Indian Ocean Tsunami/Earthquake
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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Quake in far east
Whilst a thread is already running in JB on this, I feel this is a more appropriate place to post any news anyone has. A lot of us have friends and relations in that area. There has been an awful loss of life in the region.
It would be nice if we could keep THIS thread strictly on 'news' rather than the esoterics of world climate - please?
Update - epicentre 90 miles off NW Sumatra, and estimated death toll 9000+. Many countries are affected. Many airports in the region are closed.
UK Foreign Office helpline is 0207 008 0000
It would be nice if we could keep THIS thread strictly on 'news' rather than the esoterics of world climate - please?
Update - epicentre 90 miles off NW Sumatra, and estimated death toll 9000+. Many countries are affected. Many airports in the region are closed.
UK Foreign Office helpline is 0207 008 0000
Last edited by BOAC; 26th Dec 2004 at 15:18.
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I was over the Bay of Bengal listening to the BBC world service reporting it at 0500GMT. Very very sad. Thoughts go to those who have lost family and friends. We seemed so isolated from it all at FL330, yet it was all happening just 5 miles underneath us.
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Re the Maldives, I can't speak first-hand but reports say that Male is still 3/4 under water, the airport is pretty much unusable and an emergency has been declared. News agencies are reporting that no tourists/foreigners have been killed but many may have minor injuries.
The US Geological survey has info and links to info on the earthquake.
http://www.usgs.gov/
Relief Web has information on where help is being sent.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/v...004&ExpandView
It was at 7 AM local time, so fewer people were on the beach in resort areas than might have been otherwise.
Very sad.
http://www.usgs.gov/
Relief Web has information on where help is being sent.
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf
http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/v...004&ExpandView
It was at 7 AM local time, so fewer people were on the beach in resort areas than might have been otherwise.
Very sad.
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I had a 3 week holiday in Maldives booked departing on 09DEC. I Never thought I'd say it, but I'm glad I cancelled it.
Terrible news still emerging from the regions.
Terrible news still emerging from the regions.
Transparency International
Paste VRMM into the US Defense Internet NOTAM Service and you will see:
A0189/04 - RWY36 ILS LLZ U/S.ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:00 UNTIL 28 DEC 23:59 ESTIMATED
A0190/04 - VOR/DME U/S. ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:05 UNTIL 28 DEC 23:59 ESTIMATED
A0191/04 - 'ML' NDB U/S. ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:08 UNTIL 28 DEC 07:00 ESTIMATED
A0189/04 - RWY36 ILS LLZ U/S.ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:00 UNTIL 28 DEC 23:59 ESTIMATED
A0190/04 - VOR/DME U/S. ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:05 UNTIL 28 DEC 23:59 ESTIMATED
A0191/04 - 'ML' NDB U/S. ALL ARR AND DEP ACFT EXP ATC DLA 26 DEC 17:08 UNTIL 28 DEC 07:00 ESTIMATED
Keeping Danny in Sandwiches
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Thanks Dawn2dusk, I had picked that up from the Notams, I understand that the problem was water on the runways and taxiways and that the airport was closed.
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Here are some pics of Male airport in the Maldives, and a quote from one of the guys over on Avcanada:
Pics - linked from avcanada.
http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=0 http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=1 http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=2
the TMA and Borek bases are basically ruined from the ground upto 6 foot level. The fuel systems are ruined and some of the planes that were are the bases got banged up. The city isnt too bad..just lots of water damage. Most of the planes were at resorts at the time 9am...but the lack of communication so far means they dont know or can account for everybody yet.
http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=0 http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=1 http://www.avcanada.ca/albums//displ...album=48&pos=2
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Maldives
We operated to Male on Christmas day and were staying on a tiny island 40 mins by boat from Male, in the south Atoll.
The island was one of 3 connected by wooden jettys. We arrived at about 0100 local and had a moonlight stroll on a pristine idyllic beach. We were staying on the west side of the island, less than 20 feet from the sea edge.(consider it takes 20 seconds to reach the other side).
0610 I woke up with my bed shaking - confused as to what was happening but then realised it must have been a tremor. Went back to sleep.
Woke up 0900 local, pottered around, opened the door and saw a wall of water coming towards me. Tried to close the door behind me but it got wrenched out of my hand. At this stage the water was up to our thighs.
To cut a long story short, this happened about 3 times and a significant amount of time was spent up a tree - both myself and the pilots. We went over to the east side of the island and the destruction was horrendous. Everybody had been having breakfast on the veranda overhanging the sea when the wave smashed into them. Obviously, we were much more sheltered on the west side and as a result very, very lucky. The violence of the wave had totally destroyed the jettys connecting the islands.
We had to stay on the island - no power, running water, sanitation. No boat could get in or out to the island because of the reef and surrounding debris. We were finally evacuated at 0700 yesterday morning.
We still are not sure of injuries/deaths on our island, it did appear, however, that everybody was ok thank god but they were still doing head counts when we left. This is something I will never forget - even though what I saw was calm compared to what the poor people in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc experienced. The enormity of what has happened is staggering and something that will affect me for a long time yet.
The 2 boys with me were fab. The resort workers were amazing - they still managed to feed us and look after us even after all the destruction.
Our aircraft was fine - the water had gone about halfway up the landing gear but no damage done.
My thoughts are with ALL those people who have been affected by this, crew or otherwise, however they have been affected.
A sad, sad time.
Thanks
H
The island was one of 3 connected by wooden jettys. We arrived at about 0100 local and had a moonlight stroll on a pristine idyllic beach. We were staying on the west side of the island, less than 20 feet from the sea edge.(consider it takes 20 seconds to reach the other side).
0610 I woke up with my bed shaking - confused as to what was happening but then realised it must have been a tremor. Went back to sleep.
Woke up 0900 local, pottered around, opened the door and saw a wall of water coming towards me. Tried to close the door behind me but it got wrenched out of my hand. At this stage the water was up to our thighs.
To cut a long story short, this happened about 3 times and a significant amount of time was spent up a tree - both myself and the pilots. We went over to the east side of the island and the destruction was horrendous. Everybody had been having breakfast on the veranda overhanging the sea when the wave smashed into them. Obviously, we were much more sheltered on the west side and as a result very, very lucky. The violence of the wave had totally destroyed the jettys connecting the islands.
We had to stay on the island - no power, running water, sanitation. No boat could get in or out to the island because of the reef and surrounding debris. We were finally evacuated at 0700 yesterday morning.
We still are not sure of injuries/deaths on our island, it did appear, however, that everybody was ok thank god but they were still doing head counts when we left. This is something I will never forget - even though what I saw was calm compared to what the poor people in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh etc experienced. The enormity of what has happened is staggering and something that will affect me for a long time yet.
The 2 boys with me were fab. The resort workers were amazing - they still managed to feed us and look after us even after all the destruction.
Our aircraft was fine - the water had gone about halfway up the landing gear but no damage done.
My thoughts are with ALL those people who have been affected by this, crew or otherwise, however they have been affected.
A sad, sad time.
Thanks
H
I am a figment of my own imagination
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A great tragedy and which saddened the day, commiserations to the thousands affected.
With regard to aircraft charter/relief/scheduled operating to and from the area, is there any references or info regarding possible movement, slight or large of co-ordinates for fields, fixes, or possibly affected aids due displacement by tectonic shift or shift caused by the earthquake?
With regard to aircraft charter/relief/scheduled operating to and from the area, is there any references or info regarding possible movement, slight or large of co-ordinates for fields, fixes, or possibly affected aids due displacement by tectonic shift or shift caused by the earthquake?
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maldives-tour operators priorities
Firstly, hello to all, this is my first post here so if I am posting in the wrong forum or in breach of etiquette, i apologise in advance.
With regard to the tour ops covering the maldives, my wife and I have booked our honeymoon with Th...son to Raa Atoll, ex gatwick on 3 jan. I have been astonished by the operators policy with regard to the status of the booking in that as of 4pm today, they still intend to provide the holiday as booked. How can they even consider flying in more tourists at a time when they are evacuating others? Surely in the aftermath of this tragedy, the last thing that is needed in the maldives is a plane load of holidaymakers arriving at male, expecting the "business as normal" luxury that Th..sons are still insisting will be available!
It may be the case that the particular resort we have booked is relatively unaffected but from the reports I have seen, the maldives as a whole has suffered significant damage and loss of life. Frankly I feel that we would be intruding in the most thoughtless way on the private grief of those who have and still are suffering.
My suspicion is that his particular operator is more concerned with the cost of refunds should the flight be cancelled than their ethical obligations to the customers and the residents.
I may however be entirely mistaken- in which case sorry.
Mark.
With regard to the tour ops covering the maldives, my wife and I have booked our honeymoon with Th...son to Raa Atoll, ex gatwick on 3 jan. I have been astonished by the operators policy with regard to the status of the booking in that as of 4pm today, they still intend to provide the holiday as booked. How can they even consider flying in more tourists at a time when they are evacuating others? Surely in the aftermath of this tragedy, the last thing that is needed in the maldives is a plane load of holidaymakers arriving at male, expecting the "business as normal" luxury that Th..sons are still insisting will be available!
It may be the case that the particular resort we have booked is relatively unaffected but from the reports I have seen, the maldives as a whole has suffered significant damage and loss of life. Frankly I feel that we would be intruding in the most thoughtless way on the private grief of those who have and still are suffering.
My suspicion is that his particular operator is more concerned with the cost of refunds should the flight be cancelled than their ethical obligations to the customers and the residents.
I may however be entirely mistaken- in which case sorry.
Mark.
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As stated by another pruner on the Tsunami thread in JB:
Before this gets anymore political with people patting themselves on the back because their government is donating more money then another country.......
Sign up to places like
http://www.redr.org/ to volunteer your professional skills,
or terre sans frontieres
Then you can take the moral high ground.
Or else make a donation and brag about it right here online,
I just donated 150 euro to http://www.goal.ie/
I won it in a game of no limit Texas hold em last night, can anyone beat that?
Sign up to places like
http://www.redr.org/ to volunteer your professional skills,
or terre sans frontieres
Then you can take the moral high ground.
Or else make a donation and brag about it right here online,
I just donated 150 euro to http://www.goal.ie/
I won it in a game of no limit Texas hold em last night, can anyone beat that?
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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When I opened this thread (page 1) I asked that we kept 'on track' and avoided climate change discussions. I cannot believe I now have to ask that we avoid the classic Pprune garbage on this thread. This disaster is of such horrendous proportions that such dross is totally inappropriate and I would hope that any such 'contributions' wil rapidly go either into cyberspace or to JB.
Remember, it takes about as long to click and action one of Flap's links as it does to rant here - and does a lot more good.
Remember, it takes about as long to click and action one of Flap's links as it does to rant here - and does a lot more good.
Per Ardua ad Astraeus
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An excellent link (taken from JB - thank you 'omaha') is this which covers all aspects of the tragedy, including geophysical, human and relief, and shows an animated map taken from NOAA satellite data on which you can see how badly Sri Lanka and India were affected by the waves, which showed a huge peak in their westward movement. There is also a non-exhaustive list of agencies open for contributions.
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ukbiker
I have just seen a report on Sky News saying that there is an appeal by members of the local population, for tourists to still travel to Sri Lanka or maybe it was the Maldives as it is the main way for the indigenous population to rebuild and start their lives over again.
I agree with you, I don't understand how they will cope with the lack of the basic requirements of life but as you say, certain areas may not be in such an horrendous state as is shown on the TV.
I do know however, how long it took to recover from a direct hit by a typhoon on a fairly remote Philippine Island resulting in the loss of life of in excess of 200 people due to mud slides, so I think a week or so is a bit optimistic with the damage and numbers involved in this tradegy.
People in the Far East are very resilient however and I am full of admiration for those that seem to be able to pick up the pieces and somehow carry on in spite of the most awful of disasters and loss.
hi5
I have just seen a report on Sky News saying that there is an appeal by members of the local population, for tourists to still travel to Sri Lanka or maybe it was the Maldives as it is the main way for the indigenous population to rebuild and start their lives over again.
I agree with you, I don't understand how they will cope with the lack of the basic requirements of life but as you say, certain areas may not be in such an horrendous state as is shown on the TV.
I do know however, how long it took to recover from a direct hit by a typhoon on a fairly remote Philippine Island resulting in the loss of life of in excess of 200 people due to mud slides, so I think a week or so is a bit optimistic with the damage and numbers involved in this tradegy.
People in the Far East are very resilient however and I am full of admiration for those that seem to be able to pick up the pieces and somehow carry on in spite of the most awful of disasters and loss.
hi5