Killer Tsunami wipes out whole generation of Asian children

**bandaidwoman** · 12-28-2004, 10:45 AM

I grew up in many of the countries hit by this and swam along the very shores of Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia that were hit by this disasterous tsunami, I am grief stricken

Generation of Asians Lost As Children Die
December 27, 2004 9:59 PM EST
CUDDALORE, India - The buzz of grim conversation in the darkened morgue
was broken by a man's shriek as the small body was lowered on a bed.
"My son, my king!" wailed Venkatesh, hugging the limp shrouded bundle.

Thousands of miles away in Indonesia, farmer Yusya Yusman aimlessly
searched the beaches for his two children lost in Sunday's tsunami. "My
life is over," he said emotionlessly.

In country after country, children have emerged as the biggest victims
of Sunday's quake-born tidal waves - thousands and thousands drowned,
battered and washed away by huge walls of water that have wiped away
huge number from an entire generation of Asians.

"The power of this earthquake, and its huge geographical reach, are
just staggering," said UNICEF Executive Director Carol Bellamy. Hundreds
of thousands of children who managed to survive in the affected coastal
communities now "may be in serious jeopardy," she added.

The U.N. organization estimates at least one-third of the tens of
thousands who died were children, and the proportion could be up to half,
said UNICEF spokesman Alfred Ironside in New York. He said communities
are suffering a double loss: dead children and orphaned boys and girls.
"Our major concern is that the kids who survived the tsunami now survive
the aftermath. Because children are the most vulnerable to disease and
lack of proper nutrition and water."

Children make up at least half of the population in Asia. Many of them
work alongside poverty-stricken parents in the fishing or related
industries in coastal areas, so they were in harm's way when the tidal waves
came. Many children from the more affluent families would also have
been on the beaches for a stroll or for Sunday picnics.

In Sri Lanka, which suffered the biggest loss of life in the tsunami,
crowds had come to the beaches to watch the sea after word spread that
it was producing larger-than-normal waves.

Thousands of children joined their elders to see the spectacle. The
waves brought in fish. The old and the young collected them. Many waited
for more fun.

Then the 15 feet-to-20 feet tidal waves hit the tropical island of 19
million people.

"They got caught and could not run to safety. This is the reason why we
have so many child victims," said Rienzie Perera, a police spokesman
who said reports from affected police stations indicated children made up
about half the victims in Sri Lanka.

On Monday, parents wept over the bodies of their children in streets
and hospitals across the island, even as some dead children still dangled
unclaimed from barbed wire fences.

The scenes of unimagined grief and mourning were repeated across Asia.

"Where are my children?" wept 41-year-old Absah, as she searched for
her 11 missing children in Banda Aceh, the Indonesian city closest to
Sunday's epicenter. "Where are they? Why did this happen to me? I've lost
everything."

On the day disaster struck, Malaysian Rosita Wan recalled watching in
horror as her 5-year-old son was gulped by the sea while he swam near
the shore at Penang.

"I could only watch helplessly while I heard my son screaming for help.
Then he was underwater and I never saw him again," said a sobbing
Rosita, 30.

About half of the nearly 400 people who perished in Cuddalore in
India's Tamil Nadu state were children, leaving the town stunned.

Under Hindu tradition, children are buried instead of being cremated
like adults. For the grim task in Cuddalore, two pits, together about
half the size of a basketball court, were dug near a river at the edge of
this coconut palm-fringed town.

After one couple laid the body of their daughter in the deep pit, a
bulldozer shoveled in sand and the little girl disappeared from view. They
then stepped aside for others to bury their children, denied any chance
for a service or private mourning.

Most of the children, ages 5-12, were buried as they were found - in
their Sunday clothes - without the luxury of a shroud.

Local officials wanted to quickly finish the burial, and the cremation
of adult victims, so they could turn their attention to helping those
left alive.

"There will be a time for crying, but that will come later. Now the
priority is to shelter those who survived," said fisherman Akilan, 28, who
lost two nephews when waves struck their house. Akilan uses only one
name.

Bodies of young and old lay unclaimed at the town morgue, awaiting
identification by relatives. Doctors called them in one by one over a
public address system, while vans with wailing sirens brought in newly
discovered bodies.

Many emerged from the morgue shaking their heads in silence after
failing to identify any of the bodies as that of their loved ones.

Venkatesh, who uses only one name, found his 11-year-old son Suman as
his body was lowered on to a gurney.

The 37-year-old man had been in Dubai, where he went three months ago
as a construction worker. When his wife called from Cuddalore to tell
him their boy was missing, Venkatesh flew home immediately and went
straight to the morgue.

There, he found his wife and daughter minutes before Suman's body was
brought in.

"I never thought I would only see my son's body," cried Venkatesh,
refusing even a sip of water.

Within moments, an identification tag was tied to the boy's hand and
his body taken inside.

As one of his relatives pulled him away, Venkatesh kept asking: "How
can I go, leaving behind my son?"

**Little Wing** · 12-28-2004, 11:00 AM

no parent should ever have to bury their child. this is just overwhelmingly sad.

**camarosuper6** · 12-28-2004, 11:01 AM

Wow.

Unbelievable.

**I Are Baboon** · 12-28-2004, 12:00 PM

This is a terrible, terrible tragedy.

I can only imagine standing on the beach and seeing a WALL coming at me.

**Spitfire** · 12-28-2004, 12:11 PM

A little off subject, but has any one seen this weird old movie where the world was going to come to a horrible end so the parents poisoned there kids so they wouldnt feel the pain, and the parents woke up the next morning and every was fine?

**ALBOB** · 12-28-2004, 12:12 PM

Originally Posted by I Are Baboon

I can only imagine standing on the beach and seeing a WALL coming at me.

Yeah, at 300+ freakin' MPH.

**J.K.** · 12-28-2004, 12:15 PM

So sad.. And it seems the number just keeps going up..

Asia Disaster Yields Its Dead, Toll at 59,000
Reuters

**maniclion** · 12-28-2004, 12:26 PM

These people have enough hardship without something like this to add to it.

They said the Earthquake was so powerful it effected the Earth's rotation!

I just know that if I were at the beach and saw the water receding I'd be heading for the hills. Does anyone know how far inland these things can go? I live half a mile from the beach.

**ALBOB** · 12-28-2004, 01:31 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

Does anyone know how far inland these things can go? I live half a mile from the beach.

881 yards.

**trvlr70** · 12-28-2004, 01:37 PM

It is completely sereal to imagine a scenario like this. The waves hit on a bright, sunny morning with no warning whatsoever. Terribly sad. I heard in the news that the relatively flat eastern coast of the US is vulnerable to a tsunami if an unstable part of of one of the Canary Islands collapses. Like Hawaii, the Canary Islands are huge shield volcanoes which are considered geologically unstable.

**Duncans Donuts** · 12-28-2004, 01:43 PM

only the good die young

**I Are Baboon** · 12-28-2004, 01:44 PM

Originally Posted by trvlr70

It is completely sereal to imagine a scenario like this. The waves hit on a bright, sunny morning with no warning whatsoever. Terribly sad. I heard in the news that the relatively flat eastern coast of the US is vulnerable to a tsunami if an unstable part of of one of the Canary Islands collapses. Like Hawaii, the Canary Islands are huge shield volcanoes which are considered geologically unstable.

I have read different views on the Canary Islands volcano. Some reports say that within a few thousand years, part of the volcano will collapse, sending mega-tsunamis upwards of 200 feet tall into the entire East Coast of the US, washing out every major city on the coast, from Boston to Miami (reports say the wave would reach 20 miles inland). Other reports say the volcano will slowly deteriorate over time without ever making a giant splash into the Atlantic.

**maniclion** · 12-28-2004, 02:05 PM

I was browsing around for more info on Tsunami's and some knuckleheads were arguing that it was terrorists with an atomic bomb that caused this and the earthquake story is just the government trying to keep it under wraps. Some people...

**BoneCrusher** · 12-28-2004, 02:15 PM

I am sorry for your grief Bandaidwoman. You are alway there for those of us on this forum with medical questions. Thanks for that!!

Ona bigger note.

Damn! I caught this yesterday when the total was still at 10,000 and was overwhelmed. Time for those who can to donate some blood ... it will be needed.

**Little Wing** · 12-28-2004, 02:45 PM

i can't donate blood i tried my veins are too small

. good idea though.

**BoneCrusher** · 12-28-2004, 02:50 PM

If you can recieve you can donate ...

**Little Wing** · 12-28-2004, 02:58 PM

? two women tried they poked my arms a bunch of time
with their fingers feeling for veins tried once w a needle and sent me home too bad too because needles don't bother me...

**DOMS** · 12-28-2004, 03:07 PM

Originally Posted by trvlr70

It is completely sereal to imagine a scenario like this. The waves hit on a bright, sunny morning with no warning whatsoever. Terribly sad. I heard in the news that the relatively flat eastern coast of the US is vulnerable to a tsunami if an unstable part of of one of the Canary Islands collapses. Like Hawaii, the Canary Islands are huge shield volcanoes which are considered geologically unstable.

There used to be a small island off New York until a tsunami hit it. Then it was completely gone. It happned in the 1800s, I believe.

**butterfly** · 12-28-2004, 03:08 PM

Death toll is up to 60,000...

**DOMS** · 12-28-2004, 03:09 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

I was browsing around for more info on Tsunami's and some knuckleheads were arguing that it was terrorists with an atomic bomb that caused this and the earthquake story is just the government trying to keep it under wraps. Some people...

There are also eco-nutballs who claim that the earthquake was due to pollution.

**Dale Mabry** · 12-28-2004, 03:33 PM

So sad. I would figure they would be able to see these things with some type of sonar thing, although I don't imagine there are too many sonar in that area.

**BoneCrusher** · 12-28-2004, 03:34 PM

Plate-tectonics ... ummm polution ... *moving hands up and down in that waying it out manorism* let me think this over.

Global warming caused the change in ocean tempetures prompting a shift in oceanic currents creating an alternate pressure zone on the ocean floor resulting in a plate shift that created this tsunami that sent these poor souls to their doom.

Or not.

Maybe it was just an earth quake.

There will be the extremist from every secter wieghing in on the cuase of this. I say let the grief stricken burry their lost loved ones and let 'em be. Help if and as we can.

**maniclion** · 12-28-2004, 03:50 PM

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

So sad. I would figure they would be able to see these things with some type of sonar thing, although I don't imagine there are too many sonar in that area.

There are Tsunami Sensors and Radio Buoys, but like you said they can't afford those things in that part of the world. We have an early warning system here a siren sounds on the first of the month at noon to test it.

**maniclion** · 12-28-2004, 03:54 PM

Originally Posted by BoneCrusher

There will be the extremist from every secter weighing in on the cause of this. I say let the grief stricken bury their lost loved ones and let 'em be. Help if and as we can.

No kidding, as if humans are powerful enough to disrupt the Earth's rotation

**DOMS** · 12-28-2004, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Dale Mabry

So sad. I would figure they would be able to see these things with some type of sonar thing, although I don't imagine there are too many sonar in that area.

Tsunami warning systems aren't that great. You need to be in relatively shallow water for the buoys to work. Having said that, they do provide some warning, but the countries that were hit didn't want to spend the money. Those buoys are very expensive.

There are already people from those countries that are blaming the USGS for not providing any warning and the U.N. is saying the "western" (read that as USA) countries are not giving enough.

**BoneCrusher** · 12-28-2004, 03:57 PM

Fuck the UN.

**DOMS** · 12-28-2004, 04:00 PM

League of Nations

**PreMier** · 12-28-2004, 05:39 PM

Damn, I read yesterday and the toll was at 29,663. Now to 60k? Thats astronomical.. and to think, even more will die, because all the fresh water and food sources have been contaminated.

**BritChick** · 12-28-2004, 05:42 PM

Originally Posted by BoneCrusher

If you can recieve you can donate ...

Unless you are British... the rotten buggers won't take my blood any more, something to do with me being a mad cow.

**BritChick** · 12-28-2004, 05:43 PM

Originally Posted by butterfly

Death toll is up to 60,000...

This is so tragic.

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