December 27, 2004
 

When nature kills, why do you ever want wars? The Telegraph is spot on when it points out that you cannot master nature. Yesterday, thousands of people all over South and South East Asia were affected after an earthquake in Sumatra, Indonesia resulted in tsunamis being triggered throughout the Indian ocean which ended up sending huge waves crashing into coastal towns and cities.

The first news we got about a problem was yesterday morning around 7 am when relatives called us up at Bangalore about a mild earthquake which had hit Madras briefly, forcing them to vacate their 9^th floor apartment to the safety of level ground. My parents and brother have been with us in Bangalore since Thursday. At that point of time, the waves hadnt yet struck Madras. Then the television set started displaying a ticker indicating that many people had been washed away in a wave on Marina beach. The counter kept increasing as reports of the toll from various other places in the region which had been affected started pouring in. This was when I realized the scale of the disaster since my initial thought was that it was a Madras-specific tragedy.

Nitin lists out the various ways you can contribute to the relief efforts.

The BBC has come up with a fairly decent site featuring all the news, complete with photos and other information. However they'd do well to avoid casting aspersions on the status of the Andaman & Nicobar islands and stop calling it "The Indian-owned Andaman & Nicobar islands". I am fairly sure they wouldnt be happy if I referred to "The British-controlled city of London".

The Hindu's gallery is in its infancy, for some bizarre reason. I hope it gets updated sooner rather than later.

Rediff's coverage obviously has a more Indian tilt.

ReliefWeb has a list of news reports on the tragedy.

Rambled @ 10:41 AM

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