by Julie A (Jan 10, 2005)

The planet is mourning after the tsunami that happened in South Asia.

On Sunday 26th of December 2004, a big earthquake (8.9 on Richter scale) happened in the open sea of Sumatra. It was the most important for 40 years. The earthquake caused a huge tsunami. Some gigantic waves, around 10 m high, came up on thousands of kilometers of coasts. Everywhere waves destroyed hotels, houses, shops, towns and killed thousands of people.

Everywhere you could hear screams, and people crying. Hours after the tsunami, the sea brought back bodies. "We could see people clinging at trees, children snatched from their mothers who would be carried away by waves", reported a British tourist. "There are cars in trees", said another witness of this disaster.

Some countries are more affected than others. Among the most affected : Indonesia, which is the most affected country, Sri-Lanka, India, Thaïland, Maldives, Malaysia and others too.
The number of dead and missing (today around 150,000) keeps growing. The final number of dead is not known (and perhaps it won't ever be known), but perhaps it will be around 200,000 dead.
All the people have not been found and some bodies were buried, without identification, in common graves.

We can wonder if nothing could have avoided this catastrophe. Why didn't anybody know that it would happen in Asia before the earthquake?

If you wish to react to this article, write to the editor.

Jan 15, 2005

I think it's a good thing to say "Asian solidarity", "send money", "help them"...
But what will happen in three months when TV stops speaking about that ???

Romain (YGTP)

It's a wonderful event for the USA. Don't worry for what will happen in three months. The Americans will still be there to help and earn new markets.

So please stop sending money to Asia and do it for Africa. In some parts of Africa, the situation has been awful for longer than since the tsunami happened. And not a lot of people care about them. Africa needs this money more than Asia. Don't forget that Indonesia and Thaïland are quite rich countries even if the population isn't, and can rise up.

Florian (YGTP)