Indonesia struck by earthquake.

I've been amazed by some of the survivors' stories ... in today's The Independent, but not online alas, there was an amazing story about a surfer who actually rode the tsunami to safety (!). He was out in the sea when the wave approached, but with his foot tied to his surfboard with string he had no way to get out of the water. So instead, a 40-year-old surf veteran, he ended up riding the crest of the several-meter high wave and managed to jump off only (and for some surreal reason exactly) inside the restaurant of his hotel, where the wave had swept him in. He then managed to scramble to safety on the second floor. Paper had a picture if him and his family, wife and two kids, all still alive.

This story has another unbelievable story:

Quote:

In one case, a British family were saved in the Maldives by tying themselves to a palm tree with beach towels. Stephen Boulton, a heating engineer and part-time fireman, got his wife, Ray, 33, and their children, Ashley, 12, Euan, four, and Iona, 19 months, high in the branches of a palm tree where they clung for hours.

Others were not so lucky. That link also has the story of this guy:

Quote:

Ruby Fayet was carried away with her mother, Samantha, 32, by the surging waters in the Thai resort of Khao Lak. Her French-born father, Patrice, 37, had tried to hold on to his wife and baby, but was overcome by the strength of the waters. "I had them in my arms, but they just slipped away," he said. Patrice, who was washed three miles up the coast has scoured the makeshift mortuaries around Khao Lak but has found no sign of his family.

I read a similar story elsewhere, about a Malaysian (?) woman, who was with her husband and tried to hold on to him, but the sheer force of the wave split them apart, and when she finally, bruised everywhere by the many times she was forced under and up and against objects, managed to grab on to something, she was in a neighbouring town two miles out.

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Then there's this story (from over here, thx to Walter for the link), about people who were saved because they'd went further out to sea upon seeing the wave coming:

Quote:

We saw a wall of water approaching us. When it hit us, it was only about 10 feet high and the boat rose and then dipped. It was a bit rocky but we were all fine. Several more similar waves followed then a lull. A boat man drove us a small distance to shelter behind a small island. We could see the tsunami breaking on the shore behind us in enormous sprays of water. The waves crashed onto the shores on the small islands ahead of us with devastating force - the beach disappearing before our very eyes. Thank goodness we were in relatively deep water. If we had got under way 10 minutes earlier or later, we may not have been so fortunate.

Sumy Menon, off Krabi coast, Thailand

Imagine that - who would come to that idea? Look, there's a giant wave coming, lets steer our boat further out to sea? Totally counterinstinctual - but yeah, of course, with a tsunami it can save your life. The deeper the sea, the lower the tsunami wave, after all, it only rose to superhuman heights upon reaching the lower depths near the shore. There was another story on that site of a man working on a drill platform out in the Indian Ocean - nearer to the origin of the tsunami, thus, than the devastated coast had been - but nothing 'xcept the water getting a little rough. Saver there than rushing up the island coast only for enormous waves crashing trees and cars upon you. <shakes head>

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It is amazing stuff.

Just discovered a friend's son is missing - like, amidst the carnage - what is that?

But it was like losing a friend on September 11th in the WTC -gives the tragedy a human scale, suddenly - some idea of how individual people are grieving...

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Nimh, it has to do with a knowledge of the sea. Waves are there, rolling along, mostly below the surface. When they come up on the continental shelf, the ground forces them up to form a higher peak-to-trough ratio. It would prolly seem natural to a seaman.

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The scope of the human toll is yet not fully reckoned, its no wonder the impact of it is just now beginning to affect those beyound the devastation area. I heard one report that in some areas of coastal Sumatra, the casualty rate is anywhere from 70 to 90% - entire villages, inhabitants and all, erased. Some primitive, remote-dwelling tribes may have been wiped out too. The more we learn of what happened, the less pleasant it will become. That's the way of these things - they don't as a rule get any better as information builds.

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Very concerned that if we don't get massive water filtration in place (which, I think it's too late anyway, now) more will die of cholera and other illnesses/diseases.

We're trying to get water tablets and such distributed--but the window I think closes in the first 24 hours. People have to drink.

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It's been 8 DAYS! How hard is it to drop a bunch of water filtration pumps, tabs, filters, etc. Camp outfits sells all sorts of varieties in a range of costs. Very frustrating. I understand it's a massive and chaotic endeavor, but I am so frustrated!

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timberlandko wrote:

The scope of the human toll is yet not fully reckoned, its no wonder the impact of it is just now beginning to affect those beyound the devastation area. I heard one report that in some areas of coastal Sumatra, the casualty rate is anywhere from 70 to 90% - entire villages, inhabitants and all, erased. Some primitive, remote-dwelling tribes may have been wiped out too. The more we learn of what happened, the less pleasant it will become. That's the way of these things - they don't as a rule get any better as information builds.

People starting to die of lung infections from the water.

Indonesia has sdtopped releasing body counts - they say it is too misleading. Eg - they were told there were thousands of bodies in one village - got there - 200 - which is bad enough.

Oz water filtration plants working in a number of places now - they were handing out 10 litre bottles of it in the thousands.

Lots of refugees were moving towards an area with a natural spring - big camp there.

Awful injuries - some left for a few days - sadly - leading to amputations - but aid amd medics gradually getting in.

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littlek wrote:

It's been 8 DAYS! How hard is it to drop a bunch of water filtration pumps, tabs, filters, etc. Camp outfits sells all sorts of varieties in a range of costs. Very frustrating. I understand it's a massive and chaotic endeavor, but I am so frustrated!

Many areas are very remote - and roads washed away.

They have been dropping food and water - not sure they can drop filtration plants!!!!

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Re waves in the sea - litllek pretty much has it. A wave is an energy pulse moving through the water, it is not itself moving water.The greater the distance from the ocean floor to the surface, the less vertical displacement of surface water there will be. Storm waves created and driven by wind are a little different, but not a whole lot ... it isnm't so much that the water is movin' but that energy is movin' through the water. Storm waves can be huge on the surface because they're driven from the surface. Tsunamis, on the other hand, propagate across the seabed. As the seabed nears the surgface, the crest rises proportionately .... and the outgoing surgew that precedes a tsunami's impact on a beach really is the trough portion of the wave.

A pretty constant rule-of-thumb for seagoin' vessels is they're safer in deep water than in shallow when conditions get rough. That's why ships generally put to sea with the approach of hurricanes and typhoons.

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Deb, not a filtration plant! There are travelling filtration devices.

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Hoping for your friend's son, dlowan. Tiny in the scale, but not tiny to your friend or certainly the son.

I've had several false alarms -- what about ___?? -- but so far everyone's fine. No personal connection, yet, though as Kristie has also commented the general horror of it all has had a definite effect on me, specific personal connection or no.

One thing I still haven't figured out -- combination of truly awful connection lately and limited time to try the connection lottery -- is whether those waves were superhuman heights or if they were amazingly STRONG and destructive because of horizontal force/ velocity but not necessarily height. I know some were very high, but in the series of pictures from Walter of Thailand it didn't look like it got very high, just came faster, with more strength, and kept coming.

I found out today that everyone in the photo I'd posted somewhere survived -- amazing. I'd assumed they were all dead. (The woman in the bikini in the foreground, several young men trying to run through shallow water, two waves looming behind them.)

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Yes - and the sucking force as they returned back to the ocean - people were sucked out of the windows of their hotel rooms and such, for instance.

Debris appears to have then become missile like - I assume the injuries were often from being hit by debris - or hitting a solid object.

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Littlek--

I can understand your frustration. Walter has a really good link around here---(on the France Stingy thread, possibly) that shows the incredible area of land affected. I mean--entire islands, huge parts of penninsulas--so far flung from one another. Working as hard as we've (our countries) have been working--I think it's physically impossible to reach all those remote areas in a week. Maybe in two.

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We have helicopters and planes. We don't need roads. We are JUST now statrting to haul copters from the US base in Japan.

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I'm definitely not trying to argue or anything--but I was watching some footage today. Our guys were already landing in really remote areas with poor landing strips. Helicopters have been working too. The problem is-- when you land in one place on a huge island--you have to deal with injured, sick, starving, thirsty hordes of people. You can't just take off to the people who are in the same shape 20 miles away--and the other ones 20 miles away from them.

The area is enormous. You have to have enough teams to man the flights. You have to provide emergent medical care. You have to airlift some and take them to medical facilities....

I hope we can remember we certainly didn't have a plan of action in case of tsunami in the Indian Ocean. Its not our bag--or Australia's--or Canada's. I think we're doing the best we can do. It is a huge undertaking and involves a lot more than a few guys jumping in helicopters.

I sort of went off on my own thing-- not directed at anyone.

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Lash, I know it's chaotic. I also know there are a lot of helicopters and planes out there. I also am aware that it's easy to sit here and direct an imaginary assistance program.

We have various military bases all over that part of the world. And, I am talking not just about us. What if, in any area, one fleet just flew all over and dropped water, noting various areas which were hit particularly hard? And Another fleet could follow up and respond with medical help?

Just thinking, really, feeling (as I've said) frustrated.

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sozobe wrote:

One thing I still haven't figured out -- combination of truly awful connection lately and limited time to try the connection lottery -- is whether those waves were superhuman heights or if they were amazingly STRONG and destructive because of horizontal force/ velocity but not necessarily height.

Both. Very strong and fast (700 km/h?), but a relatively low wave, as long as the ocean remains deep. As the wave approaches lower depths near the shore, the sheer velocity of it, confronted with ever less space for the water, forces the wave up higher & higher, up to 2, 5, 10 meters high, depending on how far out from the epicentre we're talking.

It looks weird on pictures because its not like ferociously rolling waves, but more like a swelling of the sea. So not big foamy crests rolling over each other as in a storm, but just the regular sea surface suddenly swelling up by x meters high. I saw it described as spring tide coming in - just all at once in two minutes.

Eyewitness accounts seem to differ much on the sound of it - some speak about enormous noise, others about the wave sliding in suddenly in an eerie quiet, or there being a whistling buzz or whizzing sound announcing its arrival from afar ...

Also different from a storm, I guess, is that its just the one wave, from what I understood - then nothing, after the sea retreats, then - two minutes later, ten minutes later, or half an hour later, another one. Some image in a newspaper pictured it as ripples emanating from the epicentre over the surface of the ocean, and that seems to be how it works kinda ... hence all the people, not knowing what the **** a tsunami is, going back to the beach after the first wave, to watch what just happened there or pick up all the fish that were thrown ashore - and then, ten minutes later, being overtaken by a new wave.

I'm no expert mind you, just reading the papers ...

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littlek wrote:

What if, in any area, one fleet just flew all over and dropped water, noting various areas which were hit particularly hard? And Another fleet could follow up and respond with medical help?

Just thinking, really, feeling (as I've said) frustrated.

Guess every country wants to run its own operation (and get the honors for its own work ...)

Also, normally the UN takes control over international aid operations like this, but it looks like the US/UN rift is getting in the way there - Annan said (yesterday?) that he hadnt actually spoken with Bush since the tsunami ... Looks like the Americans want to set up a parallel structure, a "coalition" under its own guidance, to undertake this ...

I know they've got good military facilities for this work, and they're out doing good work there and stuff, and I know they've got qualms about the quality/efficiency of past UN operations - but this seems no time to start experimenting with parallel global structures working alongside and past each other ...

(Probably opening a Pandora's Box of arguments with that observation ...)

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No arguement from me kicky!

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Indonesia struck by earthquake.

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