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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Aceh Death Toll [alone] May Reach 80,000 |
| 2004-12-30 |
| December 29, 2004 11:12 PM, Laksamana.Net - The death toll in Aceh province from Sunday's catastrophic earthquake and tsunamis could climb to 80,000, a United Nations official said Wednesday (29/12/04). "I would say we are probably talking about somewhere in the order of 80,000 people, 50 to 80,000 people, that would be my educated guess," Michael Elmquist, head of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs for Indonesia, was quoted as saying by Reuters. "It's a guess based on the relation between the numbers we have so far and our experience from other earthquake disasters," he added. Elmquist said 40,000 people might have died in the coastal town of Meulaboh, which was about 150 kilometers from the epicenter of the 9 magnitude quake. "The news I got from a government official on arrival today was that their estimate was that a third of the population [of Meulaboh] had been wiped out, which would equal 40,000 people," he was quoted as saying by Reuters. The Health Ministry at 5pm Wednesday put the official confirmed death toll for all of Indonesia at 36,268, with more than 21,370 deaths in Aceh, including 3,400 in Meulaboh. Coordinating Minister for Political, Legal and Security Affairs Widodo Adisutjipto said 80% the town had been completely flattened by the quake and giant waves. Aceh's military commander Major General Endang Suwarya said up to three-quarters of Sumatra's western coastline had been destroyed, with some towns being totally leveled. "The damage is truly devastating; 75% of the west coast is destroyed and [in] some places it's 100%. These people are isolated and we will try and get them help," he was quoted as saying by the Associated Press. [snip] Suwarya said the Indonesian Defense Forces will use Hercules C-130 aircraft to drop relief aid to people on Aceh's western coastal regions because land transportation routes to those parts of the province are destroyed. "Land transportation to the west coast of Aceh has been disrupted, roads and bridges between Banda Aceh and Meulaboh are devastated. [snip] I have no words . . . |
| Posted by:cingold |
| #6 The always graceful Peggy Noonan in today's Wall Street Journal: "Not everyone distinguished himself. What to say of those who've latched on to the tragedy to promote their political agendas, from the U.N. official who raced to call the U.S. "stingy," to the global-warming crowd, to administration critics who jumped at the chance to call the president insensitive because he was vacationing in Texas and didn't voice his sympathy quickly enough? Such people are slyly asserting their own, higher sensitivity and getting credit for it, which is odd because what they're actually doing is using dead people to make cheap points." |
| Posted by: Matt 2004-12-30 1:06:34 PM |
| #5 When I posted the first article about this earthquake, the death toll was nine. Zowie. |
| Posted by: Seafarious 2004-12-30 9:51:09 AM |
| #4 Just think of all the trouble Aceh was before this thing. Just think of the ignorant push to institute stricter Sharia and how we poked fun at these yokels. It seems so completely irrelavant now, doesn't it? What I wouldn't give to go back to that if it meant that this never happened. |
| Posted by: peggy 2004-12-30 9:25:31 AM |
| #3 ....and it keeps coming and coming. Its not a single wave in the sense we normally have of it. Its more like a flash flood. One minute nothing and then the water pours in and just keeps pouring in. |
| Posted by: peggy 2004-12-30 9:22:01 AM |
| #2 When I think of a Tidal wave,a wave is what I picture in my mind.But from what I've seen it is more like a flow. |
| Posted by: Raptor 2004-12-30 8:44:16 AM |
| #1 This is an aerial view of the town of Meulaboh in Aceh province which was flattened by tidal waves on Sunday, photographed on Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004. |
| Posted by: cingold 2004-12-30 3:58:07 AM |