Monday, December 27, 2004

Quake

Yesterday, early in the morning on the day after Christmas, the largest earthquake in 40 years occurred in the Indian Ocean off the west coast of Indonesia. This huge quake caused a series of large tsunamis that flattened coastal areas, and swept everything in their path out to sea. The current confirmed death toll is over 21,000 people throughout Asia. The hardest hit areas are Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and Indonesia, but people have been killed as far away as the Seychelles and the east coast of Africa. Thousands are still missing, and the death toll seems certain to rise.

This frightening disaster did not reach us in Cambodia. We didn't feel the quake, and didn't learn of the tragedy until we arrived back at our hotel last night after a long day of visiting the amazing temples of Angkor.

We consider ourselves unbelievably lucky, as we were on the south coast of Sri Lanka less than a month ago, and that area has been decimated by the waves (10,000 dead in Sri Lanka so far). Watching the news reports is shocking and devastatingly sad, as it seems an absolute certainly that the people we met and befriended in Sri Lanka have perished in this disaster.

What an unbelievable tragedy. It is a very sad day.

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Anonymous Anonymous said...

I'm so glad you guys are OK. I immediatly thought of you when we heard about the tsunami, you guys were just in Sri Lanka!!!! Such a sad thing to happen.

Heather

9:01 AM  

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