tsunami – a year ago

“The Dec. 26 earthquake off the coast of Sumatera had a magnitude of 9.3, making it the second most powerful earthquake ever recorded, surpassed only by a 9.5 monster in Chile in 1960. It wrenched up the sea floor along a 1,200km line, unleashing waves that towered up to 15m.”
(excerpts taken from the star paper dated 25 dec. 2005)

26 dec. 2004 – exactly a year ago – who can forget that day when water and earth combined to become such a deadly force. yes, the earthquake that occured in the sea off sumatera, indonesia, resulted in a tsunami that rocked through 12 nations. over 200,000 people were killed, and massive destruction abound.

in our country, the northern states of kedah and penang were affected. 68 lives were lost.

a year has passed but i’m sure the memories still linger on for the victims. sure they can’t forget how they lost their loved ones. sure they can’t forget how they escaped the mighty awful waves that leapt at them… but lives goes on. i’m sure they are trying to come in term with the tragedy by now. i’m glad to notice that there is an asian tsunami memorial website.

what had the tsunami tragedy shown to me? firstly, that the force of nature can be very deadly. secondly, that lives can be so fragile. one minute you were sitting by the seaside enjoying the food, and next minute, you will be gone. finally – but this is the good part – that there were so many kind-hearted people around who were willing to help the victims in any way they could – offering their service, donating clothes or cash and so on.

i remember in penang, particularly the buddhist tzu chi group were quick to respond to the victims. just several hours after the tragedy occured, they were there to offer food to the victims. and they, plus several other christian groups, were also on hand to offer to clear the debris of the victims’ houses.

me seen at one of the houses wrecked by the tsunami, helping to clear the debris. some other pictures can be found on my previous post about the cleaning up, or you can find all pictures from my online album.

i am glad to say that i was involved too. (if you are observant, you will notice that i had proudly display the links about my tsunami involvement at the left column permenantly – am going to take it down now). under the penang office of human development (POHD), 3 days after the tragedy, i was at tanjung tokong, penang, to help clean up a few houses. later on i also helped in the packing of clothes and food. right in the premise of our own office, we held a memorial service for the victims. the POHD office also helped the fishermen to buy new boats and nets. many people were involved in the this tsunami relief effort organised by POHD. POHD acknowledged their effort through a thank you dinner.

it seemed that from 26 dec. 2004 to around feb. 2005, when i blog about the tsunami and our relief effort, traffic to my blog rose sky-high! i guess at that time many people were searching for stuffs on tsunami to read. (gosh. if only at that time i have google adsense on, how wonderful… sure attract clicks. hint, readers, hint!.) the best part was that my blog about the relief effort was picked up by singapore straitstimes, and for the first time i was mentioned in a major paper!

yesterday, many of the local dailies had highlighted on the anniversary of the tsunami. the star had a special supplment. sun2surf have many interesting good pictures. the new straits times reported on the details of the tsunami donations. a good read. this reminds me that once i blog about the tsunami aid (donations) not reaching the grassroot, and later on (around june this year) about the ACA going to probe on the allegations of mis-use of the tsunami relief fund. did they ever do that? don’t think so!

in the beginning of dec. i had blog about some prediction that there will be another tsunami coming soon. i hope the prediction is wrong… but if it is accurate, i hope the authorities now knows better and have proper warning system to alert people. we don’t want a similiar tragedy of 26 dec. 2004 to occur, don’t we. well, there was a report that said malaysia and indonesia will spend RM19 mil. for a national early warning system sometime early next year. hopefully, this would materialise.