First-Hand Account of the Great Indian Ocean Earthquake

An e-mail from a mate of mine (we worked together on FedSat) :

Hi Everyone,

This is a picture of the beach near home ... see The Hindu for newspaper article.



From left, there is the main road. You see the little horizontal road near the bottom of the picture going from the main road onto the brown beach road. Yukta and I every day drive our car into that section (now under water) and park there while walking along the water's edge on the far right of the picture.

In the brown car park section that is now under water, there were cars picked up and thrown over the fence separating it from the main road.

Last night Yukta and I were walking there with a friend, laughing and chatting and playing fools in the soft sand enjoying the breeze.

I had planned to go walking on the beach with Yukta's father this morning at about 7am while Yukta and her mother went to gym, but we cancelled because Yukta's mother felt like relaxing instead of going. Wave came at 6:45am.

Yukta's parents felt the earthquake this morning ... they said it felt as though the bed was on a swing for 5-7 seconds. Hehe, I was waaay to fast asleep.

The wave(s) that came were 4-5 m high. If they could pick up those cars and throw them over the fence, we wouldn't have had a chance.

Lots of fishermen live on the beach with their wives and babies in tiny little tents they make from branches and cloth. Their heavy canoe-like boats rest on logs just at the water line and you can walk past them watching them take little fish from their nets. These people would have been washed away, as well as at least the 50 reported morning-walkers. Estimates for total deaths on this beach is at least 100.

Catchya later,

Ben

More details on the situation over at The Command Post. Sometimes I hate reporting stories, and this is one of them. Thousands dead so far, and I'm still very concerned about the lack of reports from Bangladesh.

UPDATE: We appear to have dodged the bullet in Bangladesh. And a welcome to Instapundit and Grand Technical Station readers. Rather than the traditional "Please feel free to have a look around", may I suggest you have a look over at The Command Post for a list of methods you can use to actually help out in this disaster. And that you return to have a look at this blog in happier times.