Check out Command Post for the latest on the quake / tsunami in the Indian Ocean.
I'll assume you've seen the news, but if you haven't a major quake off Indonesia triggered a tidal wave which devastated parts of Thailand, Sri Lanka, and other beach-oriented countries in the region. Death estimates are about 6,00 as of this morning and will doubtless go higher.
It's numbing news, and a reminder to me that we live here at the sufferance of Nature - also with John Holschen in my mind - I need to refresh the contests of the first-aid kits and get-home kits. We live near the coast in earthquake country, too.
You may want to think about whatever form preparedness is appropriate to your location as well.
Yeah, I live on the 7th floor of a high rise half way along a small inlet called False Creek off a major inlet at the mouth of the Burrard River in Vancouver, on the west coast of Canada. Much of the landscape, also, is compressed river silt; parts of the real estate is expected to sink out of sight when the Big One hits.
Hmm.
Still on Christmas hiatus, so net access is sporadic, but I gather the body count is now at upwards of 10,000.
God be with them. Does anyone have any links to charities that can assist the victims of this horrible disaster?
Ditto.
Here's the link to Red Cross, an obvious early responder.
Catholic Charities is also usually a pretty reliable, high bang-for-the-buck alternative. They don't have anything up on their web site about the earthquake/tsunami yet.
ICRC
Care
Neither one has anything specifically about the earthquake/tsunami on their web sites.
How awful. I saw earlier on the news that thousands of lives, perhaps, could have been saved if proper tsunami warning systems had been in place. What a tragic day for these poor people.
How you can help
India: Prime Minister's National Relief Fund, by bank transfer, or by credit card
Sri Lanka: Reliefweb (United Nations office)
Red Cross: Accepts donations online
Others:Vichaar's list of relief agencies; On The Command Post; At A Voyage to Arcturus (via Tim Blair).
Only place I've found taking donations specifically for the Earthquake/Tsunami is the Australian Red Cross. And yes, they will happily take donations from outside of Australia.
>>God be with them.
Clearly the Supreme Being was either unable or unwilling to interfere with this particular "act of God" killing thousands of (relatively) innocent people.
That means it's up to us humans to clean up the mess.
Merry Christmas.
It's bad, but it could easily have been so much worse. Worldchanging.com has good coverage too, incl. a map.
While our adds in North America are low, the probability isn't zero. Worldchanging ran a really interesting/frightening article a couple months ago about La Palma, an island in the Easern Atlantic whose collapse could trigger tsunamis 60-150 feet high right across the entire U.S. seaboard. There's no possible defense against that, and we'd have about 12 hours of warning.
It may not happen in your lifetime, but Marc's point about emergency preparation is valid. If you live on the Eastern seaboard, you might want to figure out how fast you could get about 50-100 miles inland if need be, and with whom, and with what - and have preparations ready. As Marc notes, that effort would pay off in many lesser situations, too.
we talked briefly about tsunamis and what can be done to prevent catastrophe in August's Winds of Discovery Report.
I came here looking for links to sites taking donations. Thanks for the leads in your comments, Dave Schuler, Nitin, and Kathy K.
I heard on the news that the number of death in the affected countries estimate to exceed 120,000 and rising.