I could very well see that trip being postponed. From what I read this morning, it seems the US is really urging all of it's citizens to get out of those areas affected as soon as safe travel is available.

I personally don't think that I would WANT to be over there.

If you do end up going, i second whoever said stay in contact with the US Embassy.

Death toll is up to 23,000 now... it's incredible

Folks, be aware the Richter scale of earthquake magnitude is an open-ended scale, and the final number will probably be tweaked in a few days or weeks after all seismographic data has been received and compared.

Richter magnitudes vary based on the location of the epicenter. Example: locally the Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989 was measured at 7.1, where another measurement clocked it at 6.9.

Map of the affected area of the earthquake:
http://neic.usgs.gov/neis/bulletin/neic_slav_fig72.jpg
Epicenter and initial recorded shock shown by star. Major aftershocks in circles.

USGS info page: http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqinthenews/2004/usslav/

Wow. This is really horrible.

The State Department is urging Americans to leave the beach areas--Bangkok is pretty far from those places, surrounded by countries that were not on the list of affected countries. We'll only be in Bangkok for a day on each end of our trip; most of our time will be spent in Cambodia, which appears to have escaped the tidal waves unscathed.

I'm not worried so much anymore...I'm still really excited about going. I have enough family members who work at the State Department that I would have known right away whether or not it was safe.

Munchkin, I have read that victims of the tsunamis are being flown to Bangkok as part of the evacuation. In case you are interested, here is the link. I hope that you have a safe and enjoyable trip.


This disaster is so horrible. I don't have the words to convey what I am thinking and feeling.

I've been keeping up with the news coming in and it's disastrous.

With all these images coming in, y'all don't even know--I'm in FEAR. Call me crazy if you want, but you can do so with the comfort of knowing you'll never be hit by one because you're inland. Yesterday, I looked through the white pages to educate myself on where my house is at should a tsunami hit Oahu and my house lies in an evacuation zone. I didn't even know. I thought we were too far inland, but I guess not. The maps showed us where the nearest evacuation shelter was, and I made sure my mom and the rest of my family members know where to go and what to do.

I know that there's sophisticated instruments to let us know in advance if a tsunami is headed our way, but you never know. It's happened twice already to the Islands, and it could surely happen all over again. With the Pac Rim being so unstable, you never know what can happen. Lord help us if devastation like that happens all over again.

And it really depends on where the epicenter of a major earthquake is located and how powerful it is to determine how much time you have before a tsunami (it irks me when people call 'em "tidal waves", which is incorrect) hits. Close to shore, you may have only minutes. Far enough away you may have some hours to allow a more orderly evacuation.

Dude man, this shit sucks. I know that stuff like this hits immigrant communities hard. When the earthquakes happened in Iran and Afghanistan, there was a ton of aid being organized in every immigrant business. From what I hear is happening in Queens, it's no different now.

Also the area is pretty international so there are citizens from a lot of countries that vacation there. Aid is pouring in from tons of countries and there are teams being sent there from a lot of countries to help out.

Shows you that in our digital world where we try and control so much, we have control over nothing when it comes down to it. I hope the aftershocks are minimal if any and the world can help the victim countries cope.

-Rudey

I'm glad to hear this.

Death Toll in Indonesia alone could raise to over 20,000. Would bring total death toll to over 40,000.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4129233.stm

Ironically, many of the tourists in Phuket went there instead of Bali because they fear terrorism. Just tell you that when it's time to go, it's time to go.

Also tells you that you should go where you want to go and enjoy life. You never know if a bomb could happen, your plane crash, a tsunami hit you, or you get run over by a bus.

I'll take a plague of locusts. :D

Over 40,000 reported dead by mid morning Tuesday.

ld - AP Asia





Swedish 2-Year-Old Reunited With Uncle




Tue Dec 28, 6:35 AM ET



_World - AP Asia



By RUNGRAWEE C. PINYORAT, Associated Press Writer

BANGKOK, Thailand - A blond two-year-old found sitting alone on a road in Thailand who was taken to a hospital was reunited with his uncle, who saw the boy's picture on the hospital's Web site.






AP Photo



Swedish 2-Year-Old Reunited With Uncle
(AP Video)


_


Dozens of parents desperate to find their own missing children after massive tidal waves battered southern Thailand had visited the hospital in hopes that Hannes Bergstroem was their child.



A man who identified himself only as Jim said Tuesday that the child was his nephew.



"When I saw Hannes on the Internet, I booked an air ticket to come here in less than five hours," said a man who identified himself only as Jim. "This is a miracle, the biggest thing that could happen."



Jim arrived at Phuket International Hospital from Chonburi late Monday night from the city of Chonburi.



He said five relatives from Goteborg, Sweden, were on a monthlong vacation in Thailand when the waters struck. Hannes' mother and grandmother were missing; his father and grandfather were in another hospital, the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet reported.



Hospital staff and The Phuket Gazette put pictures of Hannes — whose cheeks are dotted red from mosquito bites — on the hospital Web site. The staff said he was found sitting on a road not far from the town of Khao Lak.



"He looked bleak when he arrived at the hospital on Sunday night with some surface wounds on his face and body," said Vilad Mumbansao, a hospital staff member.



The boy babbled but the staff couldn't make out the language he was speaking. They thought he could be Swedish "because he was enthusiastic when a man spoke Swedish to him," said Vilad.



Hospital officials said Tuesday they also were looking for Norbert and Edeltraud Michl, parents of a 10-year-old German girl, Sophia Michl, who they were caring for. She has cuts and bruises on her face.



It's feared that many children may have become orphans because of the disaster.



Shantha Bloemen, a communication officer for the U.N. children's agency in Bangkok, said they were planning to sending a team to the south on Wednesday to determine survivor's needs.



"The tragedy is going to be twofold," she said. "There's going to be foreign nationals that are in this situation because a lot of people were family on family holidays, and then of course, for the Thai communities in these areas as well."



"It's just a devastating loss," she added.



___



On the Net: Phuket International Hospital, children's photo:



http://www.phuket-inter-hospital.co.th/boy.htm

-Rudey

World's biggest aid operation for devastated Asian countries




2 hours, 7 minutes ago



_Science - AFP





GENEVA (AFP) - The world's biggest-ever aid operation got into gear to help Asian countries stricken by tsunamis that smashed coastal towns and left misery and the risk of disease in their wake.






AFP Photo



AP Photo

Slideshow: Indonesia Quake Sparks Fatal Tidal Waves








Surf in Secret
Cover your tracks while online by knowing how 'they' watch you, and by keeping email private.



_


Foreign doctors and relief workers faced vast devastation, with the latest death tolls across the region totalling more than 55,000.



The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies appealed for 44 million dollars in immediate aid for victims.



"We face a huge challenge due to the vast area affected," Markku Niskala, secretary general of the organisation, said in Geneva, adding: "We haven't even seen the tip of the iceberg yet."



The UNHCR said the situation was "so enormous and shocking" that it opened stockpiles of shelters, matting, clothing and cooking materials in Sri Lanka, where nearly 18,000 were killed and 200,000 were homeless.



"Our supplies are usually for displaced people, but this is an emergency and the local population needs help right now," UN High Commissioner for Refugees Ruud Lubbers said in Geneva.



Aid planes from China, Denmark, France, India and Russia delivered tonnes of humanitarian relief and medical staff to the island state.



In nearby India, where more than 8,500 were known to have died, the local Red Cross issued an appeal for food, clothes, tarpaulins and kitchen utensils, while the government authorised immediate spending worth 114 million dollars.



Aid workers warned of a health crisis as Indian camps became overpacked with people in need of food, water and shelter and diarrhoeal disease started to spread.



A UNICEF (news - web sites) official inspecting the situation in southern India, Lizette Burgers, said: "Getting clean water to people in the camps is critical at this point to head off the spread of disease."



Other countries struggling with smashed infrastructure and desperate populations were Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Malaysia and Indonesia.



Indonesia said its death toll was more than 27,000 -- the worst of any of the countries hit. Remote areas there, particularly the Aceh region closest to the undersea quake that triggered the tsunamis, were in danger of suffering further deaths if aid was not delivered within days.



"We can assume after a tidal wave of that kind that dengue fever and diarrhoea will spread," said Hadi Kuswoyo of the International Federation of the Red Cross in Jakarta.



At UN headquarters in New York, Jan Egeland, the UN undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs, told reporters that relief operations would be the biggest in history.



"There are thousands of dead people, and there are tens of thousands of dead animals. The people should be buried and the animals should be destroyed and disposed of before they infect the drinking water. It's a massive operation," he said.



Asian countries that escaped the tsunami disaster were quick to provide aid. Japan provided 40 million dollars for emergency food, medicine and shelter while Singapore and the Philippines dispatched medical teams to Thailand and Indonesia.



China provided 2.6 million dollars in aid for India, Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and the Maldives.




_






The Asian Development Bank said it had offered immediate assistance to several of the countries ravaged. ADB president Tadao Chino said: "What is clear is that this is a massive tragedy that has exacted a terrible human cost."

A Hong Kong telephone tycoon, Li Ka-shing, pledged three million US dollars towards aid for victims and rebuilding because he was "saddened by the huge suffering caused by the disaster."

Two Australian aircraft loaded with aid and medical teams arrived in Indonesia, with another two scheduled to follow Wednesday.

An aircraft from Australian domestic airline Virgin Blue was due to fly to the Thailand's badly damaged resort island of Phuket, where some of the estimated 7,000 Australians on vacation there were listed as missing.

European states rushed aid to the region as soon as the scale of the disaster became known, and several announced increases to aid money.

France's foreign minister, Michel Barnier, was on one of four aid flights sent from Paris. They were headed to Sri Lanka and Thailand with tonnes of relief supplies, medical teams and rescue specialists.

Germany also dispatched teams of relief experts to Sri Lanka and Thailand, donated two million euros (three million dollars) of emergency aid to the countries affected and promised long-term reconstruction assistance.

A plane from Britain carrying tents and plastic sheets was additionally headed for Colombo.

Another three were on their way to Sri Lanka and Indonesia from Belgium.

Those and other European countries contributed to an EU pledge of emergency aid. The bloc has already released three million euros and on Tuesday announced it would bring further aid to 50 million euros.

The European Commission (news - web sites) suggested an international donors' conference to coordinate efforts.

"The problem is not the funding, the funding will be there. The real problem will be how to spend it in the best way possible," EU aid commissioner Louis Michel said.

In Washington, the US government pledged nearly 15 million dollars in immediate aid and promised more to come.

US Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) said President George W. Bush (news - web sites) had written to the heads of state of the affected countries "to extend his deepest condolences to the families of those that were lost."

Canada pledged additional funds, bringing its total assistance to 3.2 million US dollars.

In addition to government efforts, non-governmental organizations and private firms in many countries were launching urgent appeals for funds from the public.

-Rudey