The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog

Andaman Quake

2009-08-11T02:30:00.004+05:30

Reports tumbling out of tremors felt in Japan and across the east coast of India after the 7.6 quake off the Andaman Islands. NYT states that a tsunami warning has been issued for India, Myanmar, Indonesia, Thailand and Bangladesh.

--UPDATE--

Tsunami watch for five countries (India, Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand and Indonesia) has been called off.
Ref: http://www.prh.noaa.gov/ptwc/
Ref: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/08/10/india.earthquake/

For those of us who slept through the worry and frenetic NOAA-watching, bless you. May no one ever be woken by a disaster, ever again.

Comment-spam warning

2008-05-13T04:15:00.002+05:30

Hi. This is just to warn you that thanks to this blog's high rankings and incoming links, most posts have been infested with comment spam. So, when you open a post that shows you a large number of comments, please be be warned that the very large number of links in the spam comments will make the page very slow to load, and cause it to scroll down interminably. In extreme cases, your browser could show script errors, crash or even hang your machine.

Unfortunately, Blogger makes it easier to comment-spam than it does to delete the darn things. We don't have the time to delete this crap comment by comment, though we do try and clean up in small bursts. Until we do, this post will stay up as a warning.

Should you wish to contact any of the blog team, please scroll down to the "contributors" section in the sidebar and click through to their pages, where some may have contact info listed, or click on from there to their blogs, where you can leave a comment.

While this blog is no longer kept updated, it has been left online as a historical record and an aid to researchers and academics. The group blogs about ongoing disaster relief efforts all over the world at World Wide Help, and has a newsgroup and even a Facebook Group you can join.

Thank you.

Solomon Islands: Six dead from tsunami

2007-04-02T11:30:00.000+05:30

From the CNN

"At least six people died in the Solomon Islands Monday after two earthquakes and a tsunami hit the western part of the island-chain nation, the country's chief spokesman said.....
The United States Geological Survey said the first earthquake took place at 6:40 a.m. (2040 GMT on Sunday) and was centered 25 miles south-southeast of Gizo, New Georgia Islands, and 1,330 miles north-northeast of Brisbane, Australia.A second quake of 6.7 magnitude hit a few minutes later, according to the USGS. It was centered 75 miles west-southwest of Chirovanga, Choiseul, Solomon Islands, and 1,410 miles north of Brisbane, Australia.
The quakes led to a tsunami warning for a huge part of the Pacific. Australia and Indonesia were among the areas named in a warning from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, as were Papua New Guinea and several other islands in the region.A watch was issued for some other parts of the Pacific, including New Zealand, the Philippines, American Samoa, Guam and Fiji.
Initially, Hawaii was put under an advisory, but not a watch or warning. By evening, the advisory was lifted. The Solomon Islands are popular with international tourists. Most homes in the mountainous islands are constructed of timber and bamboo, with villagers relying on fishing and logging for employment."

Deadly Earthquake in Indonesia

2007-03-06T18:33:00.000+05:30

A powerful earthquake has struck the Indonesian island of Sumatra, killing at least 70 people and flattening hundreds of buildings. The US Geological Survey said the quake had a magnitude of 6.3, and was centred near the town of Padang.

There are fears the death toll may be higher as many people are believed to have been trapped beneath rubble. The quake struck at 1049 local time (0349 GMT), causing panic among residents in western Sumatra.

A strong aftershock - magnitude 6.0 according to the US Geological Survey - struck two hours later causing further damage and panic.

An Indonesian government spokesman, Sudi Silalahi said 70 people had been killed.

Read BBC News for the full story.

Swedish Survivors, 14 Months On

2006-12-12T04:18:00.000+05:30

Press Release Received This Week:

When asked, one quarter of Swedes who were in Southeast Asia during the tsunami reported impaired mental well-being fourteen months after the disaster. This is shown in a comprehensive follow-up carried out at the National Center for Disaster Psychiatry at Uppsala University in Sweden, in collaboration with representatives from the Stockholm County Council and the Karolinska Institute.

The report also shows that relatives, friends, workmates, and neighbors provided the most important help when the travelers returned home. A large proportion (78%) of those who responded were in a place hit by the tsunami. Among these individuals, 41 percent perceived their situation as life-threatening, and 27 wound up in the water. The most common explanation for why they each survived is that it was simply happenstance, that they were lucky.

Nearly all of them report that they were afraid another tsunami wave would come. One fourth were experiencing disturbances in their mental well-being at the time of the questionnaire. In total, ten percent show signs of post-traumatic stress reactions such as recurrent memories, nightmares, avoidance behavior, concentration problems, and sleeping problems.

This proportion increases among individuals who had had their lives threatened, been physically injured, or lost a loved one. This latter group will be specially targeted in coming reports. The assistance these people were most satisfied with before leaving Southeast Asia was provided by the local people, close friends and relatives, other disaster victims, local health-care staff, and Swedish volunteers. They were less satisfied with aid efforts from the Swedish authorities.

After returning to Sweden, alongside their own resources, what was the most important factor in coping with the stress was support from close friends and relatives. If individuals actively sought help, it was primarily from crisis groups and family doctors, as well as social workers and psychologists at care centers. Only a few turned to psychiatry. Private psychotherapy and support from ministers was especially appreciated.

The respondents also report that they were highly satisfied with the support offered at Arlanda Airport and the reception provided to those who lost loved ones at Ärna Airport in connection with the return of the remains of victims. Many individuals were also satisfied with the support they received from insurance companies. These results constitute a first report, based on responses from nearly 5,000 individuals.

They answered a questionnaire sent to more than 10,000 people fourteen months after the tsunami. The study was performed by the three largest county councils/regions: Stockholm, Western Götaland (surrounding Göteborg), and Region Skåne (surrounding Malmö) as well as seven other county councils. The response rate was highest in Blekinge.

The study was carried out by the National Center for Disaster Psychiatry at Uppsala University in collaboration with the Unit for Crisis and Disaster Psychology at the Stockholm County Council and the Department of Medical Epidemiology and Statistics at the Karolinska Institute.

The report can be read (in Swedish) at: http://www.katastrofpsykiatri.uu.se/rapporttsunami061204.pdf

Indonesia/Java Earthquake & Tsunami

2006-07-18T23:03:00.000+05:30

The WorldWideHelp Group is blogging the recent Indonesia/Java Earthquake and the subsequent Tsunami at the WorldWideHelp Blog. Please go there for regular updates and relief/aid information.

Asia tsunami warning system up and running

2006-06-28T23:57:00.000+05:30

A tsunami warning system covering the Indian Ocean region is now "up and running", UNESCO has said. The UN organisation, which has overseen the project, says the whole region can now receive and distribute warnings of possible tsunamis.

The system is in place 18 months after the devastating tsunami of December 2004 that killed more than 200,000. The Pacific region has had a system for 40 years and others are planned for the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Caribbean.

Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the UN's scientific and cultural organisation, said the nations involved should be "justly proud of having done all this and much more".

There are 26 national tsunami information centres receiving information from 25 new seismographic stations. There are also three deep-ocean sensors to detect and report tsunamis.
Read the Full Article at BBC News
Read the UNESCO Press Release

Suriname floods

2006-05-11T01:27:00.002+05:30

Just a heads-up that the World Wide Help Group is blogging about the floods in Suriname at http://worldwidehelp.blogspot.com/.

Information from and about Suriname in general, and the flood situation in particular would be most appreciated. As would information about aid efforts, whether official, NGO-led or ad-hoc, national or international. Mail us at suriname[AT]worldwidehelp[DOT]info.

And we could really use your help if you can translate from and to Dutch.

TSUNAMI ALERT for Fiji and New Zealand

2006-05-03T22:21:00.000+05:30

From the Associated Press:

A magnitude-8.0 earthquake struck early Thursday near the South Pacific nation of Tonga, the U.S. Geological Survey said. A tsunami warning was issued for Fiji and New Zealand.

The temblor, classified by the USGS as a "great" quake, struck 95 miles south of Neiafu, Tonga, and 1,340 miles north-northeast of Auckland, New Zealand.

The U.S. Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued the tsunami warning but said it was not known whether the quake generated a potentially deadly giant wave.

Earthquake M6.1 Indonesia Talaud Island

2006-04-01T03:50:00.000+05:30

The Following Earthquake has been Reported:

Date: 2006/03/31 21:14:40.8
Region: Talaud Islands, Indonesia
Magnitude: Mo 6.1
Latitude: 3.8947 N
Longitude: 126.3045 E
Institute: NEI
Injured Exp. min/max: 0 / 0
Fatalities Exp. min/max: 0 / 0

The earthquake is located 40 km off shore. Only small settlements along the coast.

More Information can be found here:
http://www.wapmerr.org/user_quake.htm

Help needed in the Andamans

2006-02-18T15:36:00.000+05:30

This in from a friend in the Andamans.

I don't know if this blog is still active but I need help...

I've recently started work, with PRAYAS Andaman & Nicobar, in one of the worst affected Areas during the Tsunami of 26th December 2004. My organisation has been here since the relief phase, and we basically work with child rights and ensuring that Children are restored to their pre-tsunami (or even better by peaking any pre-tsunami acmes)states of life.

Life here is difficult but the work... Is endless...!

The relief work has long stopped and we are in the process of rehabilitation and rebuilding... And this is as equally crucial a phase as the relief phase...

We need the world not to forget us...!

The reason I'm posting here is to seek help with getting Medical (peadiatric, ENT, Opth, Dermatology, Nursing, first-aid etc) and Education (Teachers and Teacher-Trainers) specialists over to the islands, with the view of conducting camps and workshops (orientation, refresher and capacity-building)here.

I still am in the process of formulating an overall plan and would appreciate tips and Ideas.

If anyone has anything for me i'm contactable at vijay DOT jivay2003 AT gmail DOT com

Thanks
Vijay

Indonesia: Magnitude-7.7 Earthquake Occurs in Banda Sea

2006-01-27T23:43:00.000+05:30

A magnitude-7.7 earthquake rocked eastern Indonesia early Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There was no danger of a tsunami. The quake struck at 0158 Saturday (1658 GMT Friday) in the Banda Sea, about 120 miles south of Ambon city, the USGC said on its Web site. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.

The quake's hypocentral depth was estimated to be 342 km (212 miles). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said no destructive tsunami threat existed. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is prone to seismic upheaval because of its location atop a volcanically active region known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire."

Source: USGS via Associated Press

Remembrance Week - 26th December, 2005 - 1st January, 2006

2005-12-25T20:33:00.000+05:30

Last year, on the 26th December, an earthquake, and then a tsunami, killed, wounded, or impoverished hundreds of thousands of people in South Asia.

During the course of the year, other disasters took their toll too. Most devastating of them: Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on the South-East coast of the USA; and another enormous earthquake near Pakistan's border with India.

These disasters took their immediate toll, and, each time, the world tried to help. But as calamity piled upon calamity, there has been a certain amount of fatigue. Perhaps people's stock of goodwill has run low. Perhaps seeing too much suffering hardens us.

But, the fact is, the suffering from those disasters has not ceased. Parts of South Asia have still not recovered from December 26th, 2004. In the USA, normalcy hasn't returned to New Orleans. In Pakistan, thousands are still homeless, and may not survive the harsh Himalayan winter.

They need your help.

Last December and this January, the online community came together as never before to help in the aid efforts in South-East Asia. The lessons learned there were put to use, and improved upon, when the other tragic events of the year unfolded.

Can we harness that goodwill, that togetherness, that willingness to help once more?

The WorldWideHelp group would like you to join us in Remembrance Week. Here's what we suggest you do.

Use your blogs, your home pages, your wikis, your newsletters. Link to your favourite charities and NGOs, write a paragraph about them and the work they are doing, and ask your readers to make a donation. (If you'd like to find some more charities and NGOs, please take a look at this page on our TsunamiHelp wiki, this one on our KatrinaHelp wiki, or this one on our QuakeHelp wiki.)

Please link back to this page to help pass the word. You can use the image above.

Please use this Technorati Tag: Disaster Remembrance Week.
Here's the code:
<a href="http://www.technorati.com/tag/disaster%20remembrance%20week" rel="tag">Disaster Remembrance Week</a>

In this post, we have a few more banners and buttons, with intructions on the code you must post to use them.

Tsunami Anniversary Trek - Thailand

2005-12-23T09:02:00.000+05:30

Evelyn Rodrigues, who found herself caught in the tsunamis in Thailand, and had live-blogged her experiences thus bringing the pain and suffering closer to people all over the world, goes back on a Tsunami Anniversary Trek, and once more shares with her readers, a first-hand account of her trip. Worth a read for those interested in looking into the lives of people, their pain, and fears that still haunt them, one year after the terrible disaster.

Sri Lanka to commemorate tsunami victims on Dec. 26

2005-12-22T21:34:00.000+05:30

The Sri Lankan government is to hold a special commemorative program in remembrance of those who lost their lives in the tsunami catastrophe on Dec. 26, Daily News reported Thursday. President Mahinda Rajapakse will attend the event which will also coincide with the launch of the "Jayalanka" program to accelerate rehabilitation of the displaced victims.

A two-minute silence is also to be observed islandwide at 9:30 a.m. local time. During the period, all citizens are requested to stop whatever activity they are engaged in and remember those who lost their lives in the catastrophe and commit their dedication towards rebuilding the nation.

Source: Xinhua via People's Daily Online

800 Tsunami Bodies Remain Unnamed

2005-12-22T21:30:00.000+05:30

Almost a year on and Australian experts are still on the ground in Thailand dealing with the appalling aftermath of the tsunami. The Australian Federal Police forensic team said yesterday another 800 bodies in Thailand are yet to be identified. Many never will be. AFP Disaster Victim Identification teams rushed to Thailand after the waves hit, putting to work their experience gained in identifying bodies in tropical climates during the aftermath of the Bali bombings. Once established, the AFP found itself co-ordinating a crack forensic squad made up of experts from 30 countries.

Though the horrific mess left behind by the tsunami is today in the back of most Australians' minds, the AFP DVI teams are still confronted with the horror on a daily basis, working in conditions that are hot and uncomfortable. The AFP will wind back its commitment to Thailand in February, but only after teaching the Royal Thai Police the latest scientific techniques in identifying bodies. Australia will also leave behind a $50,000 trailer kitted-out with the latest forensic equipment. About 5000 people died in Thailand when the tsunami smashed into the coast on Boxing Day. Read More....

Source: Herald Sun

Discovery Channel's Tsunami Show

2005-12-16T05:13:00.000+05:30

Thanks to Maria Park for this useful information:

AMERICA’S TSUNAMI: ARE WE NEXT? follows an international team of 27 scientists, led by Dr. Kate Moran from the University of Rhode Island, as they become the first team to reach the seafloor site of the devastating December 26 Asian tsunami. Using state-of-the-art camera equipment, the special shows never-before-seen footage of the epicenter and the massive and dramatic geologic changes that caused gigantic waves.

AMERICA’S TSUNAMI: ARE WE NEXT? premieres December 18 at 9 PM (ET/PT) on Discovery Channel in US.

Most of Japan's bilateral tsunami aid remains untouched

2005-12-06T04:14:00.000+05:30

More than two thirds of the bilateral aid Japan offered after the Indian Ocean tsunami remains untouched, raising questions on whether the massive assistance met victims' needs, a report said Monday. Japan was one of the biggest donors amid the outpouring of global sympathy following the Dec. 26, 2004 tsunami, disbursing US$ 500 million to governments of affected countries and international aid groups.

But nearly 70 percent of the 24.6 billion yen ($204 million) in bilateral aid to Indonesia, the Maldives and Sri Lanka remains unused nearly a year later, the Asahi Shimbun reported. Indonesia, the biggest aid recipient at 14.6 billion yen, did not start using the money until May 4 and as of Nov. 10 had withdrawn only 15.8 percent of the funds, the newspaper said.

Japan, the world's biggest aid donor in dollar terms after the United States, usually offers low-interest loans rather than grants and attaches the money to specific projects. But after the tsunami, Japan broke with its usual practice by giving cash handouts and letting governments choose what to spend the money on, although their plans still had to be approved by Tokyo. By contrast, Japan offered $20 million in aid after Kashmir's earthquake in October.

Source: The Jakarta Post

The tsunami: Living in transition

2005-12-06T04:08:00.000+05:30

Just under half a million Sri Lankan people were displaced by the tsunami that hit the island's coastline on the morning of 26 December 2004. Nearly a year on, many are still living in refugee camps, waiting for government and aid agency help to rebuild their homes. They have been told they may have to stay in transitional shelter for up to three years, while the estimated 100,000 homes to house them are built.

Save The Children Sri Lanka has funded PhotoVoice, a London non-profit organisation, to run a five-week intensive photojournalism training workshops near Matara, in the island's southern province, to let children document their lives a year after the tsunami. Journalists David Gill and Annie Dare are teaching eight children between the ages of 12 to 18 from the coastal village of Kamburagamuwa.

Some of the group lost family members, some lost friends, some lost belongings and some lost homes. As the anniversary of the tsunami approaches, each of these children is lucky enough to have a permanent house to call his or her own. For the next fortnight, they are partnering families from the nearby fishing community of Talaramba. Here they are gathering stories from and photographing the daily lives of people forced to live in an overpopulated transitional shelter made of wood and corrugated tar sheets.

In the coming weeks, Annie and David will also be training children living in the transitional camps in photography, so that they too can tell their stories. The next update on the BBC News website will include these pictures. An exhibition of the final body of work will be exhibited in Sri Lanka at the beginning of December and also at Save the Children in London EC1 from 19 December. If you are interested in finding out more about this project or the resulting exhibition please contact anna at photovoice.org

Source: BBC News via ServeSriLanka

Aceh Diary: Blogging from Aceh

2005-12-02T22:36:00.000+05:30

Shaela Rahman of the International Finance Corporation has recently moved to Aceh to set up the Private Enterprise Partnership for Aceh and Nias. She has just arrived, but will be blogging on the World Bank's PSD Blog several times a month, sharing her progress and thoughts. Click here to view an introductory post about Shaela and her first blog posting can be found here.

Magnitude 6.5 Quake Hits Off Indonesia

2005-11-19T23:59:00.000+05:30

A magnitude 6.5 quake rattled two islands off the coast of Sumatra on Saturday, triggering a tsunami alert and panicking some residents, officials said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties. The quake's epicenter was located off Simeulue Island, about 160 miles southwest of Medan on Sumatra's west coast, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. It struck just after 9 p.m. local time.

The island is near the epicenter of the Dec. 26 quake that caused a massive tsunami, killing at least 180,000 people. Indonesia's Meteorology and Geophysics Agency put the magnitude at 6.2, saying it was centered 19 miles under the Indian Ocean seabed, about 40 miles southwest of Sinabang, the main town on Simeulue island.

Rusdi, a resident of Sinabang contacted by The Associated Press, said the quake was felt there, but did not cause any widespread panic in the town. He uses only one name. The quake strongly jolted nearby Nias island and was felt in Medan, said Subagio, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency's Jakarta office who goes by a single name. Agus Mendrofa, the deputy mayor of Nias, told El Shinta radio station that some people momentarily fled their houses when the temblor struck.

"It was pretty strong because it was the first time in the past months that people ran out of houses because of a quake," Mendrofa said from the island's main town of Gunung Sitoli.

He said he had received no reports of damage elsewhere on the island. Saturday's tsunami alert was issued by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii.

Source: BBC News | ABC News | CBC

the World Wide Help group

2005-10-10T22:55:00.000+05:30

Many of the people behind this and similar projects [MumbaiHelp, Cloudburst Mumbai, Katrina Help blog and wiki, Rita Help blog and wiki, South Asia Quake Help blog, wiki and SMS Quake] have got together in a single group.

The idea is that any time there's a disaster, any member of the group can alert the a ready-made team, all of them with experience in the field, enthusiasm and goodwill, and request help to get something going.

Once the actual project takes shape, the individuals involved may decide to form a separate coordination group to run things.

The other part of the agenda is that we can exchange info, learn from the things we did wrong, and get better each time the sad, but inevitable happens.

Group Page:
http://groups.google.com/group/WorldWideHelp

Group description:
General newsgroup and rallying point for power bloggers, wiki experts, database adepts, etc, for calls to action and volunteers to provide information post-disasters.
Will also be used to exchange information in more peaceful times, so we can all learn from our experiences.

Join This Group question:
Please tell us which online relief efforts you have participated in, and your strengths (eg. blogging, wikis, databases, tech innovation, hosting, sponsorship, etc).

Go here to send in a join request.

For fresh updates on the 8th October earthquake

2005-10-09T00:40:00.000+05:30

For fresh updates on the 8th October earthquake, please visit us at http://quakehelp.blogspot.com/, where the team has duplicated the information posted here so far.

We will now be posting exclusively to the new blog, http://quakehelp.blogspot.com/. Please send the link to your friends, and let us know if you'd like to help.

Pakistani college closed - Update from Ayub Medical College, Abbottabad

2005-10-08T23:38:00.000+05:30

Abbottabad and areas around faced a heavy eartquake (7.6) at 8:42 AM today the 8th September 2005 which resulted in damage to many buildings and have claimed many lives in Abbottabad, Mansehra, Balakot, Garhi Habibullah, Muzafarabad and areas north to this region.

All hospitals in the region are on Red Alert receiving victums of the quake. More than 200 patients have been treated in Ayub Teaching Hospital till now (3:30 PM)

The Surgery Paper B of Final Year MBBS has been posponed while the rest of the examination will be on schedule. The College will remain closed till further order. The hostels have been evacuated as a precaution. For more information please email, call +92-(992)-381907 or send a fax to +92-(992)-382321

Source: Ayub Medical College

Fearing aftershocks, Pakistan hospital treats wounded outdoors

2005-10-08T23:34:00.000+05:30

Lying on makeshift beds on a hospital lawn in this northwestern Pakistani hill town, some screaming in pain, hundreds of men, women and children wait for help. But they have to stay there for now, because doctors say the monster earthquake that rumbled through the region early Saturday could have made the building dangerous.

"We feel it is unsafe to keep patients inside," Amir Shah, a senior doctor at the Ayub hospital in Abbotabad, told AFP.

Already at breaking point because of the flood of victims and a shortage of supplies, vilent aftershocks added to the worry.

"Our doctors and paramedical staff are scared to go in. The building has already developed cracks," Shah said.

Abbotabad is on the road towards the epicentre of the quake and is just miles (kilometres) from the worst affected area, where thousands of people are feared to have died. In the nearby districts of Mansehra and Malakand in North West Frontier Province police said the up to 600 had perished, while Pakistani-controlled Kashmir was thought to have suffered even bigger casualties. Some of the injured interviewed by AFP at Ayub hospital said they saw entire villages razed.

"I was working in the field close to a building when I felt the jolt and saw houses tumbling down to the ground," one of the injured, Wali Rehman, from Ugi village in North West Frontier Province, told AFP.

"I know my mother and my family have died," he said, weeping.

Another victim from near Balakot town in Kashmir said at least 200 homes in his village were flattened. "It was complete devastation all around," Jehanzib Khan told AFP.

As ambulances and vans continually ferried injured people to the hospital, the lawn became more crowded with patients. A hailstorm as night fell a hailstorm added to their discomfort. Dozens of people, mainly workers from the local Al-Khidmat private aid service, had gathered at the hospital, trying to arrange medicines, food and blood for the injured. They also brought food for victims to break their fast as the third day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan came to a close. But doctors feared they have only treated a fraction of the victims from the earthquake. Many affected areas have been cut off by landslides and it will take people hours or even days to get to Abbotabad.

"We need medicines, blood and equipment to treat the stream of wounded people," said doctor Nadeem Gohar.

Source: ReliefWeb

Hospitals inundated after Asian quake

2005-10-08T23:28:00.000+05:30

The South Asia quake struck just before 6 o'clock in the morning Central European Time, and was just 10 kilometres deep. It was followed by a series of strong aftershocks. It is reported that several villages close to the epicentre of the quake have been totally destroyed. In Islamabad, scores of people were feared killed or trapped in two 12-storey apartment blocks that collapsed.

In Afghanistan, authorities say apart from the death of a young girl when a wall collapsed, and some damage to buildings, the country appeared to escape the worst of the quake. Deaths have been reported in many outlying areas in Pakistan, but so far there is no official tally. Hospitals have been inundated with scores of people who have been injured.

Source: EuroNews

The Quake-affected area

2005-10-08T23:16:00.000+05:30

From the BBC here, as part of this report.

UN ready to assist the victims of the earthquake in Pakistan

2005-10-08T23:14:00.000+05:30

The United Nations is ready to assist the victims of the earthquake which occurred on 8 October in Northern Pakistan, also affecting neighbouring countries of India and Afghanistan.

“ We are in contact with the Governments of the countries affected. OCHA stands ready to dispatch an United Nations Disaster and Coordination Team (UNDAC) to help assess the damage and coordinate the response in Pakistan”, Under-Secretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs and Emergency Relief Coordinator, Jan Egeland said today.

In Geneva, an UNDAC team is on stand-by ready to be deployed at the request of the Government of Pakistan. An aircraft has been made available by the Government of Switzerland to fly directly to Islamabad later today.

In Pakistan, damage to buildings and houses have been reported in Islamabad. More severe damage is being reported in Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar. It is anticipated that the death toll might be severe.

The high intensity of the earthquake in Pakistan was also felt in Afghanistan and across northern India. In India, where buildings have collapsed, official reports confirm the death of more than 200 people and more than 400 injured. There is minor damage in Afghanistan where two people are reported to have been killed.

Source: ReliefWeb

India: About 250 killed in J&K quake, 650 injured

2005-10-08T23:10:00.000+05:30

Srinagar, Oct 8.(PTI): About 250 people, including 25 security personnel, were killed and 650 others injured in a powerful earthquake that rocked Jammu and Kashmir this morning leaving a trail of devastation.

Hundreds of houses and other buildings collapsed or were damaged in the tremor, which was the strongest in over 120 years, and was followed by over a dozen aftershocks that triggered panic in the area.

Official sources said the death toll was continuously mounting as reports have started pouring in from far off places which got cut off from the mainland due to the earthquake.

Baramulla district of North Kashmir was the worst hit where 142 people died especially in the border town of Uri where a number of villages near the Line of Control almost got flattened.

Read teh Full Story at The Hindu

Quake kills '400' schoolchildren

2005-10-08T22:37:00.000+05:30

The bodies of at least 250 children have been pulled from the rubble of a school destroyed by the powerful earthquake in north-west Pakistan.

Police chief Riffat Pashar told Reuters news agency 350 altogether had died in the collapse in Mansehra district.

"Fifty were killed in another school in the same district," he said. There is no confirmation.

More than 2,000 people are feared dead from the 7.6-magnitude quake that hit Pakistan, India and Afghanistan.

The earthquake, which was registered at 0350GMT, was felt as far away as the Afghan capital, Kabul, and India's capital, Delhi.

Read the Full Story at BBC News

India offers help to quake-hit Pakistan

2005-10-08T22:33:00.000+05:30

Despite reeling under the aftermath of the devastating earthquake, India on Saturday offered rescue and relief assistance to neighbouring Pakistan, parts of which also suffered extensive damage in the natural calamity.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in a message to President Pervez Musharraf said, "while parts of India have also suffered from this unexpected natural disaster, we are prepared to extend any assistance with rescue and relief which you may deem appropriate".

He expressed distress at the extensive loss of life and property in Pakistan as a result of the natural disaster.

The prime minister conveyed condolences to those who have been bereaved in the tragedy.

In another message, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh conveyed to his counterpart Khurshid M Kasuri profound sympathy to all those who have lost their loved ones and those who have been injured in the quake.

"Please do not hesitate to indicate to us in whatever way we can be of some assistance both for rescue and relief in the affected areas," he said.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran spoke to his Pakistani counterpart for the first time over the hotline activated recently to convey sympathy over the tragic loss.

Soure: Rediff.com

MSF team at Asian earthquake zone

2005-10-08T22:20:00.000+05:30

Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has a staff of three who recently arrived in the Pakistani area to start a project on safe motherhood. The focus now is to mobiize more staff and supplies to the region. An earthquake measuring 7.6 on the Richter Scale struck in the north of Pakistan this morning, just 80 kms north of the Pakistan capital, Islamabad. The affected area runs from the north of Afghanistan and Pakistan to the Indian Kashmir.

MSF was already present in the area with three expats in the village of Lamnian in Pakistani Kashmir, some 15 kilometers from the line of control with Indian Kashmir and close to the epicentre of the earthquake. The three are a project coordinator, logistician and nurse and were about to start a project there and were hiring national staff.

The village has been completely destroyed, including the clinic where we are about to start working and the MSF house. The project would focus on safe motherhood. All team members are fine. The Pakistani army is responding with big logistical/medical capacity

MSF is now focusing to getting reponse capacity to the region. Stocks from Quetta, Dubai and Mumbai will be moved up to the north and MSF is looking into how to get additional resources in the country; cargo as well as people (blankets; jerrycans; sleeping mats and tents)

Source: ReliefWeb

Aftershocks still felt hours after Pakistan quake

2005-10-08T22:07:00.000+05:30

ISLAMABAD, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Strong aftershocks rattled the capitals of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan on Saturday afternoon, hours after a deadly quake shook the south Asian subcontinent.

Reuters correspondents in Islamabad, New Delhi and Kabul all reported feeling a strong aftershock at around 1045 GMT -- nearly seven hours after the main quake which was centred around 95 kms (60 miles) northeast of the Pakistan capital.

Pakistan officials say whole villages have been flattened by the quake and they fear thousands of casualties.

Source: Reuters AlertNet

Czech rescuers prepared to help Asia hit by earthquake

2005-10-08T21:18:00.000+05:30

Czech rescuers are prepared to go to the south Asian regions badly hit by an earthquake today, spokesman of the Czech Fire and Rescue Corps Petr Kopacek and spokesman for the Hand for Help humanitarian organisation Jana Eichlerova said.

The rescuers are only waiting for an official request from local authorities. The firefighters are able to prepare their rescuer team within 24 hours and rescuers from Hand for Help are also capable of leaving for the region at the same time, they said, adding that money-raising campaigns have been launched already.

"We don't know yet what the Pakistani government requests and what it will need. We don't know whether they want foodstuffs or a special team," Kopacek said. He said that the rescuer and reconnaissance team which also includes dog-handlers, could be prepared to leave within 12 or 24 hours. Hand for Help, which organised help in Southeastern Asia which was hit by a devastating tsunami last year, is also waiting for an official request from Pakistani authorities.

Director of the Czech ADRA Jan Barta said that his organisation was collecting the first information and would organise a money collection if need be. Czech Catholic Charity is also prepared to start a collection on the Internet, its spokesman Jan Oulik said.

Source: CTK

Disaster Management Helpline in India

2005-10-08T20:34:00.000+05:30

The disaster management cell at the Indian Home Ministry Control room telephones:

91 (011)-23093563
91 (011)-23093564
91 (011)-23093566

UN to help countries affected by Pakistan earthquake

2005-10-08T20:32:00.000+05:30

8 October 2005 – Following a massive earthquake in Pakistan that affected also Afghanistan and India, the United Nations is working with the governments of those countries on an emergency response.

The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs is exploring “ways in which the United Nations can assist in all efforts required to support relief and rescue operations and in subsequent recovery and reconstruction,” a spokesman for Secretary-General Kofi Annan said in New York.

The spokesman said Mr. Annan is “deeply saddened by the loss of life and destruction” caused by the quake, which had a magnitude of 7.6 and struck 95 kilometres outside of Islamabad.

Source: UN News Centre

UNDP India - Earthquake Situation Report 1

2005-10-08T20:22:00.000+05:30

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.4 occurred on 8th October 2005 at 8.50.38 AM (local time) with epicenter at 34.432°N, 73.537°E in Muzaffarabad Region of Pakistan lasting for 6 minutes. The depth of the earthquake was at 10 km with preliminary location at 93 km from Islamabad, Pakistan, 114 km from Mingaora, Pakistan and 124 km from Srinagar, Kashmir. Subsequent after shock tremors of 5.9, 5.6 and 5.2 and 6.0 magnitude at intervals were recorded in the same region of Kohistan region i.e 65 km east of Mingaora, Pakistan and 172 kms North West of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir), India.

The high intensity earthquake was felt in part of Afghanistan and across northern India covering states of Jammu, Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Delhi, and Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh at 9.25 a.m. IST on 8th October 2005. The worst affected districts in Jammu and Kashmir due to impact of the high magnitude earthquake are districts of: Poonch, Baramulla , Jammu, Udhampur, Ramban Kathus, Srinagar, Budgam, Anantnag, Pulwama and Kupwara.

Location 34.748°N, 73.141°E
Depth 10 km (6.2 miles)
Region PAKISTAN
Distances 71 km (44 miles) E (93°) from Mingaora, Pakistan
120 km (75 miles) N (0°) from ISLAMABAD, Pakistan
164 km (102 miles) SE (139°) from Chitral, Pakistan

Preliminary Location
4.0 kms SE of Ghori, POK
10.7 kms ESE NNE of Muzaffarabad, POK,
32.9 kms ENE of Manshera, Pakistan,
60.9 kms NW of Uri (Jammu & Kashmir), India,
90.2 kms NNE of Islamabad, Pakistan,
123 kms WNW of Srinagar (Jammu & Kashmir), India,
326 kms NNW of Lahore (Punjab), Pakistan,
740 kms NW of Delhi (NCT), India.

Damage Details:

Pakistan: Strong tremors were felt in northern Pakistan, rocking buildings in the capital Islamabad
Muzaffarabad, Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar. Reports of server damage to buildings, houses and
casualties of injured residence and death toll risen to 1000 people have been reported from Islamabad,
Muzaffarabad, North West Frontier Province(NWFP) and Lahore districts. Army and the state
administration are conduction rescue and relief operations.

Jammu Kashmir, India:

Official reports confirm death of 213 people (Srinagar, Baramulla and Kupwara, Uri, Poonch,
Udhampur and Doa districts) , including 16 army personnel, in Jammu & Kashmir and death of
1each in Gurdaspur and Batala districts, Punjab.

385 people have sustained injures due to collapse of building walls in Paraypora, Poonch,
Baramulla, Srinagar and Anantnag districts while 7 buildings were damaged in Amristar,
Hoshiarpur, Moga, and Gurdaspur in Punjab state.

Preliminary assessment state damage to 963 masonry buildings (houses, buildings) reported
from Uri, Baramulla and Sopore towns of Baramulla district and in Srinagar, Anantnag,
Baramulla and Kupwara districts .

Incidence of fire reported in parts of Baramulla district while Moti Mahal Fort in Poonch district
and Reasi Fort in Reasi district have sustained damages. People in the affected districts
panicked and came out their homes after shock tremor felt at 4.15 IST.

Communication network, infrastructure facilities and traffic has been disrupted on the National
Highway 1A between Srinagar-Muzaffarpur and Boniyar due to landslide triggered by the
earthquake.

Administrative Measures:

The affected district administration are being assisted by the army and air force to conduct
rescue/search and relief operations in Uri, Tangdhar, Baramulla and Kupwara sector, while
essential supplies, including power, water and telecommunication are being restored .

The personnel have evacuated injured persons to Uri Field Hospital. Makeshift hospitals are set
up and doctors were being flown to Uri to attend to the injured.

The Home Secretary Government of India has taken stock of the situation with the Chief
Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir .Also the secretaries of Central ministries/departments have
been requested to extend emergency support.

Prime Minister of India is closely monitoring the situation and announced an ex-gratia amount
of Rs 1000,000 to persons dead and assured all possible Central assistance to the state.

For Further Information:

G Padmanabhan
Emergency Analyst, UNDP
E-mail: g.padmanabhan@undp.org,
Mobile: 91 -- 98104 02937
http://www.undp.org.in/dmweb/

Source: ReliefWeb

Oxfam: Asian Earthquake: Update 2

2005-10-08T20:20:00.000+05:30

Oxfam has just coordinated a meeting in Islamabad of all of the international aid agencies responding to the earthquake.

At that meeting it was agreed which organisation would be leading in which area to ensure a coordinated response.

Teams from each of the agencies are leaving on assessment and response missions, some have already left and in the next few hours more will be
dispatched.

It is becoming clear that the most affected area is Pakistan administered Kashmir where 5 out of 7 divisions are severely affected. Oxfam has started an assessment in 3 of these 5 areas with teams already on the ground. Winter is drawing in in the region and night time temperatures are already dropping. Winterised tents and blankets will be urgently needed.

Read the Full Story at ReliefWeb

Quake rocks parts of tsunami-ravaged Aceh, North Sumatra

2005-10-08T20:05:00.000+05:30

Jakarta, Oct. 8 (AP): A strong earthquake rocked parts of Indonesia's tsunami-ravaged Aceh province today, causing panic among residents, official and witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of damage or casualties.

The magnitude 5.8 earthquake struck near southern Aceh's Singkil town and its surrounding areas at 11:30 am (1000 IST), said Muslih, an official at the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

Muslih, who uses one name like many Indonesians, said the quake strongly jolted Singkil, but so far there were no reports of its effects.

Andayani, an official at the local district office, said many panicked city-dwellers ran out of their houses when the quake struck.

Read the Full Story at The Hindu

Severest earthquake in 120 years in Jammu & Kashmir: official

2005-10-08T20:02:00.000+05:30

Srinagar, Oct. 8 (PTI): The earthquake that shook Jammu and Kashmir today was the severest in the state in over 120 years, a senior officer of the weather office said.

Our records show that an earthquake of 7.0 magnitude was felt in the valley with epicentre at Sopore in Baramulla district of North Kashmir on May 30, 1885, Director, Weather Office, G K Mohantey, told PTI here.

He said although Jammu and Kashmir usually witnessed moderate to severe earthquakes in the past as well, today's tremor was the severest.

Mohantey said today's earthquake had the magnitude of 7.4 on the Richter scale and its epicentre was at a place near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan at latitude 30.6 degrees north and longitude 73.0 degrees east.

Read the Full Story at The Hindu

Indian Army seizes Uri town, bars media entry

2005-10-08T19:59:00.000+05:30

Boniyar (J & K), Oct. 8 (PTI): The Army has seized Uri and barred media from entering the town of Baramullah district in Jammu and Kashmir even as the injured were being evacuated hours after the 7-plus magnitude earthquake flattened it this morning.

Survivors of the giant quake said in this hamlet, 20 km from Uri, that the death toll was "much higher" and the entire town had been flattened.

They complained that the relief and rescue efforts had not come speedily and were not enough.

Source: The Hindu

Indian Met office warns of strong aftershocks

2005-10-08T19:57:00.000+05:30

New Delhi, Oct 8. (PTI): After the massive earthquake that killed hundreds of people in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan today, strong aftershocks continued to rock the region with the Met department warning of more in the next several days.

Seven aftershocks measuring over 5.0 on the Richter scale were recorded after the temblor measuring 7.4 rocked the region at 0920 hrs IST. All were epicentred near Muzaffarabad in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

The strongest of these was a 6 magnitude jolt recorded at 1616 hrs and several smaller ones were felt through the day.

A Met official said aftershocks were a normal phenomenon after a major earthquake and these were likely to continue for several days.

However, no warnings were being issued as it was not possible to predict the timing of the aftershocks, he said.

Today's temblor was one of the strongest recorded in the region in recent times.

Source: The Hindu

First field assessments out of Pakistan

2005-10-08T19:56:00.000+05:30

There's an urgent call for medical assistance in Mansehra, 50 kilometer north of Islamabad. A german-based medical ngo - Humedica International has just sent in their first team into Pakistan. They are deploying mobile relief hospitals and working with a local ngo in the area - PAK relief to assist 3,000 displaced persons in the area - intially.

Humedica International is calling for certified medical volunteers to join their team, download the volunteering form from here. You may also get in touch with Joerg Eich at +49-8341-9661480 or email j.eich@humedica.org

Asia Quake: Affected Areas

2005-10-08T19:52:00.000+05:30

Image Courtesy: BBC News

Quake shakes subcontinent; thousands feared killed

2005-10-08T19:43:00.000+05:30

ISLAMABAD, Oct 8 (Reuters) - A major earthquake shook cities and villages across the south Asian subcontinent on Saturday, "wiping out" several villages in Pakistan and leading to fears that the death toll could run into thousands.

Officials said heavy damage was expected in northern Pakistan, but details were difficult to obtain because telephone lines were down and mobile networks overwhelmed.

"The deaths could be running in the thousands. We do not have an exact figure for casualties at this moment, but it's massive," President Pervez Musharraf's spokesman, Major-General Shaukat Sultan, told Reuters following a aerial survey of stricken areas.

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 7.6, struck at 0350 GMT and was centred in forest-clad mountains of Pakistani Kashmir, near the Indian border, about 95 km (60 miles) northeast of Islamabad.

Source: Reuters AlertNet

Stampede after quake injured several women in Faisalabad

2005-10-08T19:37:00.000+05:30

At least dozens of women workers of a textile mill wounded in stampede created when a strong quake hits Kharianwala, Faisalabad.

The injured were rushed to Kharianwala social security hospital where a woman reported in critical state. People still gathering in open areas and grounds due to quake fear.

Source: The Nation

Asia Quake Images

2005-10-08T19:34:00.000+05:30

Image Courtesy: AFP/Getty Images

Hundreds die in South Asia quake

2005-10-08T19:32:00.000+05:30

Pakistan says more than 1,000 people may have died in a powerful quake that also hit north India and Afghanistan.

The quake with a magnitude of at least 7.6 had the epicentre 80km (50 miles) north-east of Islamabad.

At least 500 died in North-West Frontier province in Pakistan and 1,700 were injured. In Indian-administered Kashmir, 200 are confirmed dead.

Rescuers are trying to reach dozens of residents feared trapped in a building that collapsed in Islamabad.

Source: BBC News

Massive tremors rock north India

2005-10-08T10:27:00.000+05:30

Massive tremors rocked North India at 9.25 AM on Saturday morning. Tremors measuring 6.8 on the richter scale were felt in Delhi, Srinagar, Amritsar, Patiala, Jaipur, Chandigarh and Dehradun. The quake had its epicentre in Pakistan.

Immediate reports from Jammu & Kashmir say that normal life has been disrupted. Communication lines have been disconnected. People have left their houses and taken refuge under the open sky.

The tremors went on for about thirty seconds and are reported to have also been felt in neighbouring Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Local television in Pakistan said the quake caused panic in Islamabad, as well as nearby Rawalpindi, Lahore, Peshawar and Quetta near the Afghan border.

Source: Rediff.com

Duelling agencies hurt tsunami relief

2005-10-07T03:47:00.000+05:30

The tsunami which devastated Aceh on Dec. 26, 2004, left 164,000 people dead or missing and over 400,000 homeless. It rapidly became the most reported and well-funded disaster in history. Over 200 humanitarian organizations — plus 3,000 military troops from a dozen countries — arrived to offer aid.

Neighbouring countries were quick to respond. Language and culture proved no obstacle to their teams, which swiftly grasped immediate needs. Yet many international agencies brought in staff from Europe or America, when they could have exploited regional expertise.

Although international agencies were right in guessing that water, food and shelter would be survivors' initial needs, they were wrong to assume these needs would not be covered, at least partially, by Indonesians themselves. Agencies did little to suppress the myth of disaster victims dependent on external aid to survive. At the root of co-ordination problems was one key factor: too much money. Read More....

Source: The Toronto Star

India to have tsunami warning system by 2005

2005-09-24T21:49:00.000+05:30

The country has approved setting up a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean at a cost of Rs 125 crore, a former official of the Ocean Development department said on Friday.India has decided to set up the Indian Ocean Global Ocean Observation System (IO-GOOS) connecting all seismic stations to share tsunami related information, former Secretary of the department Dr Harsh K Gupta said. Pointing out that it was essential to record occurrence of a tsunami, Gupta told an international seminar on 'Natural Hazards - Disaster Mitigation' that sensors would be planted at the bottom of the Indian Ocean by September 2007. Read More ....

Source: Press Trust India via HindustanTimes

September 2: International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day

2005-09-02T02:25:00.000+05:30

Tomorrow, Friday September 2, is International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day. Why? Because it needs to be done.

If you have a blog, here’s what you can do. Sometime tomorrow, take a break from whatever it is you usually blog about, and post something constructive related to disaster relief. You can keep it topical to your blog; or, you can just dedicate blog space to listing websites where people can donate money (maybe even challenge people to match your donation). Or, share a story of a hurricane survivor. This goes for photo bloggers, podcasters and video bloggers as well - there’s no reason why this should be text-only.

Though this is inspired by Hurricane Katrina, the goal is to deal with disaster relief efforts worldwide, posting about a disaster relevant to your community. Post lists of supplies needed for victims of yesterday’s stampede in Baghdad. Post an update on how your family is recovering from the tsunami. Post multi-lingual resources for African families in Paris displaced by the recent apartment fires. Blog about whatever you choose, as long as it supports some kind of disaster assistance in a constructive way.

When you’ve posted to your blog, be sure to include a link to this Technorati tag: International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day. That way, when people follow that link, they’ll be able to find a collection of all relevant postings published throughout the blogosphere. There will also be an RSS feed on that page, which can be used to aggregate all of the postings and display them on a single webpage. I plan to aggregate them on my Katrina Aftermath blog; you can do the same. (Later, I’ll post a javascript on my Katrina blog to make it easy for anyone to do this - more soon.) One collection of disaster relief resources, countless bloggers. That’s the power of the blogosphere.

So please join me tomorrow and participate in International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day. Take a break from whatever it is you normally blog about - even if it’s just for one post - and give back to the Net.

Study Shows that Boxing Day Tsunami hit both coasts of Canada

2005-08-28T06:44:00.000+05:30

Waves from the Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia late last year travelled tens of thousands of kilometres around the globe, eventually lapping at Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts several days later, an international report concludes. The waves that hit Halifax were less than half the size of a typical wave, but still higher than those that hit a small string of islands in the Indian Ocean directly south of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, says the report, published yesterday in the on-line edition of the journal Science.

Waves from the Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia late last year travelled tens of thousands of kilometres around the globe, eventually lapping at Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts several days later, an international report concludes. The waves that hit Halifax were less than half the size of a typical wave, but still higher than those that hit a small string of islands in the Indian Ocean directly south of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, says the report, published yesterday in the on-line edition of the journal Science. Read More ....

(Source: The Globe and Mail)

Progress

2005-08-17T21:19:00.000+05:30

"I live for each day.." says Chandrika.. A woman in Hambantota who lost everything to the tsunami.. Her husband.. her children.. her mother.. her house.. everything.. She lives in a camp put up by Sewalanka. She broke down i asked her to recall what happened that fateful day.. She sleeps with pieces of her daughters' clothes, she found them at the site of the house.. it was all that was left.. she recently found photographs of her wedding which were partially destroyed stuck in a tree.. with no friends and no companions she struggles by each day by selling frozen drink packets to little kids at 1 rupee each.. She still hasn't received any help from the government..

Tony, as he is known to his friends, a muslim who had 3 children, a wife and all-in-all a happy ever after.. He worked in Saudi for a long time to earn to give his children a good education and a good life.. He was in the middle east on the 26th of December.. He got the news that his wife and children were missing and rushed back here but alas, all was lost.. He still walks around with a briefcase in which he carries all the documents of his children.. hoping someday to find them as their bodies were never found.. he recently had a dream that his youngest daughter had called to him to come and look for her near Colombo so he took the next bus to Colombo to look for her.. He says he needs to go abroad to get on with his life because everytime he sees a little girl he is reminded of his daughter.. The government hasn't given him any aid either..

I went to Hambantota a month ago and again this week again to check the progress.. I've been in Hambantota for the past 3 days and witnessed how people are being neglected and how the government isn't doing anything to help them.. there's alot of negativity towards the government at this very moment.. they gave them food stamps but most of the aid has been given by NGO's and as private donations.. I just want to raise the question of "where's all the money that was given to the government..???" "why is everything so stagnant...??" Just a plea to everybody to do whatever they can.. especially the governmnt.. all is not well...

And also this is a thank you to all that have done what they can.. Keep up the good work..!

A lady named Petronella Ballard whose been living in Sri Lanka for the past 31 years has joined with many interesting people to begin a project called SwimLanka. It's a project which teaches children to swim with the intention of helping them get over their fear of the sea and also to help them be prepared if any other disaster related to water happens.. Julian Bolling, a famous swimmer who is an asset to the country has trained youth in certain areas to coach the kids.. I went to Tangalle to see what it's like, just to get an idea of what it was like and was touched to see how much the kids enjoyed it and how much enthusiasm was extended to the programme by people from all over the world.. it was beautiful.. it's so wonderful to see the way the children laugh and the way the team works.. Thanks so much..

That's all for now.. will keep you updated.. Let's do something people!!

Keep it blogged...

Ernst & Young - Indonesia Develops Tsunami Accounting Software

2005-08-15T11:24:00.000+05:30

Ernst & Young Indonesia has developed a 'Tool Kit' to help organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Tsunami victims, to establish proper systems of accountability and internal control. Adlair Goldberg, Ernst & Young, Jakarta, the author of the tool kit named as EYe Tool Kit explained the details of the tool kit at a brief seminar arranged in association with the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies held at Ceylon Continental Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week.

As part of Ernst and Young commitment to support the Tsunami Relief Efforts and to help provide transparency and accountability in this very important humanitarian mission, Golberg said, theErnst & Young has developed EYe Tool Kit as a resource to help providers establish adequate systems to accountability and internal control within their organizations.
He said that an NGO is required to get the resources needed the plans and budget to do a solid programme and experienced people, proper organization and support systems should be in place and there should be solid relationship with the community of which they serve.

GOAL revitalises Sri Lanka schools

2005-08-12T21:24:00.000+05:30

GOAL is undertaking a schools rehabilitation programme in Ampara District, Sri Lanka. With a budget of $7.5m the project will take approximately one year to complete. Seven months after Sri Lanka's unprecedented tragedy of December 26th 2004, there are signs of a society slowly getting back on it's feet. Amid the destruction wrought by the tsunami the humanitarian agency GOAL is rehabilitating sixty-four schools in the underdeveloped and neglected eastern province of Ampara.

With a budget of $7.5m the project is GOAL's biggest ever single project. It will have a significant impact on the lives of over 31,000 school children in the hardest hit community on the island, where livelihoods and lives were swept away in the terrifying ordeal.

Work has already started in several locations, directed by Ailbhe Gerrard, a project manager from Coolbawn near Nenagh in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. "Three of the schools had been directly hit by the tsunami wave, the force had smashed buildings leaving roofs hanging precariously over space where walls used to be, quarter structures standing abandoned and foundations exposed. Sixty one schools had hosted the thousands of refugees for weeks and in some cases months. These people needed shelter and had broken locks to enter classrooms, burnt wooden furniture to cook and heat water. There was extensive damage to latrines, water pipes and electrical fittings. " Read More ....

(Source: AlertNet)

Drama group aids tsunami victim

2005-08-11T21:18:00.000+05:30

A Sri Lankan teenager has spoken of how a drama group now performing at the Edinburgh Festival eased the trauma she suffered from 26 December's tsunami. Ruwani Sitara, 15, lost seven members of her family in the disaster.

She is now taking part in Children of the Sea - based on Shakespeare's Pericles - as part of the Fringe Festival at the Royal Botanic Garden. Drama organiser Anoja Weerasinghe said workshops had helped many children who became terrified of the sea. Read More ....

(Source: BBC News)

India: Rebuilding Tsunami Ravaged Infrastructure To Take 3 Yrs

2005-08-11T21:04:00.000+05:30

Indian government on Tuesday said it would take nearly three years to rebuild tsunami-battered areas, as the killer waves had rendered certain coastal areas highly salinated making them unfit for cultivation, according to a news report by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

"The tsunami has rendered certain coastal areas highly salinated thereby making them unfit for cultivation," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here after releasing a report on the calamity that struck several South Asian countries on December 26 last year.

"The government is trying its best to put life of the affected populace back on the rails," Ahluwalia said.

The report titled "Older People in tsunami: Challenges of Survival" prepared by the Helpage India noted that the fishing community was the worst-hit and that the agricultural land destroyed by salinity did not receive adequate attention. The Planning Commission Chairman said the government was making efforts to provide infrastructure of better quality like modern fishing harbours.

British Deputy High Commissioner Mark Runcares said his government has been extending financial assistance to the various NGOs for reconstruction of infrastructure. In course of its study, Helpage surveyed 856 old people, who said there were no specific component in the relief operations for them. Among the older victims of tsunami, 14 per cent of those surveyed were living alone, while two per cent had no income and eight per cent were unable to work. Three per cent respondents lost their assets and their entire family while four per cent lost their assets and young members of their family.

(Source: Malaysian National News Agency)

Tsunami alert system 'useless without communication'

2005-08-10T20:48:00.000+05:30

A tsunami warning system will be fully operational in the Indian Ocean by July 2006, but it will be of little use unless nations in the region are ready to respond to its warnings, said participants at a conference in Perth, Australia, last Friday (5 August). The meeting, organised by the United Nations, gathered representatives of 27 countries at risk from future tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

Those attending the Perth meeting agreed to add dozens of hi-tech seabed sensors and surface buoys to make tsunami detection faster and more precise. But accurate detection will only be valuable if warnings can be communicated to coastal communities and if authorities prepare evacuation plans. Read More ....

(Source: SciDevNet)

Hawaii study: Trees buffer tsunami impact

2005-08-08T21:08:00.000+05:30

Planting trees and bushy plants between buildings and the ocean helped to lessen the impact of the waves when the Dec. 26 killer tsunami struck in the Maldives Islands, University of Hawaii researchers said. The observations by the UH researchers, who traveled to the Maldives about six weeks after the tsunami that killed about 180,000 people and left another 50,000 unaccounted for in 11 countries, could one day make hotels and other buildings in Hawaii safer. Read More ....

(Source: USA Today)

Australia: Tsunami warning system meeting in Perth

2005-07-25T17:22:00.000+05:30

The first big step towards an effective Indian Ocean tsunami warning system will come at a three-day meeting in Perth next week. Representatives of up to 29 Indian Ocean countries are expected to attend to work on technical plans for the system, including coordinating data and communicating warnings. The move follows last year's Boxing Day tsunami which killed at least 250,000 people in Asia, including 25 Australians.

The task of getting the system up and running has been coordinated by the United Nation agency UNESCO, specifically its oceans intergovernmental coordination group (ICG). A UNESCO spokeswoman said the Perth meeting would look at technical plans for the system, including seismic data and collection, sea level data collection and exchange, deep-sea pressure measurements, warnings and alerts and communication. Read More...

(Source: The AGE)

Malaysia: Penang on tsunami alert

2005-07-25T05:29:00.000+05:30

Police in Penang have been put on tsunami alert following an earthquake of 7.2 magnitude that shook India's Andaman and Nicobar islands. A spokesman for the George Town police station said they obtained the information from the Selangor Meteorological Department at 11.42pm (Sunday July 24th) last night and were told to be on the alert.

“We will monitor the situation and act accordingly.”

The US Geological Survey (USGS) urged authorities near the epicentre of the tremor to be aware of the risk of local tsunamis.

If anyone feels the need to contact George Town Police Station, they can be reached on 04-2292222

(Source: Malaysia Star)

Indonesia: Earthquake hits Aceh, Panic caused, No Casualties yet.

2005-07-25T03:22:00.000+05:30

An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale rocked Bumi Serambi Mekah, Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam in Indonesia late Sunday, prompting panic in some areas but no casualties or significant damage were reported, an Indonesian official said.

The quake was centered about 33 kilometers below the Banda AcehSea, some 435 kilometers west of Banda Aceh, capital of Aceh Province at 22:42 p.m. (local time), said Edison Gurning of the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.

"So far, there are no reports of victims or damage but the earthquake did spark panic among the population, with many rushing out of their homes," Edson was quoted as saying by local press reports.

(Source: Xinhuanet)

Thailand lifts tsunami warning

2005-07-25T02:51:00.000+05:30

Thai authorities lifted a tsunami warning early on Monday and declared the southwest coast, including Phuket island, safe after a major earthquake in India's Nicobar Islands.

"After closely monitoring the situation ... it was determined that there will be no tsunami to endanger people's lives," the National Disaster Warning Centre's director Plodprasop Surasawadi said in a live broadcast.

"Therefore the centre has cancelled its earlier warning."

Thailand, which saw its Andaman coastline slammed by last December's tsunami and suffered about 5 400 deaths, went on rapid and full alert shortly after US seismologists recorded a quake measuring 7.0 on the Richter scale. The earthquake occurred some 660 kilometres west of Phuket island, Thailand's main beach tourist destination, which was hit by the December 26 disaster.

National emergency television broadcasts alerted millions of Thais to the threat, and disaster warning sirens blared along coastlines including Phuket's famed Patong beach, where police helped local residents and Western tourists evacuate to higher ground.

(Source: News24)

Sri Lanka says no tsunami threat after Indian quake

2005-07-25T02:44:00.000+05:30

Following an earthquake off the Nicobar Islands in India, mild tremors were experienced in several places in Sri Lanka at about 9.45 pm on Sunday, FM stations quoting officials said.

The stations said that tremors were felt in Colombo, Kandy, Ratnapura and Matale in the Western and Central parts of the Island. The popular Tamil station Shakthi FM said that no tsunami warning had been issued by the Sri Lankan government till 11.30 pm (17.30 GMT).

Hindustan Times spoke to people in the eastern tsunami-hit districts of Batticaloa and Amparai and was told that no tremors were felt in these districts, nor was there any unusual turbulence in the sea.

(Source: PK Balachandran with Hindustan Times)

Strong earthquake hits Indian Ocean

2005-07-25T02:19:00.000+05:30

A strong earthquake of magnitude 7.2 hit India's southern Nicobar Islands Sunday night (July 24th), but there were no immediate reports of any casualties or destruction, a meteorologist said. The same area was battered by the Dec. 26 Asian tsunami, which killed at least 178,000 people in 11 countries.

The epicenter of Sunday's quake, which hit at 9:12 p.m. local time, was near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands that lie between India and Thailand, said IBA Rao, a duty officer in New Delhi's Meteorology Department. The quake also jolted southern India's Tamil Nadu state.

"There is nothing to worry about," India's Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said.
Thai authorities issued a tsunami warning for the Indian Ocean Sunday night.

The official warning was given just before midnight on a national television broadcast on all channels, although warnings were issued at a local level earlier in the southern sea coast areas under threat, according to local television channels.

Residents of at least one coastal village in Sri Lanka fled to high ground and the navy moved some ships out to sea as a precaution after a strong earthquake hit the Nicobar Islands late on Sunday, prompting fears of another tsunami disaster. Sri Lanka's Meteorology Department said there was no threat of a tsunami hitting the island nation after several hours had passed without any sign of giant waves.

"The time for that (to hit) has passed and also the intensity of the quake was low," said department official S.D. Jayasinghe.

On Sunday, some residents of Peraliya village, where the Dec. 26 tsunami swept away a commuter train killing 2,000, fled to a Buddhist temple on high ground when first word came via the Internet that there had been an earthquake in Nicobar. There were few reports of fear or panic in other parts of Sri Lanka. But some navy ships that had been in ports were moved out to sea to reduce any chance of damage from waves or sea surges.

"We are taking all precautions in a situation like that and keeping the past in mind," said a navy Commander J.K. Jayaratne.

(Source: AP via The Jerusalem Post)

Indonesia issues tsunami alert after Nicobar quake

2005-07-24T23:58:00.000+05:30

Indonesian authorities issued a tsunami alert after a powerful earthquake struck near India's Nicobar Island, but said it was unlikely the waves would affect its shores.

'A warning has been sent to our office in Banda Aceh and they are transmitting it to the relevant institutions there' including the military and the police, said Meteorology and Geophysics Agency duty officer Rahmat.

But 'judging from the location, there is a very little likelihood that there will be an effect on our shores but we still have to be alert,' he told Agence France-Presse.

Rahmat, who goes by one name, said however that Indonesia did not yet have a mechanism by which to revoke tsunami warnings.

(Source: Forbes)

July 24 Earthquake Update

2005-07-24T23:45:00.000+05:30

UPDATE:

US geological official says its unlikely that there will be any tsunamis as a result of the earthquake.

The only country to issue a tsunamis warning so far is Thailand.

Control room number in the Andaman Islands - +91-3192 -232-100 in case you need to get in touch.

Earthquake in Japan

2005-07-24T23:15:00.000+05:30

Breaking news on an earthquake reported in Tokyo. 6.2 on the Richter scale. Initial reports suggest 30 people injured. It is yet to be known whether this is related to the Earthquake off the coast of the Andaman Islands reported at 9.12 pm IST this evening. Source - NDTV.

Quake Hits India; Tsunami Warning Posted

2005-07-24T22:57:00.000+05:30

NEW DELHI - A strong earthquake of 7.2 magnitude hit India's southern Nicobar Islands on Sunday, prompting Thailand to issue a tsunami warning for the region devastated by a December earthquake and tsunami that killed about 180,000 people.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damages.

The epicenter of the earthquake, which hit at 9:12 p.m., was in Nicobar, Press Trust of India news agency quoted meteorologists as saying.

The quake also jolted the southern Indian state of Madras, PTI said.

The region was the worst hit in India by the December tsunami.

Thailand's warning was for the Indian Ocean.

Earthquake and Tsunami Alert - Andaman Islands

2005-07-24T22:48:00.000+05:30

An Earthquake measuring 7.2 on the Richter scale, with its epicentre 135 kms west of Car Nicobar has been reported. Tremors felt in the Andaman Islands, and Vishakhapatnam and Chennai. Tsunami alert in the Indian Ocean sounded by Thailand - but thankfully, the 1-1.5 hour period in which there is a rise in the level of sea and waves might have occurred is past, without any disaster. Kapil Sibal, Minister for Science and Technology says that India is therefore not issuing a tsunami warning.

Officials in Port Blair say no damage or loss to life or property has been reported, and there is no need to panic.

Sri Lanka: 3 wounded in Tsunami relief centre bombing

2005-07-21T20:19:00.000+05:30

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels today attacked a tsunami refugee camp in eastern Sri Lanka, wounding two elite special task force commandos and a police constable. Military officials said the attackers lobbed a grenade into the sentry point at the Akkaraipattu Tsunami Relief Centre today, wounding two special task force commandos and a police constable. There were, however, no casualties among civilians.

It was the second attack in a week against a tsunami relief centre in the troubled eastern province where security forces have been placed on high alert. There was a similar attack on a security post at the Muslim town of Muttur eight days ago. Nine civilians, including a four-year-old girl, were hurt in that attack.

The latest attack came a day after the Tigers warned that a truce brokered by Norway was at "grave risk" of collapsing even as the Colombo Government said it had no intention of returning to war.

(Source: ReliefWeb via The Hindu)

Indonesia: Quake jolts Banda Aceh

2005-07-21T19:19:00.000+05:30

An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter Scale rocked the western coast of tsunami-hit Aceh province on Thursday, but there were no reports of damage or casualties, meteorologists said. The under-sea quake occurred at 08:42 a.m. and its epicenter was 33 kilometers under the floor of the sea, some 17 kilometers southeast of Meulaboh, the main town in the West Aceh district, they said.

The earthquake was strongly felt in Meulaboh, which was devastated by a powerful earthquake and tsunami on Dec. 26. "There are no reports of damage or injuries so far," said a meteorologist from the National Meteorology and Geophysics Agency here. Indonesia sits on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

(Source: Xinhuanet)

Asian Tsunami Web Archive

2005-07-21T18:26:00.000+05:30

The Singapore Internet Research Centre has launched its Asian Tsunami Web Archive

"This Web archive is a collection of over 1500 sites relating to the December 2004 Tsunami disaster in Asia. A shapshot of these sites has been taken once a week starting from the first week of January 2005 in order to build an archived record of this world shattering event.

Norway: Last tsunami victim identified

2005-07-20T03:28:00.000+05:30

All Norwegians who were listed as missing after the December 26 tsunami in Thailand have now been identified. A total of 84 Norwegians, most of them vacationing in Thailand over the Christmas holidays, were killed in the catastrophe.

On Monday, the body of Victoria Kjær Romslo, age five, was confirmed to have been positively identified in Thailand. Her mother, Susanne Kjær Romslo told the web site for local newspaper Budstikka that she was in Thailand and would bring her daughter's body back to Norway.

(Source: Aftenposten)

Sri Lanka: Post-tsunami sterilisation reversal

2005-07-19T03:25:00.000+05:30

A Sri Lankan surgeon today performed the country’s first known post-tsunami sterilisation reversal procedure on a mother whose three children were killed by the December 26 waves. The event in the southern coastal town of Galle, one of the worst-hit by the disaster, is another sign of how the tsunami-devastated nation is grappling to recover. More than 31,000 people were killed and 1 million affected by the tsunami.

“Since that day when I lost all my children, I have been waiting for this day,” said A. Shanthi, recovering from general anaesthesia at the Mahamodara Hospital for women.

“She has a good chance to have a baby again,” said Dr. Gamini Perera, who reconnected the fallopian tubes of Shanthi, 30, whose husband Shelton Soyza, 34, is an employee of the local municipality.

Many Sri Lankan mothers choose to be sterilised after their second or third child through a tubal ligation, a medical procedure that involves closing or tying a woman’s fallopian tubes. The technique is reversible in most cases.

“Now I have only one prayer and that is to have my babies back,” said Shanthi, as two nurses checked her blood pressure and shifted her from the recovery room to the ward where she will stay for three more days.

"Today is an important day for us,” said Perera, 48. “This is the first case since the tsunami in Sri Lanka.”

Another mother was waiting for her turn. Sithihy Fareedha, 28, also lost her three children, two girls and a boy, in the tsunami and came to the hospital for the reversal surgery.

“I discussed this with my husband and we decided to start life all over again,” she said of her husband Mohamed Fawsar, 35, a fisherman.

Perera is not charging the mothers, and the entire treatment is free in the state-run hospital.

“We are starting to see a trend of devastated families trying to restart their lives all over again,” said Dr. Priyanee Senadhira, the director of the hospital. The tsunami disaster killed more than 176,000 people in 11 countries, left about 50,000 missing and hundreds of thousands homeless.

(Source: IrelandOnline)

Somalia: Houses to be built for tsunami survivors

2005-07-18T03:22:00.000+05:30

Four hundred housing units are to be built for survivors of the December 2004 tsunami in Hafun town, northeastern Somalia in a joint programme between the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the UN Human Settlements Programme (UN-HABITAT). The 12-month project that begins in August will reconstruct houses, public buildings and sanitation facilities at a cost of US $1.35 million. It is part of a larger integrated development programme involving various organisations, a statement issued by the two agencies on Tuesday, said.

The tsunami, which displaced more than 5,000 people, damaged most buildings on the town's seafront because the largely unplanned settlements were located "on a flat, low-lying sand plate" that made most of them vulnerable to the colossal waves. A joint UN agency assessment mission in February 2005 identified areas for investment in Hafun, some 1,500 km northeast of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, to bridge the gap between relief and development.

Maurizio Pieroni, the chief technical advisor to UN-HABITAT, said: "After meeting the immediate emergency needs of Hafun following the tsunami, the aim is to collaborate with the community to forge a medium to long-term assistance programme that will develop living and working conditions in a sustainable way." The head of UNICEF-Somalia, Christian Bae=1

Tsunami guru & IIT working on tidal atlas

2005-07-17T03:21:00.000+05:30

A tsunami atlas is being put together by the Indian Institute of Technology, Kharagpore under the aegis of Professor Tad Murthy, the world’s best-known tsunami scientist, who lives in the US. Murthy, who is camping on the IIT-KGP campus for the next few days, is collaborating with IIT’s CORAL (Centre for Ocean, River, Atmosphere and Land), to chalk out how much time the tidal waves will take to reach coastal locations in 40 countries across the globe.

“The headlines are over. Now if we know how much time we have in hand to remove people from vulnerable locations, then we can at least pre-empt disaster on that scale.

“It’s basically a warning system”, Murthy told Newsline from Kharagpore.

Murthy feels that his work is relevant because over three lakh people died in the 25th December disaster that shook all countries in the Indian Ocean rim.

“At least 15,000 people were killed in India’s coastal regions alone.

“All these people could have been saved if there was either a warning sytem or if one could have anticipated how much time they had to flee from the waves”, said Prof Murthy, who is now attached to the University of Ottowa in Canada.

Murthy’s path-breaking work, which will comprise at least 250 charts, will benefit a minimum of 40 countries, which could be prey to the deadly waves in the future. Murthy’s team will also be working on some models, including the coastal inundation model.

“I will be travelling extensively within India, but I will keep coming back to the IIT to keep an eye on the project”, said Prof Murthy.

Interestingly, the IIT KGP has already set up an observatory for carrying out diverse experiments in weather prediction.

(Source: Kolkata Newsline)

Sri Lanka: Tsunami Camp Attacked

2005-07-15T00:21:00.000+05:30

Suspected Tamil Tiger rebels have attacked a tsunami relief camp in eastern Sri Lanka, wounding at least five people, reports say. Police say the rebels threw a bomb at a security post in the camp in Muttur, 15km (nine miles) south of Trincomalee. There is no word on the incident as yet from the rebels.

The area has been tense since Sunday when two senior Tamil Tiger figures and two civilians were killed in an attack in Trincomalee. Police say the rebels burst into the camp early on Wednesday. One child is said to be among the injured. Another soldier was wounded in a separate attack in the same area a few hours later, police say. All the wounded have been taken to a local hospital.
Read More ...

(Source: BBC News)

Indonesia: Tsunami aid left sitting on wharf

2005-07-14T23:53:00.000+05:30

Almost 1500 containers of aid supplies for the worst-hit Indonesian tsunami victims - including some paid for with $94 million in Kiwi donations - have been sitting on a Sumatran dock for up to five months. The aid delays have taken the Government by surprise. Neither Aid Minister Marian Hobbs nor government aid agency NZAID were aware of the backlog problems at the Medan port.

"They (NZAID) haven't received any reports from their partners that supplies are held up at the port of Medan but they are not surprised," she said.

"Whenever you have a large relief effort... particularly in an area that has been really smashed about, you have really challenging logistics. There is an influx of supplies into northern Sumatra and there are supply chain difficulties."

New Zealanders contributed $94 million for tsunami relief in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Nias and India, with $26 million coming from private donations and $68 million in Government pledges. About $19 million of the Government money – in a dollar-for-dollar matching of private donations – was paid directly to aid agencies such as Red Cross, Oxfam and Unicef and is being distributed through their international bodies.

The United Nations Joint Logistics Centre in Banda Aceh became aware of the backlog of aid at Belawan Port in Medan in May, and launched an investigation, spokesman Michael Whiting said. Information received from Indonesian port and military authorities showed there were 1458 containers sitting on the dock, 853 of which had been cleared by customs but had not been collected by their aid agencies owners. Read More...

(Source: Stuff)

Thailand: Tsunami alarm system online in August

2005-07-13T00:39:00.000+05:30

The island’s tsunami warning system will be linked in August via satellite to the Nonthaburi-based National Disaster Warning Center (NDWC). Patong, which has been chosen for the pilot project of the NDWC’s tsunami warning system for the entire Andaman coast, is home to three NDWC warning towers and there are plans to increase the number of towers to cover 24 locations around Phuket in the future.

The NDWC system will make Thailand the first of the countries hit by the December 26, 2004, tsunami to devise a national warning system. Boonchai Somjai, head of the Phuket Provincial Office of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation explained that the next four locations for siren tower construction will be in Kata, Karon, Kamala, and Sakoo. After that, towers will be built at Mai Khao, Ao Poh, Laem Tukkae, Saphan Hin, Ao Chalong, Rawai and Laem Promthep.

Apart from delivering warnings through the towers, the system will be capable of interrupting regular radio and TV programs to alert the public to the approach of a tsunami or any other disaster, and will also deliver warning SMS messages to mobile phones. A Cabinet meeting will be held next month to approve a budget for the construction of 62 alarm system towers in the six Andaman coast provinces and Bangkok.

Dr Smith Thammasaroj, who was appointed to establish the NDWC, said, “Installing the tsunami alarm system should help tourists gain confidence in the safety of the region.” The alarm system in Patong will be tested once the satellite link to Nonthaburi is complete. Chairat Sukbal, Deputy Mayor of Patong Municipality, told the Gazette, “We are in the midst of solving problems related to the satellite. However, we will inform the public at least one week in advance so they can get ready for the test.” (The NDWC Hotline is Tel:1860)

(Source: Phuket Gazette)

Maldives: The Government U-Turns Over Hulhu-Male’ Tsunami Victims

2005-07-13T00:29:00.000+05:30

In the first week of July, Minivan News reported that Tsunami victims who were provided housing tents in Hulhu-Male’ had been ordered to leave their shelters by the 21st of July. “We have been given no reason as of why, except that the island was reclaimed at a huge cost and is now needed by the government” a refugee said to Minivan Radio on July 5th. The tsunami victims were reportedly told if they didn’t leave by July 21st they would be “forced out of their shelters with their belongings”.

Yesterday, however, the same group of people reported happier news. “We have been given permission from the disaster management centre to stay” a young girl in Hulhu-Male’ confirmed to Minivan Radio. The reports have also been confirmed by Maldives Aid, the aid wing of Salisbury-based Friends of Maldives, who have been monitoring the plight of the Tsunami victims on Hulhu-Male’. The tsunami victims are overjoyed at the decision. As one woman put it: “[We are] thankful to the government for letting us stay. I don’t know what we would have done if not.”

(Source: Minivan News)

Australia: Tsunami detection centre for Perth

2005-07-12T00:33:00.000+05:30

Perth is to play a major role in the early detection of tsunamis throughout the Indian Ocean, the Federal Government said today. The UNESCO Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission in Paris has decided to base the secretariat for the Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning and Mitigation System in Perth.

The secretariat, located at the WA office of the Bureau of Meteorology, had run a global ocean observing system focusing on the Indian and south-west Pacific oceans, Environment Minister Ian Campbell said today.

"It makes good sense for the secretariat for an Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System to operate from Perth," he said.

"It is testament to the quality of Australia's technical and scientific agencies, including the Bureau of Meteorology and Geoscience Australia, that Australia was chosen to host the secretariat. The secretariat will play a coordinating role for the network of national systems that will make up the Indian Ocean warning system, including the newly announced $69 million Australian Tsunami Warning System, and data sharing arrangements."

Perth would also host the first meeting of the intergovernmental co-ordination group for the warning system from August 3-5, Senator Campbell said.

(Source: News Australia)

India: Tsunami villages reach out, via ICT

2005-07-11T00:25:00.000+05:30

Many residents of Veerapattinam along the coast of Pondicherry would not have survived the killer tsunami waves on December 26 had the public address system installed in the lone information centre, located close to the shore, not existed. The information centre, set up to empower the villagers of Veerapattinam with knowledge through communication tools like the internet, turned into the lifeline of residents when the tsunami waves struck.

The villagers who saw the first wave rising rushed to the centre and used the mike to let the village know that they were in danger. Several lives were saved due to this one announcement in a village having a population of about 6,500 persons. The grassroots workers from Pondicherry and other states are here in Delhi to share their experience with communication technology tools at knowledge centres, set up by voluntary organisations in villages across the country. These grassroot workers are here to attend the National Convention on Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre.

Mission 2007 is a nationwide initiative to facilitate setting up of such centres in each of India's 600,000 villages by the year 2007. During the convention, nearly 150 partner organisations of the National Alliance on Mission 2007 led by MS Swaminathan Research Foundation would discuss the issues of connectivity, content, care and management, capacity building and coordination. Even the government of India is a partner in the alliance.

Elaborating on the concept, Prof MS Swaminathan said that knowledge connectivity is fundamental to bridging the urban-rural divide. In a knowledge centre communication tools like the internet are used to put the information in context of the lifestyle and local needs of a particular village. Prof Swaminathan pointed after the tsunami tragedy, it has been felt that information centres need to be set-up in many more villages along the sea coast.

Agrees Ezhumalai, a volunteer at the information centre in Veerapattinam village in Pondichery. "After the tsunami disaster, people were terrified. In those days we collected information through the internet, on the wave height and the weather and inform villagers. These updates helped reduce the anxiety," he said.

(Source: Times Of India)

Sri Lanka: Political bickering undermines tsunami rebuilding, says report

2005-07-08T17:26:00.000+05:30

Lack of cooperation between Sri Lanka's government and the opposition parties has hampered the post-tsunami rebuilding process, a non-governmental organization monitoring relief work said here Thursday. Kingsley Rodrigo, chairman of People's Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL), said the lack of national consensus between the government and the opposition toward the rebuilding effort has impeded the process, slowing it down to an undesirable low at the ground level.

PAFFREL's report released on its supervision of relief work during the six months after the tsunami says that less than 1,000 of permanent houses had been completed out of over 64,000 houses required. Local councils are controlled by the main opposition party, and the central government's relations with them has affected the progress, Rodrigo said, adding that the political parties are using the victims for political gain he charged.

PAFFREL recommends a mechanism to be set up at village levels to avoid delays and to increase efficiency. The government has faced accusations from the main opposition for its alleged inefficient handling of the relief efforts. The victims say that the non-governmental organizations both local and international have been of more use than the state apparatus in handling the relief coordination, according to the report.

Two thirds of the country's coastal line was devastated in the tsunami tidal wave attack on Dec. 26 last year, which killed over 30,000 people.

(Source: Xinhua News Agency via ReliefWeb)

Maldives: Government Blocking Tsunami Aid Effort

2005-07-08T17:15:00.000+05:30

David Hardingham, of the Salisbury-based NGO Friends of Maldives has appealed to the British people to pressure the Government of Maldives to allow FOM aid to reach tsunami victims.

Speaking on BBC Radio’s Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Hardingham said: “We urge people of Britain to contact the Maldivian High Commission in London and find out what is happening to our aid. Check that it’s getting through, contact your local MP and put pressure on the Maldivian government.”

He also spoke about the Maldive government’s recent decision to ban him from the country.

“[The blacklisting is hampering our aid efforts] we really need to speak to the Disaster Management Centre to work out a way we can be involved in the distribution of the last of our aid.”

“We also want to see the progress of the aid effort in the Maldives in general. Government sources have told us that only about 10% of what is needed has got through to the people… so it sounds as if the Maldives is still having huge problems.”

“About ten tones of educational aid is sitting in government warehouses in the Maldives. We have asked the Maldivian government if we can deliver the aid ourselves or be part of the aid distribution or at least ensure that it gets out to the people that need it and they have refused all our requests.”

“We are going to request as much help as possible [from the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office]. We’ve got the help of a lot of MPs and the support of a lot of people.”

“The Maldivian government is a dictatorship… very corrupt and it’s very difficult to deal with them” he added.

Hardingham was in meetings with the British Foreign Office this week to explain FOM’s problems and seek diplomatic support from the UK, who now head the Presidency of the European Union.

Speaking to Minivan News yesterday, several resort owners complained that the Government of Maldives have “done nothing” to help tourism recover in the country and have been “preoccupying themselves with petty politics.”

Occupancy rates in Maldives resorts are approximately 20% down on last year, six months after the Tsunami tragedy.

(Source: Minivan News)

Tsunami donations still in Israel

2005-07-08T17:12:00.000+05:30

Only half of Israeli donations to disaster victims have made it to Asia.

When disaster struck Southeast Asia in late December, Israelis donated more than NIS 4 million (USD 860,000) to the National Council for Volunteerism to aid relief efforts to millions of affected families. But according to Yedioth Ahronoth, more than six months later, at least NIS 2 million (USD 430,000) remains in Israeli bank accounts.

Sri Lanka, the country hardest hit by the tidal wave, has only received a few hundred thousand shekels. High tech company Amdocs, one of the principal donors to the relief effort, said Wednesday it did not know what happened to the money it contributed, but following an inquiry from Yedioth Ahronoth it would look into the matter.

Read More...

(Source: YnetNews)

FMR's Special Tsunami Review

2005-07-08T15:59:00.000+05:30

Forced Migration Review is the world’s most widely read magazine on refugee and IDP issues., says the email. They've done a pretty cool job and you guys should probably check it out. The HTM/text version is here, and the PDF version is here. The HTML version offers Word files for download, chapter by chapter.

Vietnam to build tsunami alert center

2005-07-06T04:33:00.000+05:30

The National Hydro-Meteorology Center has been assigned to report on the requirements for the building of the center, the minister added. Director of the National Hydro-Meteorology Centre Bui Van Duc said that the tsunami warning system's technical network should be built in coordination with other systems monitoring other kinds of natural disasters. He suggested that close watch be kept on tsunami risks in Vietnam, as the country is exposed to more than 3,000km of coastline on the South China Sea (East Sea), where large earthquakes originating in the Philippines often occur.

"The center is devising a plan to disseminate information guiding people to protect themselves from natural disasters, storms and tsunamis, and to evacuate when sea water suddenly withdraws. The plan is expected to be completed before the year's end", Duc said.

He warns that people's awareness on natural disasters and tsunamis is still limited. Fishermen still go to sea, even without lifebuoys, when they are informed that there will likely be a storm, Duc noted.Though Vietnam has 21 marine meteorological stations under the National Hydro-Meteorological Center, and a number of earthquake measurement stations under the Vietnam Global Physics Institute, they are as yet unable to forecast tsunamis. Vietnam has called for international support to the building of a tsunami warning centre.

(Source: ThanhNien News)

UN: Tsunami Has Increased AIDS-Risk In South Asia

2005-07-06T04:09:00.000+05:30

<>The devastating Boxing Day Tsunami in South East Asia has increased the AIDS-risk within the region. The United Nations believes the tsunami has left millions of people homeless who are still, six months after, living under most awkward conditions. Furthermore at many places the health system has collapsed and people cannot get condoms.The situation has increased the risk of a rapid spread of the fatal low immunity disease AIDS in Asia, UN representatives said on Monday at an international AIDS-conference in the Western Japanese city of Kobe.

<>"That's why we are extremely worried", Jan Leno of the UN AIDS Programme highlighted. The number of new infections with the HI-Virus in the Tsunami-region has not yet risen. But latest surveys show a boost of pregnancies and diseases transmitted via sexual intercourse.According to UN estimations 8.2 million people in Asia are infected with the HI-Virus, worldwide 39 million people live with HIV or AIDS.

(Source: Scoop - New Zealand)

Malaysia: 3 spots identified for tsunami monitoring equipment

2005-07-06T04:02:00.000+05:30

<>Three places in Malaysia have been identified as locations where tsunami-monitoring devices will be placed to help warn people of impending danger. Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Datuk Seri Dr Jamaluddin Jarjis said one would be placed a few hundred km north of Langkawi while the other two would be at South China Sea and the Sulu Sea.

"We have to place the devices a few hundred kilometres away from land so that people would have at least 45 minutes to an hour to flee if a tsunami should occur."

"If the devices are too near, there'll be no time to run," he said, adding that the government was still finalising the exact locations with international bodies.

<> The minister said this to reporters after opening the Second International Hydrographic and Oceanographic Industry 2005 Conference and Exhibition (IHOCE) on Tuesday (Malaysia). He said talks were also going on between Malaysia and Indonesia to link earthquake alert information via satellite to ensure that the people get real time reports from both sides.

"Present there is a 15 minute delay because we have to get confirmation from our Indonesian counterparts when an earthquake happens."

"With direct connection from both sides, information will be available immediately and online for the public," he said.

(Source: The Star - Malaysia)

Thailand: Tsunami Warning Empties Beach (Alert Downgraded)

2005-07-05T13:56:00.000+05:30

Tourists on one of Phuket's most popular beaches were evacuated on Tuesday morning after a new tsunami-warning system responded to an earth tremor off the Indonesian coast. Foreign sunseekers and local people were told to leave Patong beach by a multi-lingual warning alarm, according to the Thai television network, The Nation. In the aftermath of last December's tsunami, the Thai authorities have set up new mechnanisms to alert people in the case of earthquakes that could trigger killer waves.

The alarm was soon scaled down from red to yellow after it was established that the Indonesian eartquake had not prompted a tidal wave. Indonesian geophysical authorities say the quake on North Sumatra on Tuesday registered around 6.0 on the Richter scale. The quake triggered panic among residents in the North Sumatra capital of Medan. In the aftermath of the disaster, the Thai government launched an early warning network with the first segment operational in Patong, a popular beach some 600 kilometres south of Bangkok.

(Source: AKI)

Six months On - Relief Efforts

2005-06-27T07:05:00.000+05:30

Reuben Abrahams at Zoo Station re-posts a list of relief efforts, 6 months after the disaster :

Today marks the 6th month after the devastating Tsunami hit the Indian Ocean. I still remember sitting in Switzerland and watching a breaking story on the Tsunami, without quite comprehending the scale of what was happening. In the first post I made that morning, I had no clue (250 dead in Indonesia, I thought) the death toll would be so staggering. Current estimates suggest that over 300,000 people perished and several millions were left homeless. The re-building has begun to some extent, but there's a long, long way to go. Obviously, six months on, the disaster has faded from media memory for the most part, so it's imperative that we keep the story alive in whatever form we can. To that end, I am reposting our orginal Tsunami relief post, with some minor edits to make it less dated. Please read through it and see if there's some way you'd like to help. By way of clarification, the updates are all from the old Tsunami relief post, and not something new I have added in June.

A good list of relief efforts at his post.

Tsunami Aid Illegally Stocked at 5 Warehouses in Southwest Aceh

2005-06-10T16:56:00.000+05:30

Acting Head of Southwest Aceh District Burhanuddin Sampe has found tsunami aid being illegally stocked at 5 temporary warehouses in his district. The relief supplies in the warehouses has been piled since early January by former camat (subdistrict head) of Susoh. Read More....

(Source: Indonesia-Relief)

US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre helping Indian Ocean region

2005-06-10T16:50:00.000+05:30

While tsunami-affected nations of Indian Ocean region are working to create their own early warning systems, the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC) in Hawaii is providing interim coverage for this and other regions against the threat of tsunamis.
Until a few years ago, the PTWC was responsible for the Pacific Basin as a regional and long-distance tsunami warning center and for Hawaii as a local tsunami warning center, Director Charles Chip McCreery said.

"In the aftermath of the Indian Ocean event, we are serving as an interim warning center until a system can be put in place in the region," he said during a tour of the center by participants of international Asia Pacific All-Hazards Workshop in Hawaii being held from June 6-1 2.

"We're doing this in cooperation with the Japan Meteorological Agency, which is issuing bulletins for (tsunami-related) events in the Indian Ocean region." More than 175 people from 18 countries are attending the all-hazards workshop, sponsored by NOAA and the U.S. Trade and Development Agency and held in cooperation with the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum.

(Source: Press Trust of India)

BARC: India's Tsunami warning system getting ready

2005-06-10T16:46:00.000+05:30

India will have its own advanced Tsunami early warning system by the first quarter of 2007 with the first phase of the trials of the indigenously developed equipment having been completed, Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) Director S Banerjee disclosed today. The equipment, being developed by BARC, will be able to predict Tsunami, which had devastated several parts of Southerm India and a few other countries on December 26 last. BARC initiated the project a few weeks after the deadly Tsunami claimed thousand of lives.

''Ours is a computational simulation for all the three phases of Tsunami source generation, its propagation and finally run up evaluation for the protect of public life and property,'' BARC Director Dr S Banerjee told reporters here. The scientists were working on the integrational and practical phase of the system, he said. The BARC has carried out significant studies with the analytical solution for a specified sea bed simulations and the scientists were finally successful after five months, Dr Banerjee said.

(Source: Deepika Global)

Australian medical worker: 'Inappropriate' tsunami aid unused

2005-06-10T16:42:00.000+05:30

An Australian medical specialist says a large amount of donated supplies to the tsunami-affected region of Banda Aceh in Indonesia will never be used. Jan Rice, who specialises in wound care, travelled to the area with AusAID, the Australian government aid program, three months after the disaster, to help staff at the general hospital. Ms Rice says some of the goods donated were not used because drugs were out-of-date or supplies such as breast implants were inappropriate for the devastated area.

She says the hospital was overwhelmed by the volume of donated medical supplies which it sent to a nearby storeroom. "So ceiling to floor of donated boxes in various states of disrepair because the humidity's 120 per cent and cardboard obviously softens," she said. "So if there were heavy items in the box, then the bottom would've fallen out of it and then the box would've been carried into an area and then just dumped in there."

(Source: Radio Autralia via ABC)

New Sumatra quake warning

2005-06-10T15:30:00.000+05:30

From Australian Broadcasting Corporation:

The Indonesian island of Sumatra, smashed by a tsunami and shaken by an enormous earthquake in the past six months, is now at risk from two potentially major quakes, one of which could generate waves 10 metres high, seismologists warn.

The research team is headed by the same expert who predicted with uncanny accuracy a quake that struck Sumatra on March 28, barely three months after the December 26 temblor, one of the biggest earthquakes ever recorded.

Relief for older people in Tsunami affected Tamil Nadu

2005-06-03T11:39:00.000+05:30

In a series of relief distributions across the Tsunami affected areas, HelpAge India has been reaching local food and provisions to older people. When the Tsunamis struck Southern India, Angammal’s 100-year-old partially blind mother was swept away from her home in coastal Chennai, only to be brought back once the water receded. But not all older people were as lucky.

HelpAge India initially provided immediate relief and medical care and it is now meeting the rehabilitation needs of older persons and their families with various occupations, such as fishermen, small/marginalized farmers, agricultural laborers, petty traders, rural artisans, small service providers and other daily wage earners. The various areas of Tamilnadu where work is going on are Chennai, Cuddalore, Tiruvarur, Nagapattinam, Kanyakumari. Counseling and guidance is also being provided to help older people and their families to access government programmes, thus securing their registration to entitlements.

The specific objectives are:

To provide relief assistance to 3500 tsunami affected older persons for two months.
To provide sustainable livelihood activities along with basic counselling and medical care to 3500 older people and their families.
To adopt 500 older persons under the Adopt-A-Granny programme for a period of three years.
To organise community based disaster preparedness meetings.

Contact :
Nidhi Raj KapoorDirector for Communications
HelpAge India, C-14 Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi 110016
Nidhi.Rajkapoor@helpageindia.org
tel: 011 26868689 fax : 011 26852916

Americans and Tsunami Response: New Survey Results

2005-06-03T09:23:00.000+05:30

This past semester a group of students at Boston University's College of Communication completed original survey research regarding Americans' response to the tsunami disaster. They investigated who gave, how much they gave, how much trust they have in where they gave, and a variety of other issues relevant to the charitable giving community.

PRWeb has more on the study, led by Professor James McQuivey, former VP at Forrester Research. A few excerpts ...

- Donor demographics. Surprisingly, a younger, less affluent group of donors rose to fund tsunami aid than normally participate in charitable giving. For example, the youngest donors gave an average of $324 each, nearly five times that of the oldest donors.

- The role of television vs. the Internet. While television remains the dominant source of tsunami information, the Internet is considered the easiest to use and facilitated donations by 20% of those who gave.

- Trust in charitable organizations. Despite much hand wringing in the media about whether money donated will really reach those in need, 83% of donors believe a majority of what they gave will be delivered as promised. Furthermore, they believe that seventy-five cents of each dollar donated makes its way to those affected by the disaster.