Tsunami Death Toll May Top 100,000
The death toll from the Indian Ocean quake and tsunami continues to rise. From this MSNBC article is seems likely that it will easily top 100,000.
A U.N. official cited by Reuters said the toll from the Indonesia region of Aceh could alone reach 50,000-80,000.
"My mother, no word! My sisters, brothers, aunt, uncle, grandmother, no word!" yelled a woman at a makeshift morgue in Lhokseumawe, Indonesia. "Where are they? Where are they? I don’t know where to start looking."
Sri Lanka on Wednesday listed more than 21,700 people dead, and India reported more than 12,000 dead.
Thailand put its toll at more than 1,500. A total of more than 300 were killed in Malaysia, Myanmar, Bangladesh, the Maldives, Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya.
The article has a fantastic animation that shows how the tsunami started at the epicenter of the 9.0 quake and moved over 3,000 miles across the Indian ocean to impact so many countries.
It is also expected that rotting bodies floating in the water will lead to diseases that will kill many more people.
Robert Bazell, NBC’s chief science correspondent, said the health risk for survivors is twofold.
“There is a shortage of clean water and an enormous amount of water left behind. That’s a recipe for disaster from diseases such as cholera and typhoid, which are spread by fecal material that gets into the water,??? he said. “Also, millions are homeless in a very wet situation; that’s a huge potential for the spread of respiratory diseases and other lesser-known diseases which can kill people, especially children.???
Meanwhile, the man-made disaster of the war in Iraq, took at least 29 more lives in addition to the tens of thousands that have already been lost.
| Go to Home - Most Recent PostsA powerful explosion in a house in west Baghdad killed at least 29 people and wounded 18, police said Wednesday. They said the attack was an ambush staged by insurgents.
Police patrols were en route to a raid in Baghdad’s Ghazaliya neighborhood late Tuesday after an anonymous call tipped them about a suspected militant hideout in the neighborhood, an official in Ghazaliya police station said.
January 2nd, 2005 at 11:05 pm
some people have called this the world’s largest natural disaster. but here are the facts :
world almanac stats
date - location - deaths
floods/tsunami
1887 - china - 900,000
1931 - china - 3.7 million
1939 - n. china - 200,000
earthquakes
1920 - china - 200,000
1923 - japan - 143,000
1927 - china - 200,000
1976 - china - 255,000
cyclone
1970 - bangladesh - 300,000
1991 - bangladesh - 139,000
do you remember america giving $350 million to bangladesh?
private, volentary funding (like the red cross), is fantastic and the choice of the individual. but i’d bet that way more money has been pledged by governments for this disaster than the others. i wonder if the fact that several nations (many are muslim) were hit by the disaster caused it to become a political issue.