Quake, tsunami devastate Asia, 7,459 dead

Mon, 27 Dec 2004, 00:00 WIB | Source: REUTERS

Agencies
Colombo

The world's biggest earthquake in 40 years hit South and
Southeast Asia on Sunday, unleashing a tsunami that crashed into
Sri Lanka and India and swamped tourist isles in Thailand and the
Maldives, killing 7,459 people.

A wall of water up to 10-meter high triggered by the 8.9
magnitude underwater earthquake off the Indonesian island of
Sumatra caused death, chaos and devastation.

"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before,"
Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.

Boxing Day brought grief and disaster to Asia this year;
exactly on the same day last year, a 6.8-magnitude earthquake
struck the ancient Silk Road city of Bam in Iran, killing more
than 30,000 people.

Sri Lanka, where officials put the death toll at 3,225,
appealed for emergency international aid. One million people, or
5 percent of the population, were affected, officials said. The
death toll in India was about 2,000. The disaster claimed 2,439
lives in Indonesia and the toll may rise further.

Pope John Paul said the enormous tragedy saddened Christmas.

Two-thirds of the Maldives capital, Male, was flooded and
officials voiced anxiety for the fate of dozens of low-lying,
palm-ringed coral atolls crowded with tourists from around the
world for the Christmas holiday season.

India feared a devastating toll along its southeastern coast.

In the state of Tamil Nadu alone, a government official said
at least 1,625 had been killed. Rescuers were searching for
hundreds of missing fishermen. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh put
the armed forces on alert.

The earthquake of magnitude 8.9 as measured by the U.S.
Geological Survey struck at 7:59 a.m (7:59 a.m. in Jakarta) off
Sumatra and swung north with multiple tremors into the Andaman
islands.

In Thailand, at least 310 people had been killed and more than
5,000 injured, officials said. In Malaysia, at least 29 people
were drowned and many others were missing, officials said.

In popular holiday islands off southern Thailand, emergency
workers rescued about 70 Thai and foreign divers from the famed
Emeral Cave and several dozen were found and evacuated from
around other islands, officials said.

Two Thais were killed at Emeral cave, a major attraction for
divers who have to swim underwater to its tiny beach and water
illuminated by sunshine pouring through a hole in the roof.

The earthquake was the world's biggest since 1964, said Julie
Martinez, geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey in Golden,
Colorado.

"It is multiple earthquakes along the same faultline."

It was the fifth-largest earthquake since 1900, she said.

"These big earthquakes, when they occur in shallow water, ...
basically slosh the ocean floor ... and it's as if you're rocking
water in the bathtub and that wave can travel basically
throughout the ocean," USGS geophysicist Bruce Presgrave said.

In Sri Lanka, thousands fled the worst tsunami in living
memory, scrambling to higher ground for fear of another wave.

"The army and the navy have sent rescue teams; we have
deployed over four choppers and half the navy's eastern fleet to
look for survivors," military spokesman Brig. Daya Ratnayake
said.

The worst-hit area appeared to be the tourist region of the
south and east where beach hotels were inundated or swept away.

"Our naval base in Trincomalee is underwater and right now we
are trying to manage the situation there while rescuing people,"
said navy spokesman Jayantha Perera.

In the low-lying Maldives, President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was
to declare a national disaster in the archipelago whose coral
atolls are a magnet for tourists from around the world, said
chief government spokesman Ahmed Shaheed.

"The damage is considerable," Shaheed said. "The island is
only about three feet (one meter) above sea level and a wave of
water four feet (1.3 meters) high swept over us."

The international airport was unusable, he said.

"It is a very bad situation. It is terrible," Shaheed said.
"As you know it is the peak tourist season. We are trying to get
reports from those areas. The whole of the Maldives is a tourist
area so we are just hoping and praying."

The world's worst tsunami in recent history struck on July 17,
1998, when three waves ripped through Papua New Guinea's
northwest coast, killing 2,500.