December 28, 2004
Current Asian disaster death toll at 50,000 and climbing
New figures from Reuters and BBC News indicate the death toll from the Indian Ocean earthquakes and tsunamis have risen beyond the 50,000 level.
The sea and wreckage of coastal towns all around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies on Tuesday, pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami past 50,000.The disaster has directly affected ten nations in five different time zones on the planet.The apocalyptic destruction caused by the wave dwarfed the efforts of governments and relief agencies as they turned from rescuing survivors to trying to care for millions of homeless, increasingly threatened by disease amid the rotting corpses.
"Why did you do this to us, God?" wailed an old woman in a devastated fishing village in southern India's Tamil Nadu state. "What did we do to upset you? This is worse than death."
Scientists have indicated that the initial quake, measured at a 9.0 on the Richter scale, actually affected the rotation of the planet, actually slowing th eEarth's rotation by a measure of microseconds, an indication of the monumental power expended by the cataclysm.
More pictures of the devestation are beginning to emerge, now that US journalists are beginning to show up in the disaster areas stretching from Indonesia on the east to the Somalian coastline of Africa on the west.
American news networks largely ignored the disaster when it began to unfold, leaving coverage to true global broadcasters like Sky News and BBC World.
BBC World is continuing to air near-wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster both on the air, and online (which is the only way American audiences can see their coverage; in WMP format).
Posted by mhking at December 28, 2004 12:19 PMEither you have you're email filters set a bit high, or your email address is not working. I've tried emailing you several times and had it bounce each time.
Posted by: theco at December 28, 2004 12:36 PM