The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami
The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami

The SEA-EAT blog for short
News and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.

The Moderate Voice: MASSIVE EARTHQUAKE In Asia: Some Asian Blogs’ Accounts
2004 decided not to go quietly today when the biggest earthquake in 40 years struck deep in the Indian Ocean, triggering massive tsunamis — wiping out Asian coastal areas and instantly drowning and killing more than 27,000 people.

In a grim reminder that the well-laid plans of holiday goers, governments and politicians hinge on a higher power, the earthquake — an estimated 9 point magnitude — struck quickly and without mercy, decimating coastal areas some 1,000 miles away in a record-setting catastrophe. Far away, yet even with newspaper accounts the Internet made it seem MUCH closer…because some local weblogs instantaneously started telling bits of the horrific story:
A first hand account appears on Thailand’s Ernest’s Whirrled’s blog:

Pong and a friend of his, Joy and I are on Phuket Island. Our hotel was destroyed in the tidal wave. We were trapped on the 4th floor for several hours. Our hotel was RIGHT ON THE BEACH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Here is an email I sent to my family in California:

I was having breakfast on the front patio and saw the ocean recede which was weird then I saw a wave coming. I ran to our room screaming for Pong and Joy to get up ( They were sleeping) and go to the top floor. Water was already in our first floor room and we started climbing up the stairs. The guesthouse is only 5 stories tall. We stopped on the 4th floor and watched as the wave hit. I was scary as hell!

After about 2 hours and several other big waves coming in we walked about 5 blocks up a hill to a resort hotel. I kept telling the people there all around me that I was diabetic and lost my insulin in the waves. A police truck came by on the way to the hospital and gave us a ride to the hospital in land and up hill. I got there and the place was a mad house. But I went straight to the pharmacy and bought insulin. We then found a new hotel about 2 blocks from the hotel it is called Nipa Villa still in the town of Patong and on Phuket island. The airport is under water, there is a bridge connecting the island to the mainland in the north of the island but that has been destroyed. I don’t know how long we will be stuck here but we are OK. My friend Dino sent you an email earlier for me. I have phone contact with him and he will have any latest info.

And, later, this:

It is unreal what is going on here…I am in Patong Beach Phuket Thailand right now. …Check out the pics, this is what it looks like in the town I am in RIGHT NOW!!!

Yahoo! News – Science Photos – AFP
Graphic explaining the Richter Scale measuring the force of earthquakes.(AFP)

BuzzMachine… by Jeff Jarvis
The tsunami

: The Independent has a helpful if horrifying country-by-country report on the impact of the earthquake and destruction. Here’s a map from The Age in Australia.

: The Age asks readers to send in their stories and this comes from an Australian near Phuket:

We came to Koh Tao on a two week holiday to relax in the sun……
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I was standing on the beach about 30 meters from the shoreline at a dive shop when I heard raised voices and looked around. The deck chairs that were lining the beach were floating toward me. It was a bit confusing at first as nobody had any idea what was going on. There was no loud noise or wind, just all of a sudden the sea had risen a good 10 meters.

Then the wave sucked out away from the shore a few hundred meters, exposing the coral reef that I had dived on a few days earlier. That’s when people really realised something was terribly wrong. All of a sudden all the dive instructors and staff of the nearby restaraunt ran down the beach to see if anyone was pulled out, only to find themselves faced with a surging ocean at least 15 meters high. At this point I was standing on a small cement wall at the top of the beach and watched as they scrambled up the beach and up the steep hillside on the edge of the bay.

When the second wave came in it simply tore apart the wooden buildings that sat at the top of the beach, the water came up to my knees and very neally took me off the wall. When the second wave sucked out, everyone who could bolted for the slopes on the sides of the bay.

The third and probably largest wave came surging forward and simply ripped apart the cement buildings like they were made of balsa wood. I saw a friend of mine scramble onto a roof about 5 meters from me as the water reached its peak – only to hear a loud crack and see the roof lurch badly. I couldn’t believe my eyes when the entire roof – with my friend on top, floated to the side and was sucked out into the bay and out of sight.

It just seemed so impossible, 10 minutes earlier we had been sitting down on the beach drinking a coffee, and now the entire beach had been ripped apart and my friend and all the buildings were simply gone.

The waves continued for a good hour after, gradually getting smaller only to reveal the complete devastation left behind. There was complete confusion as people were running around trying to find each other – or simply sitting in the wreckage with vacant looks on their faces. Later I found out that my friend had been rescued by boat with a mild concussion and lacerations from all the wreckage in the water and is at this moment in Phuket hospital….

Read the rest of the post at the link at the top of this post.

Yahoo! News – Tsunami Waves Kill Over 19,930 in Asia
10 minutes ago

World – AP Asia

By DILIP GANGULY, Associated Press Writer

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka – Rescuers scoured Asia’s coastlines for survivors of devastating tidal waves that obliterated seaside towns in nine countries, killing more than 19,930 people. Aid poured into the region, but morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the tragedy.