I’m sitting in Singapore, unaffected by the tsunami. Jason didn’t even know the tsunami hit Maldives. I never thought a tsunami would be that bad. As I watch MSNBC.com, BBC, Streats and Today reporting death tolls climbing and climbing. It’s scary, isn’t it?
I just don’t know the power of tsunamis, it just killed so many people. I thought it would be a thousand deaths when I saw the news on MediaCorp for the first time. It just goes higher and higher. And now, it appears MSNBC.com has estimated the toll to be near 60,000. I am not clear what toll they are refering too. Earlier, I read Streats (SPH free tabloid) and they reported 40,000 death tolls.
Who would have expected water to kill so many. It’s always earthquakes, hurricanes, volcanoes that get all the ‘limelight’. My girlfriend’s family were at Penang but they weren’t affected. William was at Bangkok and wasn’t affected too. As for Jonathan, well, he’s at the states and the tsunami lost its way while attempting to travel there. And Han Bei is in Canada, probably playing some strategy game without being aware that there’s such a place called ‘Maldives’.
Shawn must have been upset. He would have thought twice when getting married. His initial plans of getting married the Maldives may not come true for safety reasons.
Disease fears rise as tsunami toll nears 60,000
The number of dead continued to climb rapidly as authorities in Indonesia added 8,000 fatalities to the death toll there, bringing the total number killed to 27,178. The Health Ministry said in a statement that the figure did not yet include reports from the hard-hit west coast of Sumatra, where 10,000 residents of the the town of Meulaboh were earlier reported to have died.
_(Disease fears rise as tsunami toll nears 60,000. Map from MSNBC.)_
India, Sri Lanka and Thailand also added to their death counts as authorities re-established contact with remote islands and isolated coastal areas, and confirmed their worst fears.
The overall death toll was expected to climb further as emergency workers make their way into inundated and still isolated villages and towns.
Medical supplies, food and water purification systems poured into the region, part of what the United Nations said would be the biggest relief effort the world has ever seen to aid the millions left homeless by the oceanic torrent that battered the countries after a magnitude 9.0 earthquake Sunday off Sumatra.
Tags: death, environment, indonesia
erm … dude … i did say i wanted to get married either in the maldives, OR, the carribeans, so now i’ll probably just settle with the carribeans lolz
by tak (Dec 29, 2004 at 11 AM)and to those who died … my heart goes out to you … only those who have died have seen the end of war … in this case, us vs. mother nature
by tak (Dec 29, 2004 at 11 AM)tak: I supposed the Carribeans isn’t that a bad place too, hahaa.. Maldives too dangerous. I bet their tourism board suffered so badly due to this. It’s going to last for quite some time too I think.
by Mr. Dew (Dec 29, 2004 at 12 PM)this tsunami… who would have thought of it. Looking from the map, it’s lucky that Singapore is “sheltered”.
by sky (Dec 29, 2004 at 3 PM)sky: Nobody would have. It’s so sudden. By the way, I like the map, it does look quite pretty, doesn’t it?
by Mr. Dew (Dec 29, 2004 at 3 PM)the maldives is like what, 1 metre from sea level or something, so they were pretty vulnerable.
by yingru (Dec 29, 2004 at 10 PM)yingru: Yeah, those places are pretty dangerous now to think of it. I heard that most parts are ruin by the tsunami.
by Mr. Dew (Dec 30, 2004 at 12 AM)My eyes have been glued to CNN since that happened!
by aurora_starfire (Dec 30, 2004 at 10 AM)I’m so glad you’re okay!
My God…so many people…
:0(
aurora_starfire: Thanks, Singapore isn’t affected that much during this natural disaster. Slight tremors are felt from high rise apartments. There has been no reportings of water splashing into shopping malls and engulfing Sentosa (an island) thankfully. I was worried we might be affected when I first heard the news. Looking at the map, we’re sheltered from the tsunami luckily. Our neighboring countries aren’t so lucky though. They suffered a lot more damage.
By the way, the Indian Ocean Earthquake death toll has reached 82,813 and the disease aftermath may cause doubling of this amount. More than a million people has been displaced and half a million people injured. 40000 missing. Lots of donation activities in Singapore currently. Even my polytechnic in Singapore (that would, by the way, be Singapore Polytechnic) is raising funds.
by Mr. Dew (Dec 30, 2004 at 10 AM)I hope some miracle happens and the Singaporean death toll doesn’t rise too much(very unlikely)…
by Serene (Dec 30, 2004 at 2 PM)Serene: I hope the whole death toll meter stops ticking around the world. Singaporeans death toll.. that’s at 2 I think. It wasn’t as bad as other countries.
by Mr. Dew (Dec 30, 2004 at 3 PM)yeah … singapore only has 2 deaths so far … kinda low IMHO compared to other nationalities tourists … i mean … i am sure that there were quite a number of singaporeans in those affected countries but somehow most of those who died are non-singaporeans … what are the odds man??
by tak (Dec 31, 2004 at 9 AM)tak: it’s “kinda low”? well, every country hopes it’d be low. i don’t know the statistics and stuff, but singapore is certainly one of the least affected country, at least in death tolls
by Mr. Dew (Jan 1, 2005 at 12 AM)indonesia//earthquake
BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - A major earthquake struck late Monday off the west coast of Indonesia, and a local government official said 296 people were killed in collapsed buildings. Thousands panicked in countries across the Indian Ocean as tsunami warnin…
by //beconfused (Mar 29, 2005 at 7 AM)