragic story about the consequences of lack of infrastructure and disaster warning systems in the third world...and the resulting devestation which will take almost forever to recover from...


the thing is, everybody in the developed world has some sort of disaster warning system but where it was needed most; there was nothing...

Warning system

The third stage is to see what can be done to avoid disasters or the effects of them.

In this case, the lack of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean is one obvious gap which could be filled. There is already one in the Pacific.

The problem in the Indian Ocean apparently was that nobody took the threat very seriously. The question was looked at in South East Asia last year and little was done.

And yet, seismologists knew there had been a major earthquake near Indonesia. Even a basic e-mail or phone system could have helped some communities get to safety. The sea surges would take time to reach the shore. But nobody knew what numbers to call.



Given that several of the afflicted countries are in the Commonwealth - India, Sri Lanka, the Maldives, Malaysia and Bangladesh - the Commonwealth Secretary General Don McKinnon has suggested that this might be a task that the grouping of former British territories might undertake.

"Modern technology would say you should know about these things anywhere in the globe instantly and therefore be able to respond to them, " he told the BBC.

"I think we all have questions over the early-warning system which prevails in the Pacific, but doesn't seem to go beyond there."

The issue will be discussed at a meeting of smaller Commonwealth countries in Mauritius in January.

Perhaps this time, the Commonwealth will concentrtae less on rhetoric and more on action. A number of recent conferences have talked alarmingly about the risk from global warming to low-lying islands like the Maldives. The closer risk from tsunamis was not mentioned.

So whether anything actually gets done has to be doubtful. Communities pick up the pieces, governments have other needs to meet and the world moves on - until the next disaster.

world helps, but will it forget?