"Thousands of people have been killed across south and east Asia in massive sea surges triggered by the strongest earthquake in the world for 40 years." "Villages have been swamped and homes destroyed after the 8.9-magnitude quake, the fifth strongest since 1900. At least 1,000 died in Sri Lanka and a similar number were killed in India. Casualty figures are rising and deaths have also been reported in Thailand and on Sumatra in Indonesia, thought to be near the tremor's epicentre. Exact figures for casualties are hard to confirm but hundreds of people are also said to be missing in India's and Sri Lanka's coastal regions." DEADLY DEVASTATION Sri Lanka: 1,000 dead India: 1,000 dead Thailand: 55 dead Indonesia: 150 dead Malaysia: 7 dead Source: Government officials "Sri Lanka's President Chandrika Kumaratunga has declared a national disaster, and the military has been deployed to help rescue efforts for the 500,000 people thought affected on the island. High sea waters have also struck tourist resorts on the coast of Thailand, reportedly killing scores of people. The low-lying Indian Ocean islands of the Maldives have also been severely flooded but there is no word yet on casualties." http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4125481.stm
Bloody hell, 8.9!! I bet they had some huge ass Tsunami waves hit India, Burma, Bangladesh, Thailand and Sri Lanka Considering its an 8.9 though im supprised more people havent died, although its usually the flooding and disease afterwards that kills more.
I have a friend who is on holiday in Sri Lanka. No news yet if he is ok. I am sure the death toll will reach 5 figures as people realise various loved ones are missing. In these cases most of the time the bodies are washed out to sea and are never found so its hard to get an accurate death toll.
Wow crap uncle just told me about this before I read it on here didn't realise it was THIS serious and involved other countries... Looks like Thai Geotrip gone out the window, and it was already delayed once already, just payed for it too
Yea, i was VERY supprised to see only a 4 figure number, but just cought the news again tonite and they cant put a figure on the total number yet. Its gotta be insane
Still no word from my friend in sri lanka. He is due back tonight. Everyone here is getting concerned.
Yes, indeed it´s not funny. We have friends down there and they may be dead now. A rather annoying thing in the middle of this is that Tt has a case named Tsunami,verry un-suitable after this i think. Therefore, I sent a message to Tt this morning, here is a copy: Hello. You have probably heard the news about Tsunamis killed over 15.000 people in Sri Lanka,Thailand,India and all islands around them. Do you really think it´s OK to remain using the name Tsunami on your cases? I find it verry non-suitable after this and I am sure more people with me find it not acceptable if you remain to use this name. I would like to have a serious answer on this one. Also, this will be posted in computer forums around the world and that isn´t good comercial for Tt. Yours T-R What do you think? Are you with me? I am not taking this so serious, just putting a little presure on them to see what they are going to answer.
Dont think that is appropriate. That would be PC gone nuts. Its a name it shouldnt matter if there has just been a natural disaster. They might loose afew sales from people who care about names but I doubt its going to affect that many people phycologically. I actually find it quite weird how one of the first reaction is to say "change the name of your cases" instead of "are my friends ok". One of my friends has just gone round to the house of my friend who should have returned from sri lanka last night. We hope that there will be someone there if not then we will get realy realy worried. Its a mess over there and the death toll in sri lanka is going up and up currently about 11,000.
Do you know which resort/part of the country he is in? Most of the major tourist places are on the western side which weren't affected.
Lynx: My dad and i has spent one day and one night trying to get some facts from Khao Lak but not even the media has got something to say about the city. So it isn´t the first thing i have done. And as i said, I would like to have a answer and i dont think you will get one unless you push them a little.
We arnt entirly sure but we have tried to contact them and havnt been able to get through so it hasnt been looking good. Hopefully we will know in a few hours as their plane should have landed by now. Ok it may not be the first thing you have done. I am ,however, confused and quite offended in a way, about why you are taking a natural desaster out on a company who make luggage. Its not as if its the first one or even probably the worst one the world has ever seen. I would channel your efforts into worrying about your freinds instead of attacking an innocent party Sit back for 10 minutes and think who do your actions help? Definatly not your friends in Sri Lanka or anyone but make yourself feel abit better. If you want to do something to help your friends directly, or indierctly. Maybe try and find out what aid agencies are looking for or donate money to those aid agencies who are helping. Do something constructive not destructive
Just spoke to some people we know in SL from when we lived there, apparently it's complete chaos and they're in Colombo which wasn't even affected.
Remember: It was Tt that named a case after a natural disaster.(Really Stupid) They did know what a Tsunami is and what it can do. Maybe it sounded cool but certainly dont do it now. And yeah,we are still worried about our friends.
Death toll is now 23,500 and rising. My mums friend is in Phukut or something right now, one of the tourist destinations hit, and is not due back until the new year, and theres been no word, but I'm sure they're ok. Supposingly theres been another earthquake in Bangladesh. It was on sky news earlier - not an aftershock. I don't know how all these are gonna recover, they're gonna need a lot of help from the richer countries. But consider the Iran earthquake a few months ago, 50,000 died, which is probably worse.
