Last plane from Jakarta

[elpollodiablo]

From the Guardian:

"More than 11,000 people in six countries were killed today when the most powerful earthquake in 40 years triggered huge tidal waves that hit coastlines across Asia. The death toll is almost certain to rise further as the full extent of the devastation emerges."

Poor motherfuckers.

Full story

[Good Intentions]

Quick summary:

Earthquake measuring 9.0 on the Richter scale occurred just of the north-west coast of Sumatra, sending enormous tsunamis accross the northern Indian ocean.  Hardest hit seems to be Sri Lanka, where over 4,500 people are known dead and estimated 1,000,000 plus is homeless.  The south-east coast of India is hardly any better, and the isolated north-west of Sumatra might be the worst of all, but no sure estimates are available.  The tsunamis caused damage in Indonesia, Thailand, Burma (Myanmar), Bangladesh(very minor, thank heavens), India, Sri Lanka and various small islands including the Maldives.  Freak waves reached even the shores of Somalia, on the other side of the Indian Ocean.  Last I heard the number of known dead had risen to 13,000.

Fuck.

[elpollodiablo]

A little levity:



Amidst the overwhelming human suffering, little is being said about the quake's effect on the native Sumatran Rat Monkey. The Rat Monkey, alternately feared and revered by Sumatran islanders, has been on the endangered species list for well over three decades. Though many fear its bite, and, more to the point, the effects of said bite, many leading zoologists worry that the tsunami's devastation may in fact wipe the demonic little critter out entirely.

[John]

This is the worst natural disaster of our time. Nothing even comes close. My heart is with people whose communities will be recovering from this for years.

[Andrew_TSKS]

you know, i did a report on the earth's fault lines when i was still in elementary school, and i remember thinking you could never get me to live in that part of the world--WAY too tectonically unstable. this kind of thing happening is a horrible tragedy, on the level of krakatoa's eruption in the same area 150 years ago, and i wouldn't be surprised to hear of more things of this type continuing to happen over there.

[SPACERACE]

Tidal waves have always scared the shit out of me.

13,000. Oh my god.

[John]

At least 22,000 by now; some agencies reporting 23,000. I feel like doing some kind of a benefit or something but the words "drop in the bucket" never rang more devastatingly; the waves left the epicenter at five hundred miles an hour.

Almost impossible to comprehend a disaster of so huge a scale.

[mackro]

This may be the worst natural disaster, as far as human lives, in almost everyone's lifetime on this planet.. as in everyone on earth.  Even the Prince William Sound earthquake in Alaska in 1964 (also an 8.9 or 9.0) didn't even come close to the tolls being reported.

True, Andrew, if a huge earthquake is going to happen anywhere in the world.. it's Indonesia.  But I think the tsunami possibilities were underplayed because of the complex geography.... perhaps I should go talk to a geologist about this, but I think more complex land masses randomize the effects of tsunamis should a large ocean earthquake be triggered near them (like throwing a rock in a pond.  Sometimes the resulting waves travel in weird ways around the rocks, some in ways you don't expect.)  Had the earthquake happened more within Indonesia, while Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand would have been majorly screwed, Sri Lanka, India and east Africa would have been spared, but -- unfortunately -- this earthquake occurred just outside enough in the middle of the open Indian Ocean to affect all adjacent continents.

[mackro]

if only humans had wings, these deaths could have been avoided.  Flying creatures: 1.  Non-flying creatures: 0.  :/

[mackro]

In 1700, There was a U.S. West Coast version of this very same disaster.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002131604_tsunamilocal27m.html

(of course, not nearly as many people died, and less is known about it, just because it was over three hundred years ago, but apparently the quakes were very similar.  Article also talks about our tsunami warning system, which will surely be mentioned all across the coastal regions of the U.S. in wake of this.)

[old kentucky shark]

People were reporting that like 20,000 people died in the world trade center for the first couple days before it was whittled down to like a tenth of that

so is this actually like confirmed and everything because that is too many

[mackro]

I never remembered anybody reporting 9/11 had 20,000 casualties.  First I ever heard was "maybe 5000".

as for the quake and tsunamis, the figures might whittle down but I'm guessing far far less than 9/11, as this affected thousands of miles of coastline, not just two buildings, where the casualties were more calculable.

[jebreject]

evidently the guitar player for swedish grind band NASUM was vacationing in thailand with his girlfriend.  his bungalow was wiped out and he's been missing for a while now.  the girlfriend is okay though.

a friend told me about this, but i have as of yet not been able to find any sort of news source for it.  i'll ask him where he heard about it next time i talk to him.

[Nickosaurus]

This is neither the time nor the place, but that is one "Wave Of Mutilation".

[Good Intentions]

No, these figures are partially confirmed.  That is why they keep rising all the time, unlike the 9/11 death toll.  Here is a quick overview of the extent of what has happened.  There are now reports of the wave having hit Kenya, and Somalia are fearing hundreds dead.  Sri Lanka has over 10,000 confirmed deaths, and officialdom in Indonesia are estimating that between 20,000 and 25,000 people may have been killed in that country alone.

While there have been larger death tolls from natural disasters in recent times (500,000 in a cyclone in Bangladesh in 1970), it has never been this widespread.  Bangladesh still hasn't recovered from that cyclone, and that was ove 30 years ago.

[Lalitree]

LA Times: Death Toll of 26,000 May Double

Quoting from Slate: "In just one incident in Sri Lanka, about 1,500 were killed when a train was overwhelmed by water." Sadly, I don't think the numbers are going to go down at all.

[WhereTheSlimeLive]

I'm feeling this is a first in a line of really bad natural disasters to come

[Lalitree]

ABC News: 44,000

[Bernard]

Fuck.

AMERICAN RED CROSS
International Response Fund
P.O. Box 37243
Washington, D.C. 20013
800-HELP NOW
www.redcross.org

DOCTORS WITHOUT BORDERS
P.O. Box 1856
Merrifield, Va. 22116-8056
888-392-0392
www.doctorswithoutborders.org

INTERNATIONAL MEDICAL CORPS
Earthquake/Tsunami Relief
1919 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 300
Santa Monica, Calif. 90404
800-481-4462
www.imcworldwide.org

MERCY CORPS
Southeast Asia Earthquake Response
Dept. W
P.O. Box 2669
Portland, Ore. 97208
800-852-2100
www.mercycorps.org

[swilkes]

Thank you Bernard for posting that info. I feel so helpless and sad. I'm a history student, and I've been studying human-caused disasters--wars, genocides, various other cruelties and greed-inspired crimes--but if you look at the track record, nature beats mankind for destructive power again and again.  I can't think of any battle or bombing, other than Hiroshima & Dresden, that has killed as many as died from the earthquake on Sunday. A quake in Tangshan, China in 1976 killed about 255,000, and the single deadliest earthquake in recorded history was in 1556, in Shensi Province, China: 830,000 killed. (yeah, I googled it, but I already knew about the Tangshan one.)

It's very humbling and scary.  My heart goes out for the millions of grieved today. This one is going to have very, very long-range effects--possibly famine, inevitably disease, and probably more political violence in tense spots like Sri Lanka and outbreaks of new violence elsewhere as resources get scarce. I'm not optimistic.

[convensive]

just some thoughts...

firstly, i think 20-something thousand is probably not too many deaths given the area involved... i believe the Indonesian archipelago alone has inhabited islands numbering in the thousands... that is a lot of coast... and with a large coastal population all around the indian ocean... well... no need to say more, except that these numbers are probably too low if anything... the numbers reported missing will very likely be added straight to the death toll...

also, and i might very well be wrong here, but i don't know of any reason off the top of my head that would make me conclude that "if a huge earthquake is going to happen anywhere in the world... it's Indonesia"... or even better - "i wouldn't be surprised to hear of more things of this type continuing to happen over there"...

earthquakes are common along plate boundaries, and that's ALL that can be said with any degree of real certainty... this earthquake was probably a megathrust, on account of being so very very powerful... megathrust quakes tend to occur in subduction zones, which narrows it down somewhat, but not very much... other than that, the only other conclusion would be that The Fates have it in for Indonesia... which is, of course, nonsense... besides... the earthquake wasn't in Indonesia... there really isn't anything at all to suggest that this is the "first in a line of really bad natural disasters to come" either...

of course, i may have missed something... i studied New Zealand and Pacific seismology/oceanography when i studied the subject at all... so i'm hardly the man to know for sure...

also, it is true mackro, that the general randomness of the Indonesian archipelago would disturb the tsunami's wave train... but not in any way that would really matter given the fierce amounts of energy involved... no matter what the fetch direction of any ocean wave, they end up breaking near perpendicular to the shore... there were probably patterns of cancellation and reinforcement due to refraction... but it is splitting hairs to try and make anything concrete of it... it is more fruitful to look at water depths than geography if you want to second-guess tsunami propagation... tsunami wave trains act like shallow water waves, so water depth governs their height...

this is a truly terrible thing... New Zealand is going mental right now... 300 New Zealanders are missing... meanwhile, donations coming in from the public here are smashing all previous records... the really tragic thing is that the tsunami was widely predicted in several countries hours beforehand... but there was no way to widely disseminate the warning around the areas... which is absolutely heartbreaking when you consider that a 10 minute walk inland (or less if you can find a hill) would have been enough to reach safety... even a warning of one half hour could have saved thousands and thousands of people... that thought makes me feel a little ill...

--r.

[SPACERACE]

This has thus far killed every living being in my hometown more than twenty three times over.

[Good Intentions]

convensive, did you see the picture on the front page of the NZ Herald today?  I assume its made its way around the world, its a really powerful image.

For those of you who haven't seen it

[convensive]

never saw the Herald... the front page photo of the Otago Daily Times is also pretty stunning...

http://www.odt.co.nz/Daily/skins/ODT/

[Nickosaurus]

A friend of a friend of ours was vacationing in Indonesia and nearly died several times, all from when he decided not to go somewhere last minute. He's currently helping out at a local hospital, and I wish I knew more about his situation.