Sea-Quake strikes southeast Asia, claiming hundreds of lives

[hurricaneone]

Something's been bugging me since this disaster happened, and dave petley's quotes have brought it home again.

40 survivors from a town of 10,000?

Can these people not swim?

Sure, I've seen some nasty footage, fast-flowing, trash-laden water, buses full of people being pulled along and then sinking in seconds, etc. and I guess there was worse than that too, except the cameraman didn't make it, but in these fishing communities, I don't get it. However big the wave, ride it out for a few hundred meters inland and it's over - like if you're caught in a rip tide. Don't fight it and you might not have a house left but at least you're alive.

How did all these people die?

[Adixx]

fate is the ultimate joker. Some people can be in the most dangerous places in the world and survive. Then they go for a vacation in a Thai resort and get slammed by Tsunami... when it's time it's time

[Adixx]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
like if you're caught in a rip tide. Don't fight it and you might not have a house left but at least you're alive.

True you don't fight riptides...
although riptides don't have tree trunks, heavy brush and large objects coming at you from every direction. I'm sure many attempted to ride it out and got slammed into something or something slammed them.

[swampy]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
Something's been bugging me since this disaster happened, and dave petley's quotes have brought it home again.

40 survivors from a town of 10,000?

Can these people not swim?

Sure, I've seen some nasty footage, fast-flowing, trash-laden water, buses full of people being pulled along and then sinking in seconds, etc. and I guess there was worse than that too, except the cameraman didn't make it, but in these fishing communities, I don't get it. However big the wave, ride it out for a few hundred meters inland and it's over - like if you're caught in a rip tide. Don't fight it and you might not have a house left but at least you're alive.

How did all these people die?

the short answer is no, as a rule, learning to swim is not necessarily a priority in certain areas. The longer answer is, even if you can swim it's pretty hard to do in fast moving water that contains thousands of gallons of silt, broken glass and other debris. Even if you ride it out you are likely to get washed against an obstacle.

Also a large percentage of the dead are children (nearly a third) :

Children may account for more than one third of those killed in the Asian tsunamis and many more are at risk from disease, aid agencies have warned.
Some were too weak to cling on to their families, homes or trees as huge waves struck countries including Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and Indonesia.

[hurricaneone]

Originally posted by swampy
The longer answer is, even if you can swim it's pretty hard to do in fast moving water that contains thousands of gallons of silt, broken glass and other debris. Even if you ride it out you are likely to get washed against an obstacle.

Certainly, I don't disagree. If you're tagged by some fast-moving trash, you're going under. But I don't see where all the trash came from. In the larger towns, where telephone poles and such were ripped up, power cables dangling, cars and trucks getting pushed along by the current, you've not much chance, but in the more remote villages, I don't see where this type of debris might have come from, so what's the reason there?

Not trying to stir anything up, you understand, just trying to figure why so many died in what, at second look, seems like a survivable event.

And as for them not knowing how to swim, I'll put this forward. Plenty of kids in Rio don't need to know how to swim (assaulting tourists on the beach needs no swimming expertise), but they can.

[edit]

Yeah, I just saw your addition about the number of kids caught in the carnage. That's an unfortunate stat if ever there was one and I guess it goes a long way to making up the numbers, but I'm still a little stumped as to the other two-thirds.

[wouter999]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
but in the more remote villages, I don't see where this type of debris might have come from, so what's the reason there?

Most of these remote villages have houses built of plywoord, cardboard and sheet metal. There aren't too many extremely solid houses out there, especially in the rural country. These could have easily been ripped apart by the tsunami.

[Subway]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
but I'm still a little stumped as to the other two-thirds.

The wave height was not everywhere as "small" as what you've seen on TV. In that town where only 40 surived for example, there the wave height was most likely much higher.

Fredi

[hurricaneone]

Originally posted by Subway
The wave height was not everywhere as "small" as what you've seen on TV. In that town where only 40 surived for example, there the wave height was most likely much higher.

Fredi

I don't doubt it. There was certainly varying wave height - but consider this. The deeper the water next to the beach, the less speed the wave lost, so little of that 600 km/h deep sea velocity was scrubbed off as it came ashore. The deep water next to the beach would not force the wave above the surface, so actually, the smaller wave might have been even more damaging, deadly.

I guess a lot of the survivability rating might come from the continental shelf and it's proximity to shore in the various areas the wave hit.

Maybe.

Originally posted by wouter999
Most of these remote villages have houses built of plywoord, cardboard and sheet metal. There aren't too many extremely solid houses out there, especially in the rural country. These could have easily been ripped apart by the tsunami.

So you're damned if you're in town and dumped into surging, trash-filled water, or you're damned if you're in a remote village, with a few sheets of plywood and some coconuts bobbing around in the water next to you?

I'm not discounting the wave action keeping people beneath the surface either. It's simply the staggering stats of 40 left alive from 10,000 that made me think.

[swampy]

water speed depth and current strength is affected by obstacles that it encounters. Thousands of gallons of water channelled through narrow streets is likely to be fairly dangerous.

[chris-harry]

water speed depth and current strength is affected by obstacles that it encounters. Thousands of gallons of water channelled through narrow streets is likely to be fairly dangerous.

and also the weight of the water... 1 liter = 1 kilo... 60 liters, and you have me weight on you...

[Adixx]

Originally posted by chris-harry
and also the weight of the water... 1 liter = 1 kilo... 60 liters, and you have me weight on you...

1 moving liter, like getting punched.
1 really fast moving liter like getting elbowed.

[chris-harry]

2 liters moving really fast... feels like you are getting kneeed, and trustme... i know what that feels like... getting kneeed...

[Adixx]

Originally posted by chris-harry
2 liters moving really fast... feels like you are getting kneeed, and trustme... i know what that feels like... getting kneeed...

and I know what it feels like to get hit by multiple gallons in the face. Literally spit sand out and have the feeling of sandpaper in my throat.

[n-gen]

GOOD NEWS!

i managed to make contact with all my friends in thailand for the first time. they are all completely fine.

im so relieved!

[chris-harry]

thats a reliefe and a half...

[chris-harry]

some people aint half that lucky...

[aversion]

It seems a lot of people, whether they could swim or not, were killed because they were swept out to sea and, unless they had something to cling to, eventually tired and drowned. In many places it was next to impossible to organise any rescue attempts to get these people.

I read a woman's story from India, she was washed out to sea, way out to sea, with many others and not picked up for hours. She survived by hanging on to a bit of a coconut tree, but she said that there was no organised rescue, she happened to be picked up by a fishing boat coming back to shore that had survived the wave and was fishing out bodies. She was the only survivor out there.

[hurricaneone]

article from a BBC guy who was in Sri Lanka and experienced the tsunami first-hand - very good

[david petley]

Originally posted by hurricaneone
..... but in these fishing communities, I don't get it.

...in local news last night, there was a report of one fishing community that did read the signs in the ocean (They said they noticed a broad band of sand far out to sea) and did move to higher ground before the waves actually struck, they had no loss of life.


here are some more first-hand accounts from survivors...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...2/s1273237.htm

and, guided to safety by a snake -
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems...2/s1274243.htm

"I witnessed with my own eyes how the sea water, along with mud, rocks and logs, came rolling in,"

davidp.

[aversion]

banda aceh before

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/t...23_2004_dg.jpg

after

http://www.digitalglobe.com/images/t...28_2004_dg.jpg

(large images)

From the look of the contruction there they didn't stand a chance. Up to 40,000 people in this one city alone are reported to have been lost, and in indonesia as a whole the government is now saying almost 80,000 people died.


This PDF summarises all the images.