Khao Lak

[aneerkoinos]

In the Thai holiday resort north of Phuket with several miles of beach, the tsunami waves reached 1 km inland, causing utter devastation. Place was cut from rest of the world for two days because roads were full of debris, and the collecting of bodies buried in sand, under destroyed buildings, washed into jungle, washed into sea, local people and tourists is just beginning. Hundreds, if not thousands feared dead, locals, tourists from Nordic countries (2000(?) Swedes, hundreds of Finns still missing), from Germany, from France etc. There are probably over 500 dead in just one French-owned hotel.

One of the survivers was Sauli Niinistö, chairman of the European Investment Bank and former quite popular Finnish conservative politician. With his son he survived by hanging from a telephone pole for three hours until the flood waters receded, and suffered only minor injuries while rescuing a small Swedish boy from a nearby tree. With a group of other survivers they wandered about two days with all their belongings lost before they could contact officials, at the mercy of the good-will of the local poor people (buddhists) offering food, shelter and telephone to contact relatives at home to tell them they're OK, so they can stop worrying (call which probably costed weeks pay). After returning to Finland Niinistö, still visibly in schock, spared no words in gratitude to the ordinary local people, while critisizing all governement officials, local and western.

Niinistö was a long time Financial minister in two governements, who was respected for his honesty and integrity, but not liked by everybody because of his harsh economic policies. Perhaps something good will come out from this experience and in his very influential post at the top of European financial life Niinistö will re-evaluate some of his professional priorities and use his influence for global solidarity.

[aneerkoinos]

1. More human intrest

A Finnish-Swedish-Thai-American story:

"PHUKET, Thailand, Dec 28 (Reuters) - A Swedish toddler who was feared orphaned after giant waves struck southern Thailand was reunited with some of his relatives on Tuesday.

Hannes Bergstrom, 14 months old, was found wrapped in blankets on a hill by an American couple on Sunday, hours after a Thai villager had rescued the boy from a tsunami that killed more than 1,500 people in Thailand.

"We thought his whole family was washed out to sea. We had no idea," American Ron Rubin told Reuters as Hannes played in a Phuket hospital room with his grandmother and uncle.

The toddler's father, Darko, and grandfather survived the waves that swept into their resort. But the mother was missing.

Rubin and his girlfriend, Rebecca Beddall, had found the boy in Khao Lak, north of Phuket where the wall of water shattered a 10 kilometre (6 mile) strip of luxury seafront hotels, shops and restaurants."

More... http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/BKK135857.htm

[aneerkoinos]

2. Pictures from Khao Lak

http://www.vg.no/bilderigg/?rigg_id=2601

WARNING! GRAPHIC CONTENT!

[paulk]

3. I can't express

the horror of this...

I've been to Thailand several times and Indonesia once.

The pictures in my head - lying on the beach, sipping a Singha, blue water meeting a blue sky on the horizon...

Words fail

[Nordic65]

4. A truly global disaster

As of this writing 800 Norwegians are missing, the majority from Kaho Lak. 1500 Swedes are also missing. The total fugues are going to be devastating.

I can only speak for Norway, but if these numbers don't get down, it will be the worst disaster affecting Norway since WWII. I would imagine the same would be true for Sweden, Finland, France and a bunch of other western nations too.

I live in Oslo, Norway and in the last two days I've had three different encounters with the disaster:

1. My brother and his girlfriend was traveling in Myanmar. They were not affected, but the beach resort were they spent Christmas is probably gone by now. We had two days of hell before we heard from them.

2. My grandmothers neighbors spent their Christmas vacation in Thailand (unknown resort). Nobody has heard from them since Christmas day (two parents and a tree year old girl)

3. A close relative of my own neighbor, a fifteen year old boy was in Puchet when the disaster struck. He got lucky, but the experience got to him. He returned to Norway today and was immediately committed to hospital suffering from severe shock.

As we speak, tens if not hundreds of thousands of relatives across the globe are praying for their loved ones. And all we can do is hope. I my self was lucky, my brother was OK, but I feel for all the others that still live in fear...

[aneerkoinos]

5. Numbers are vague

I've seen the number of 300 Finns missing, but thats rather a guess than a real number. Basically nobody knows.

We will see if this turns out to be worse than the shipwreck of Estonia was for Sweden and Finland in numbers of dead. Estonia was worst catastrophy for Sweden since Carolus XII, I don't know how Norwegians compare Hitler, Carolus XII and Bernadotte...

This may sound wierd, but I find some solace in the fact that some of the worst affected countries like Sri Lanka and Thailand are mostly Buddhist. Not because I wish ill to Buddhists (I'm allmost one myself), but because they have better understanding of suffering and how to overcome it. It is also touching to see practically all the people in the world sharing the same sentiment of compassion and will to help.

I'm glad for you that your close ones survived, hope everythings okey with your granparents neighbours too.

[Nordic65]

6. Thanks

Yes, I feel lucky, but at the same time I feel totally helpless.

As I said, this disaster is global, affecting people all over the world. The locals in Sir Lanka, India, Indonesia, Thailand, Myanmar, Somalia and others bear the worst, but the global aspect of this disaster can help in getting the attention to the needy.

It breaks my heart to read about the "bitching" going on already among the rich countries about who is being "stingy" or not. We must all come to the conclusion that this is the worst natural disaster in our time and act accordingly.

And seeing the piss-poor response so far from the Norwegian government I'm pretty sure Mr. Egeland (a native Norwegian) of the UN had other countries than the US in his mind when he criticized the initial response to this disaster...

[aneerkoinos]

7. Sorry

I think also my governement could afford more than measly 500 000 euros promised so far, I hope and trust more aid will be coming when picture of the needs becomes clearer, but I don't think bitching is doing much good. Each of us can help by donating, Finnish Red Cross send a hospital to Sri Lanka already yesterday.

I found this in one of the Finnish discussion forums, no link:

"Chantima Saengli, the owner of the devastated Blue Village Pagarang hotel, told local radio she feared 340 of her 400 Scandinavian guests were dead."

There is good chanse that the surviver numbers in all the confusion from that place are more than 60, I hope so, but it's not good news no matter what.