Marian's Blog

SOS from Quake Zone: Please Send Help

I just heard first news report that death toll in this natural disaster may rise to 40.000.

I'm still waiting for word from friends in Somalia. At least a hundred fishermen have been declared dead there. The sad thing in Somalia is so many of the men who'd rejected the guns and war and fighting had turned to fishing to earn a living for their families. Now this has taken so many of them away.  Kenbe fem pep somaliyen. I know it's kreyol - but my meaning is the same.

Friends in UK have forwarded me this plea from colleague Nimalka, on the ground in Sri Lanka. She explains her group's emergency relief activities, including details of a Colombo bank account where anyone willing can send urgent disaster assistance via the international NGO IMADR's presence in Colombo, Sri Lanka. She also includes details for anyone in Sri Lanka who can bring assistance in person.  IMADR is the International Movement against All Forms of Discrimination and Racism.

December 27  - "... I would like you to pass this message urgently.  We need help material and cash to take care of the emergency relief required after the tidal wave devastations in Sri Lanka. I am hoping to cover Hambathota, Trinchomalee and Jaffna. This does not mean we are neglecting Batticaloa and other areas. But the devastation [is] too much that we cannot cope with the situation.

I have just come back from few camps operating in and around Colombo to take care of the displaced from Moratuwa and Modera areas.

Some supplies like medicines, pillows and mats were provided as IMADR intervened immediately with some help for me.

Those in Sri Lanka can bring in the stuff to our office at:

19 1/1 Siri Damma Mawatha - Colombo 10
Sri Lanka ( near Punchi-Borella Junction)
Tel:  2672586 /5365100

Cash etc could be sent to:
IMADR - Standard Chartered Bank
a/c 111 421 7801
FORT - COLOMBO, Sri Lanka

Your contributions would be acknowledged and receipts issued and reports sent about our interventions.

Those who wish to join me in Sri Lanka can contact me. We are off to Hambanthota by 8.00am on 29th December and hope to be back on the same day or day after.

Another visit to Trincho will take place next week.

Tsunamis Claim over 20.000 Lives So. Asia to E. Africa; Toll Still Rising

At least 100 Fishermen Lost in Somalia

"Death toll from Asian quake tops 23 300 "

Agence France Press AFP

http://iafrica.com/news/worldnews/400727.htm
Posted Mon, 27 Dec 2004

The death toll in from an earthquake off Indonesia and tidal waves that it unleashed passed 23 300 on Monday with officials in nine countries reporting deaths.

The toll soared as the military and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka reported that nearly 11 000 people, including 70 foreigners, had been killed in Sunday's disaster.

Almost 6600 people were reported killed in southern India with more victims expected, officials said. Among them were some 3000 in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, close to the epicentre of the quake, and 2790 in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, according to police.

In Indonesia, more than 4725 people were killed as the country took the full force of the huge earthquake and tidal waves that swallowed entire coastal villages.

More than 860 people were killed and at least 7300 injured by tidal waves in southern Thailand, including foreign tourists at famous seaside resorts, the interior ministry said. Some 1200 are missing.

In Malaysia 51 people, including many elderly and children, were killed, officials said.

At least two British holidaymakers and 41 others were killed while another 63 were missing in the tourist paradise of the Maldives, officials said.

At least 56 people were killed in Myanmar [Burma] and the toll was expected to rise substantially.

In Bangladesh a father and child were killed after a tourist boat capsized from large waves, local officials said.

Fatalities also occurred on the east coast of Africa, with 100 fishermen declared dead in Somalia.

The US Geological Survey said the earthquake registered west of the Indonesian island of Sumatra measured 9.0 on the Richter scale.

Death toll:
Sri Lanka: 10 897
India: 6597
Indonesia: 4725
Thailand: 866
Malaysia: 51
Maldives: 43
Myanmar: 56
Bangladesh: 2
Somalia 100
Total: 23 337

AFP

Please Donate Now: Earthquake Emergency

Donate here to International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies - You may designate where you want your donations to go.

ReliefWeb information on the Asia earthquake and tsunamis.

"Sea Surges Reach East African Coast", BBC 26 Dec 2004.

Waverly Person: A Black American Explains Earthquakes to the World

Yesterday on BBC tv (Britain) I heard Waverly Person of the USGS interviewed by phone. He was explaining this horrific, history making earthquake and as I heard the voice I realised... he's Black American. So I looked him up, virtually. Here's Mr. Person's bio on The HistoryMakers, an outstanding website about Black Americans & that part of U.S. history and society so often missing from widespread, ethnically cleansed, accounts of 'who' Americans really are and what we're about. I'm very proud of Black American people, who we are, what we share with other peoples, and what we've managed to overcome. There's still more to do.

"Geophysicist and seismologist Waverly J. Person was born on May 1, 1927, in Blackenridge, Virginia, to Bessie Butts and Santee Person, a farmer. He now serves as the director of the U.S. Geological Survey's National Earthquake Information Center, the first African American to do so.

After completing his B.S. at St. Paul's College in Lawrenceville, Virginia, in 1949, Person joined the U.S. Army. When he was honorably discharged in 1952, Person received Good Conduct and Asian Pacific medals. Person married Sarah Walker in 1954 and relocated to Washington, D.C., where he performed a series of odd jobs. In 1962, he obtained a position with the National Earthquake Information Center, which monitors tremors worldwide, locates earthquakes and dispatches emergency crews. Person was intrigued by the readings on the rolls he was assigned to maintain, and began to study the field. He continued to work as a technician while simultaneously studying at American University and George Washington University until 1973. Upon earning the qualifications of a geophysicist, he transferred to Colorado. In 1977, Person was named director of the Colorado National Earthquake Information Center and is often sought out by national and international media as an earthquake spokesperson. [cont'd]