THE TRAIN | this would have been a HUGE story...

[nostamj]

but, the TSUNAMI story is so HUGE that one of the greatest railroad disasters EVER (1000 dead) is going to be a footnote to the larger story.

we will never know the full scope of this catastrophe. I heard reports about indiginous tribes on some of the Indian islands that have vanished and they don't know how many there were...

it is hard to imagine that we're in a news cycle where a train disaster with 100% fatalities... is a sidebar.

is this the kind of event that transforms humanity a bit?

or will a DPWG (Dead Pregnant White Girl) retake the drumbeat by New Year's Eve?

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. You are right

I also heard about an entire island of several thousand people just disappearing.

[R3dD0g]

2. DPWG

will take the lead on the cable talkfests by Jan 2. This will just be another hohum another bunch of brown people dead.

[nostamj]

10. i'm afraid you're right

and hope you're wrong

but i'm afraid you're right.

[benburch]

3. I think the final toll will top 150,000

Some areas are still not in communication.

[iconoclastic cat]

6. Wow. Mother nature is mighty pissed.

[Walt Starr]

7. I'm figuring the count in February will top 500,000

once you calculate disease, starvation, etc. into the equation.

[Bandit]

15. But we are giving fifteen million dollars to make it all better

:shrug:

[skylarmae]

4. its hard to really grasp the entire scope of this tragedy!

My mind is just too small to get ahold of this much horror and sadness.

[Walt Starr]

5. I have seen nothing about the train disaster

Got a link?

[nostamj]

8. CNN has been reporting it

as a 'sidebar' all day.

it was in Sri Lanka. IIRC the name of the train was the 'Queen of the Ocean'

[LibertyorDeath]

9. Strange name for a Train

" 'Queen of the Ocean' " & how the hell do you get 100% fatalities in a train wreck?

[RetroLounge]

11. 100% fatalities in a train wreck?

They all died = 100%.

RL

[jdj]

27. the WAVE knocked the TRAIN off the tracks and drowned the

people.

plus people from surrounding villages scrambled onto the train to get away from the water, raising the casualties.

[nostamj]

12. how many crowded passengers trains have been wrecked

by a tsunami?

maybe this was a fluke but, tip the train over and flood it seems to have done the trick. consistently reporting no survivors from the train....

[LibertyorDeath]

13. Got it thanks I will now endeavor to turn my brain On....

[benburch]

17. Well, a hurricane relief train was wiped out once...

On the way to Key West. There used to be railroad bridges the whole way down what is now US 1. The railroad itself was wiped out by the storm.

[Fla Dem]

18. It was a tourist train that ran along the coastline. It was full, about

1500. when the wave hit it was was rolled on its side and completely covered in water. That how you get 100% fatality.

[suziedemocrat]

23. Link to story

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31175-2004Dec28.html

[BeTheChange]

16. Link

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&e=4&u=/ap/20041228/ap_on_re_as/quake_train

[tandot]

14. the injured white blond toddler was way more important than all those

"brown" toddlers, too.

They had to make a big deal about one blond toddler being treated for his wounds, wondering where his family is. As if he was more important than all those thousands of other children who were separated from their family...injured and crying...

:cry:

[dweller]

20. doesn't every news cast now

include the "8 americans dead" tidbit?

59,992+ and counting others . . .

dp

[nostamj]

22. last number for americans I saw was 12

but i don't think they were being payloaded into mass graves

[jdj]

26. hundreds missing, I heard.

I'm sad for everyone, not trying to be fake p.c. about this.

[HEyHEY]

19. You wanna know how big it really is?

I have spent all day in front of a newswire and this is the first I've heard of the train wreck.

[nostamj]

21. i believe you

stunning, ain't it?

[idiosyncratic]

24. I heard about this first thing this morning on NPR. n/t

[jdj]

25. what?

I thought they were related....

wasn't the train de-railed by the wave...I'm getting confused.

[nostamj]

29. yes. as detailed above

the TRAIN was a footnote *within* the larger story. THAT's how huge the overall story is, that an incident as big as this could be only a part of a story.

[bpilgrim]

28. isn't it all part of the same story? and more than 1 train tradegy...

certainly helps to bring the scale of the tradegdy and destruction to light and we still don't know all of the 'story' yet.

:cry:

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 · Last updated 1:22 p.m. PT

Summary: Sri Lanka tsunami train victims

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

QUEEN OF THE SEA: Sri Lanka officials say 1,000 tickets were sold for an excursion Sunday from the capital, Colombo, to beach resorts on the train known as "Samudradevi," or "Queen of the Sea."

TRAGEDY STRIKES: The train was swept off the track by Sunday's tsunami.

AFTERMATH: More than 800 people were killed; no relatives claimed 204 of the bodies, so they were buried in a mass grave along the railway line. "This was the only thing we could do," said Venerable Baddegama Samitha, a Buddhist monk and former parliamentarian. "The bodies were rotting. We gave them a decent burial."

more...
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/national/apasia_story.asp?category=1104&slug=Quake%20Train%20Summary%20Box

---

Tuesday, December 28, 2004 · Last updated 1:22 p.m. PT

In Sri Lanka, Twin Train Wreck Devastates Area

By Michael Dobbs
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, December 28, 2004; 12:45 PM

GALLE, Sri Lanka, Dec. 28--The tsunami slammed into two trains that had come to a halt on the outskirts of a tiny fishing village near here, hurling a dozen of its cars across the countryside into coconut groves, fields and flimsy huts.

With a death toll already estimated at around 1,500, the twin train wreck in Hikkaduwa, about 12 miles northwest of Galle, appears to have been the single most destructive incident in a country that bore the brunt of the tsunami that swept across the Indian Ocean on Sunday. Two and a half days after the disaster, authorities were still pulling bodies from the twisted wreckage of the carriages, some of which ended up half a mile from the railway line.

"There were very few survivors," said Gunasena Hewavitharana, the chief government representative in this southern port city, after touring the accident site by helicopter, the only means of access. In addition to directing relief efforts in Galle, Hewavitharana is also looking for his sister and niece who were on board the 7:15 a.m. express from Colombo when it was derailed by the water 12 miles west of here. The train was named Samudradevi, or Queen of the Sea.

more...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A31175-2004Dec28.html

unless you were refering to another 'story'

peace