I hope all of our friends in and around South Asia were not hurt in the Tsunami.

I just heard about that this morning. I hope everybody is doing as well as they can. I heard there is an estimated body count of about 20,000

Make that 23,000....

I know someone who was on vacation in Langkawi, Malaysia (an island just off the shore off the northwest end of Mayaysia, took a while to find it on a map) but apparently was not near the ocean when it happened. He and his family has to stay in the hotel for the moment. He had e-mail ability for a while after the event, but that might be out now.

 
Some scary numbers...
http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/

Interesting site Bjarney.
As details come to hand here, we are looking at a figure of at least 30,000 confirmed dead.
Also bear in mind that this disaster is still young and also that there is a chance of after-shocks, triggering more tsunami's(sp?).
I'm not sure about you, but I've never heard of a No.9 on the Richter Scale Quake before.
But it is a little un-settling here, as usually what happens, a place to the West of us gets a quake and we get one not long after, say a few days, but thankfully they have all been out to sea from here.
(Touch Wood!)

I think we all have difficult to grasp how much damage water can do. Still a huge number of people remain missing, including scores of tourists. Let's hope these people have survived.

I got an e-mail from friends in Thailand Sunday along the lines of "We're ok, but the village we stayed in is no more". Must have been utterly frightening.

 
Not intending to make light of anyone’s serious misfortune, but these appeared along the coastal roadway in Oregon and Washington about 5 years ago. Understandably on the west coast, they all point due east.

Even the one near Humptulips? (yes, there REALLY IS a town by that name!) Maybe it was more northeasterly... My memory ain't what it was a few years ago...

[This message has been edited by Sir Arcsalot (edited 12-28-2004).]

Hello All,
I'new to here. We've been hit hard in Thailand.
Death toll of 1500+ and many villages got leveled. At Phi Phi Island(Our great tourist attraction), it's the worst

Hi there Av-guy!.
Welcome to ECN, mate.
Just sorry that it's not under better circumstances.
All the best for the future.

82k so far

Just heard a friends parents, sister and nieces are in the area and haven't been heard from. Just hoping they were well inland and maybe don't realise whats going on.

Have tried to make a donation online but all the charity sites seem to have gone into meltdown.
Will try again tomorrow.

Simon.