[lit-ideas] Tsunami
- From: "Andreas Ramos" <andreas@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Lit-Ideas" <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Mon, 27 Dec 2004 11:09:14 -0800
Several items about the tsunami in Southeast Asia.
1) I was working at my computer on Christmas afternoon, preparing for a
certification exam,
and I saw on SE Asian websites the news item about the earthquake. I also
noticed that for
at least six hours, none of the American media mentioned it.
2) When the earthquake happened, I immediately thought this would cause a
tsunami. I live on
the coast of California, where earthquakes are a daily occurance (see for
example the daily
report at http://earthquake.usgs.gov/recenteqsUS/Maps/US10/32.42.-125.-115.html
, which
shows some 260 local earthquakes for the last week, plus the 1.4 from this
morning). But
there were no reports or warnings about a tsunami in Southeast Asia.
3) The tsunami came ashore about 8-9 in the morning local time (about 2.5 hrs
after the
earthquake.) Many tourists were on the beach.
4) No warning had been given. The public health authorities, the government,
etc., did not
warn people about the tsunami. There was at least 2.5 hrs of time, but nobody
was warned.
5) Therefore, this is two disasters: 1) the tsunami and 2) the catastrophic
failure to warn
people. More than 22,000 died. With 2.5 hrs of warning, many of those could
have survived.
6) Because there were lots of tourists on the beaches cavorting around, there
are plenty of
videos of the tsunami. See for example
http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/i_video/main500251.shtml , which has publicly
accessible
video (no fees, no pay).
7) I had always thought that a tsunami would be a large wave. Perhaps because
of Hokusai's
painting The Great Wave (see for example www.andreas.com/hokusai.html ).
Hollywood disaster
movies also include giant waves crashing ashore. However, watching the videos,
you see that
the English name, tidal wave, is more descriptive: the sea literally begins to
rise, as if
the tide is coming in. There's no wave, not even a wavelet. The best name would
be "tidal
surge", but nobody would name a painting or a disaster movie after that. The
sea rises
extremely fast (people are suddenly in water that is 15-20 feet deep) and then
recedes very
fast, sweeping many people far out to sea.
8) So what happened on Diego Garcia? This is a semi-secret US military base,
smack in the
middle of the Indian Ocean. It is only a few feet above sea level. Diego Garcia
is extremely
critical to US military activities in Iraq and Afghanistan. If the tsunami was
15-20 feet
high and it swept the entire Indian Ocean, then Diego Garcia must have been
affected. Yet
there is precisely zero in all media about anything on Diego Garcia. The
official website
http://www.dg.navy.mil/ says nothing. Which leads one to suspect that something
happened.
Otherwise, they would have reported that they had a minor wave, minor flooding,
etc. So
perhaps pay attention to this.
yrs,
andreas
www.andreas.com
------------------------------------------------------------------
To change your Lit-Ideas settings (subscribe/unsub, vacation on/off,
digest on/off), visit www.andreas.com/faq-lit-ideas.html
Other related posts:
