David, Actually I have been hearing quite a bit about it, since I belong to a Plumeria group, and many of our list members are from the Philippines, Thailand, India, Sumatra, Australia, etc. I didn't see any coverage until yesterday, though I knew about it via everyone being so concerned about our members in the countries that were hit. I am told it is the west side of the islands that was hit the hardest and the water, in low lying areas, went as far inland as 2 kilometers (I am not good at metric but I figure that is about 3 of our miles). They found a ship actually 1.2 kilometers inland that was left behind. (I don't remember where this was exactly) So far all but one of our list members are accounted for. Anucha, from the Philippines, is still not heard from, but we have to consider the lack of communication at this time too. We do worry a lot. The news said last nite that the first wave went way inland, then dragged out debris (cars, buses, houses, trees) and that the debris came in again with the second wave and that caused even more damage. I think it is a terrible thing and the only place we are hearing anything is on CNN which is a 24 hour news channel. The local news and national news spend very little time on it. They have covered it so little, that my mother (who watches the news daily) was unaware until I told her about it. Of course, if it happened in this country that would be all we would be hearing about. They are having great trouble dealing with all the dead. It is hot and they are going to have disease that will be rampant and cause more deaths since they are getting little assistance in burying the bodies that are piled up everywhere. I was amazed that the news people here can't seem to figure out why people don't just get together and "bury" them. Obviously they are not familiar with disasters. The social infrastructures that were there, basically have collapsed, and most people are just dazed and in shock. They will wander around aimlessly waiting for someone to "take charge". That is typical disaster behavior. That is why plane crashes, that have fire and survivors, lose so many that "could" have gotten out...they will automatically get in the aisle and wait for someone to open a door. They will wait until it is simply too late. It is the rare "survivor" who can keep his wits during a disaster that will "act on their own free will" and go through a window, or any opening they can find. (A true survivor will also not let anyone deter them from escape...even if it means going over them) It is an unfortunate fact that disaster victims will try to stop others from "cutting" lines or doing what they "think" is improper behavior. By doing so they increase the casualty list (ie...they WILL take you down with them) We had to take a "survivor" test once and amazingly it was me and my father who would have made it. My aunt, my mother, my two brothers were confused. My father is a take charge guy who used to do ambulance emergency calls (with car crashes) and I have also been trained for emergency medical procedures and also was a volunteer police woman and trained to help deal with disasters. We will jump right to it when something awful strikes.
I can understand that without military or police "guidance" the masses in these stricken areas are simply lost. They have lost homes, loved ones, neighbors, etc. Expecting them to "gather together" to bury the dead is expecting "WAY" too much. I am hoping that they get some help from somewhere very soon. I am amazed that our country has not sent over any teams to aid them. Cearbhael -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of David Collyer Sent: Wednesday, December 29, 2004 7:19 AM To: [email protected] Subject: [lace-chat] the Disaster Dear Friends, I must say I've been amazed that in the past 3 days all we can find to talk about is what Santa brought us, when the world's worst ever natural disaster has just occurred in the Indian Ocean!!! Hopefully many of you have been following the news and will know that there are some 70,000 confirmed dead already. However, for those of you who are unaware of the geography of Sumatra, that whole western coast is heavily populated and the helpers have not been able to get in there yet. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if the death toll does not double or even triple. The Andaman Islands too, have not been assessed yet. And who knows whether the truth will ever come out of Mianmar (Burma). Then of course around tomorrow we can expect cholera, denghy fever etc. Has anyone heard whether Sulochona is safe? I think she was going to the coast for a holiday. I'm really annoyed at the coverage we aren't getting. When 9/11 happened all programmes on TV were suspended for about 3 days. For this disaster we have to wait for hourly news bulletins on the radio. But I suppose this time we don't have to be brain washed into believing that a war might be necessary - as if one ever is justified!!!!!!!! Love and thoughts David in Ballarat To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
