tsunami disaster and appeal

[Black-Syth]

Official death toll: 59,000 as of today.

 

[Zedric]

Nature flexing it's muscles. Scary stuff.

A girl I met at the christmas party (friend of a friend) was going to Thailand, but I don't think she got there before the disaster. Luckily.

Again, scary stuff.

 

[Enyo]

The BBC are reporting that the death toll could exceed 100,000. I'm not one normally for responding to appeals for money but in this case it's all i can do.

Links to the charities online donation pages are on the site below if you can help.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/4131881.stm

http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

 

[hotmale]

This is very sad
I've set up a web page for anyone interested in donating (through Amazon.com)
http://www.techjunkeez.com/redcross_relief.htm

 

[Enyo]

Making thread sticky and added link to Google Relief Page.

 

[NetRyder]

Amazon, Google, Microsoft and Apple are all helping out by setting up donation pages for various tsunami-relief funds.

 

[Sazar]

when I posted this, I had no idea how big this really was

thanks enyo/net and everyone else...

 

[Electronic Punk]

Yeah, I heard about this on boxing day - I have had my head into osnn so much I have really been following current events.

Scary

 

[Sazar]

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/28/tsunami.deaths/index.html

Seychelles: Unconfirmed reports of deaths -- For information on travelers, call + 248 321 676

my dad could so easily have been one of those...

lucky git... and he doesn't even know how to swim

as of a few mins ago

Indonesia: 45,268 
Sri Lanka: 22,493 
India: 6,974 
Thailand: 1,829 
Somalia: 100 
Burma: 90 
Maldives: 67 
Malaysia: 65 
Tanzania: 10 
Seychelles: 3 
Bangladesh: 2 
Kenya: 1

 

[Maveric169]

Here is a vid link of one of the waves.

http://dr.dk/pubs/nyheder/template/lib/wmm.jhtml?mmID=101937&publicationID=1

 

[NetRyder]

Here's an ongoing compilation of various images and videos of the destruction :ermm:
http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html

 

[Son Goku]

It looks as if the aid is arriving rather slowly, and in areas starving people are fighting over the limited supply of food packets and what not that have managed to trickle in thus far...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/4133971.stm

Aid workers around the Indian Ocean are struggling to reach millions of victims of Sunday's devastating tsunami waves.
Relief teams and supplies are pouring into the region, but have yet to reach the hardest hit and remote areas.

There are reports of desperate people fighting over aid. Aftershocks and fears of new tsunamis have sown panic among survivors in Indonesia and India.

Millions remain at risk from hunger and disease, five days after the disaster, now known to have killed 84,000 people.

The US, Australia, Japan and India have formed a coalition to provide relief.

Foreign governments have pledged more than $220m in aid - $35m of which is promised by the US.

But the UN's relief co-ordinator, Jan Egeland, said it will take another "two or three days" for the relief effort to get into full swing - by which time it may be too late for "tens of thousands of people who would like to have assistance today - or yesterday".

"We are doing very little at the moment," he admitted.

"I believe the frustration will be growing in the days and weeks ahead."

Survivors have begun to express anger in the Indonesian province of Aceh, near the epicentre of Sunday's earthquake.

"There is no food here whatsoever. We need rice. We need medicine. I haven't eaten in two days," a local woman told Reuters news agency.

Fights have broken out over food packets in the provincial capital, Banda Aceh, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Panic

The BBC's Andrew Harding says relief supplies are barely trickling into the city where drinking water is also scarce and corpses clog the streets.

A lone airport serves the entire region and road links to many remote areas have been washed away by sea waters, he says.

Indonesia's navy has sent ships to isolated communities on the west coast of Sumatra, but the picture there remains unclear.

On Thursday, aftershocks off Indonesia triggered fresh panic among survivors in Aceh.

Officials in southern India later issued a tsunami warning, prompting many residents to flee coastal areas.

The mood began to calm again after high waves failed to materialise, reports said.

There were similar rumours in Sri Lanka where the military urged people not to panic.

 

[ApparitionX]

Without question the worst natural disaster of our time.
here's a few relief funds if you'd like to help...sorry if any of these are already listed.

https://www.americaresfoundation.net/donate/default.aspx?id=South Asia Earthquake Relief Fund

http://www.networkforgood.org/topic.../tsunami122604.aspx?source=YAHOO&cmpgn=HMPCRS

https://www.redcross.org/donate/donation-form.asp

and this one is coming soon, these folks are workin really hard to put this together, it should be up in a day or 2.

http://www.rocktsunamirelief.com

 

[Sazar]

i am wondering if we should start or contribute towards an OSNN relief fund where members contribute and then we make a sum donation to a relief organisation?

it may not work so well right now coz its right after xmas so I am still in 2 minds about it...

 

[Black-Syth]

We're over 100,000 people dead. Wow, I thought 7000 was a large sum when I first heard about this. The saddest thing is that thousands more WILL die, not maybe, WILL die.

 

[NetRyder]

Latest reports:

Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from Sunday's tsunamis has jumped to more than 118,000 after Indonesia reported nearly 80,000 people were killed in that country alone.

Estimates of the death toll are continuing to rise in most areas.

Sri Lanka reports more than 24,000 dead, and at least 10,000 were killed in India. In Thailand, more than 4,000 are feared dead and dozens of deaths are reported in Malaysia, Myanmar, Maldives, Somalia and Tanzania.

The Globe and Mail reports that Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates, through his Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, has pledged $3 million of his own money to aid victims of the India tsunami / earthquake disaster, equaling the aid efforts of many entire countries. Microsoft’s offices in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India are also aiding in the relief effort, and Microsoft has pledged to equal all employee donations.

Amazon.com has been collecting donations for the Red Cross, using its website technology to allow “one-click” donations (I knew that was good for more than just getting books fast). So far, the company has raised $3.5 million from 60,000 donations, or about half the $6.8 million it raised following September 11. Starbucks has also contributed $100,000, while also starting a program where it will donate an additional $2 for every pound of Sumatra, Sumatra Decaf and Aged Sumatra whole-bean coffee bought in its stores worldwide.

Here's another list of organizations:
http://www.microsoft.com/mscorp/citizenship/giving/relief.asp

 

[Elektro Slime]

latest: over 125,000 deaths.
not really a nice way to end the year........

 

[Grandmaster]

I didn't really hear much about this in Pakistan as there were only two channels on TV, so I maybe turned on the TV twice while I was over there.

Plus the newspapers weren't in English...

I found out about this on the flight back...very very horrible and sad. It's unbelievable. We were lucky to be in a non coastal area...

Glad to hear that your parents are fine Sazar, that must have been scary for you

 

[Sazar]

yah it was a little hairy... but everything is fine and fortunately the infrastructure damage there is minimal...

my parents house survived easily because it was a little higher up and on the opposite side on the island from where the surge hit...

thanks for your regards

 

[frogg_mann]

This was a horrible thing to happen. I am praying for the survivors, they will have the hardest time dealing with all of that has occured. I'm going to give $ to the nearest relief effort. It is said that it will exceed 200,000 dead when the missing are presumed dead. Thats staggering. God rest there souls.