CNN: Tsunami death toll tops 115,000

[arcos]

Tsunami death toll tops 115,000

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (CNN) -- The death toll from Sunday's tsunamis has jumped sharply to over 115,000 after Indonesia reported nearly 80,000 people were killed in that country alone.

U.N. relief workers arrived in Indonesia's Aceh province to find devastation in the region closest to the epicenter of the earthquake that spawned the killer tsunamis.

Emergency workers reported that in some parts of Aceh, as many as one in every four citizens was dead.

Scenes of destruction -- homes and businesses flattened, buses tossed about like toys, piles of rubble filling the streets -- were repeated across the region, as were the scenes of grief -- residents and vacationers searching in vain for loved ones, or, at times, finding them in makeshift morgues.

<snip>

http://edition.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12/30/asia.quake/index.html

[Cooley Hurd]

1. This still doesn't include the thousands who will die from disease....

...and sanitary problems.

Horrible... just horrible. :(

[soothsayer]

2. Is this the largest natural disaster ever? not counting plagues

krakatoa was only 46,000. Anything near this?

[proud2BlibKansan]

3. 1990? 100,000 killed

in earthquake in India? or somewhere close to there?

[Cooley Hurd]

5. Here are the deadliest earthquakes/tsunamis on record:

Earthquakes:

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0884804.html

Jan. 23, 1556 Shansi, China 830,000 n.a.
July 27, 1976 Tangshan, China 255,0001 8.0
Aug. 9, 1138 Aleppo, Syria 230,000 n.a.
May 22, 1927 near Xining, China 200,000 8.3
Dec. 22, 8562 Damghan, Iran 200,000 n.a.
Dec. 16, 1920 Gansu, China 200,000 8.6
March 23, 8932 Ardabil, Iran 150,000 n.a.
Sept. 1, 1923 Kwanto, Japan 143,000 8.3

Earthquakes/Tsunamis:

http://www.factmonster.com/ipka/A0769006.html

Where: Near East & Mediterranean Sea
When: 1201
The worst recorded earthquake in history took an estimated 1 million lives.

Where: China
When: 1556
More than 830,000 people in the Shensi Province were killed by this earthquake. It caused the collapse of caves that people had carved out of cliffs and used for homes.

Where: Japan
When: 1933
A deadly tsunami killed 3,000 people on the island of Honshu. The tidal wave, caused by an earthquake, sank 8,000 ships and destroyed 9,000 homes.

Where: Armenia
When: 1988
Nearly 4,000 square miles of densely populated land was ravaged by an earthquake. Three cities were leveled, killing more than 25,000 people. Other countries were able to send the Armenians supplies and rescue workers. Miraculously, 15,000 people were recovered from the rubble.

Where: Papua New Guinea
When: 1998
A devastating tsunami wiped out many villages in the island nation. More than 2,000 people were killed and many more were left homeless.
</snip>

This is the deadliest natural disaster in my lifetime, that's for sure...:(

[iconoclastic cat]

8. Uh, CH, some of those dates in the first section look a bit off...

[Cooley Hurd]

10. Blame factmonster?

:shrug:

I just cut-and-pasted it from there...;)

[soothsayer]

12. wow, thanks

[malaise]

7. 300,000

died in Bangladesh after their floods a few years ago. This will probably be the second worst in memory. It's too catastrophic to contemplate. Oh so sad.

[jmcgowanjm]

4. The 25 Largest Earthquake Disasters in Human History

http://www.geohaz.org/member/news/signif.htm

Right now, I would put this in at #7,
with a bullet

[soothsayer]

13. thanks, i had no idea

[allemand]

6. I think it's the largest disaster in terms of area affected. n/t

[Oversea Visitor]

9. I have been watching pictures

of the south western costline of Sumatra affect region.
I am numb shock :cry:
1 million people use to live there
Nothing left whole coast is like it been leveled by a nuclear bomb

Storm cloud incoming to that area too dont see any houses standing for a 100 km strecth nothing completely flaten

Where is the 1 million people living there??
Oh Dear God please dont let so many die
:cry: :cry: :cry:

[Wright Patman]

11. To use Bushlogic (an oxymoron, to be sure)

God hates us for our freedom.

He also wanted to show mankind how futile it is to fight a "War on Terror" when you see what the Ultimate Terrorist can do.

At times like this, I think of an obese female classmate back in high school who used to answer those who insulted her, either obliquely or flagrantly, "Excuse me for livin'!"