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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| 650 feared dead after quake, tsunami hits southern Asia |
| 2004-12-26 |
| This report was taken not long after the earthquake struck - the death toll now is in the thousands, in many countries... A huge earthquake has hit southern Asia, setting off a tsunami that drowned hundreds in Sri Lanka and India, sent Indonesians rushing to high ground and washed away bathers on the Thai tourist island of Phuket. The earthquake of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the US Geological Survey first struck at 7:59am local time off the coast of the northern Indonesian island of Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman islands in the Indian Ocean. The US Geological Survey says it is the fifth biggest earthquake since 1900. A wall of water up to 10 metres high set off by the tremor swept into Indonesia, over the coast of Sri Lanka and India and along the southern Thai tourist island of Phuket, leaving at least 650 people feared dead, officials said. The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1965, said Julie Martinez, geophysicist for the US Geological Survey. "It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline," she said. Sri Lanka The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of Sri Lanka's south and east and the chairman of the John Keells hotel chain said five of his hotels had been badly flooded. At least 500 were feared dead in Sri Lanka, the National Disaster Management Centre said. "According to the information we have so far, 500 people have been killed and the death toll is going to be high - it will likely be over 1,000," said N D Hettiarachchi, director of the centre. The country's president has declared a national disaster. "The Army and the Navy have sent rescue teams, we have deployed over four choppers and half the Navy's eastern fleet to look for survivors," said military spokesman Brigadier Daya Ratnayake. An official in eastern Trincomalee said 3,000 people had been displaced and six villages destroyed. Thailand In Phuket at least one person was killed, four were missing and 100 injured when the wave, 5 to 10 metres high, crashed onto beaches lined with luxury hotels at the peak of the tourist season. "Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," said Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. "There was a very large ocean wave after the earthquake and about 100 people were injured," Suparerk Tansriratanawong, director general of Thailand's Meteorological Department, told Reuters. More than 10 people were killed and 100 injured or missing in the southern Thai province of Phang Nga. The Prime Minister called for the evacuation of areas hit by a tsunami wave in three southern provinces, including Phuket. "I have ordered that rescue officials move people out of the risk area," Mr Thaksin told reporters. Officials now say 99 are dead and 1,100 wounded in southern Thailand. India Along the southern Indian coast, as many as 74 people were killed and many injured by a tsunami there, hospital and government officials said. Officials said 400 fishermen were missing in the south. "Thirty-four are dead and 14 are admitted in hospital," said an official at the Government Royapettah Hospital in Chennai, formerly known as Madras and the capital of Tamil Nadu state. Dozens more were dead in Prakasam district in southern Andhra Pradesh and in Machalipatnam district, taking the total death toll in the state to 40, officials said. Two people died and some 100 people were hurt in the capital of India's Andaman islands when tidal waves hit, the state's chief secretary said. Maldives The wave swept into the low-lying Maldive islands whose coral atolls are a magnet for tourists, flooding two-thirds of the capital Male, said chief government spokesman Dr Ahmed Shaheed. "The damage is considerable. The island is only about three feet above sea level and a wave of water four feet high swept over us," he said. "It is a very bad situation. It is terrible. We have no communications with some of the outlying atolls. At this stage we fear the worst. We are trying to send boats to assess the damage, but our resources are stretched to the limit." Indonesia As many as 72 people were killed and 79 injured on in Indonesia's Aceh province on northern Sumatra island, local government and hospital officials said. Mustofa Gelanggang, the head of Aceh's northern Bireuen district, said 49 bodies had been recovered along the region's northern coastline after tidal waves triggered by the quake swallowed entire villages. Sadli, a paramedic at the Cut Mutia hospital in the town of Lhokseumawe told Metro TV that a total of 23 bodies had been recieved there while 79 people were being treated for injury and trauma. "They were mostly drowned by the waves," Bireuen regency mayor Mustofa said by telephone, adding that hundreds of houses had been swept away. Indonesia's geophysics and meteorology office put the epicentre of the earthquake at 149 km off the southern coast of the island and said the earthquake measured 6.8 on the open-ended Richter scale. "There was no warning and suddenly the sea water just hit the city," said Bustami, a resident of the Aceh coastal town of Lhokseumawe. "In some parts the water was up to a chest level. "People are quite panicked now, some of us are walking by foot and others are on military trucks going to higher ground." Residents said waves as high as five metres struck the northern coast, killing at least nine, causing widespread damage and sending thousands fleeing in panic. Residents said buildings collapsed and people fled their houses. In other developments: Two people died and some 100 people were hurt Sunday in the capital of India's Andaman islands when tidal waves hit after a huge earthquake in nearby Indonesia, the state's chief secretary said. Wheres my surfboard ??? Reports are now coming in that water has leaked into a nuclear reactor in Madrass. |
| Posted by:God Save The World |