TSUNAMI VICTIM REPORTEDLY FOUND ALIVE AFTER 7 YEARS?
In these satellite images provided by Space Imaging, the Indonesian province of Aceh is shown before the tsunami attack on Jan. 10, 2003, left, and after the tsunami struck Dec. 29, 2004, right. (AP)
JAKARTA, Indonesia - In 2004, a tsunami devastated Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia and eleven other countries, killing more than 216,000 people. The vast majority of those deaths struck Indonesia, which lost an estimated 131,000. Seven years later, though, one of those people may have been found alive.
The Thai news site MCOT.net reports that a 15-year-old girl thought to have been killed in the tsunami was reunited with her family Wednesday.
Source: AgencyThe Thai news site MCOT.net reports that a 15-year-old girl thought to have been killed in the tsunami was reunited with her family Wednesday.
- The Washington Post cannot independently verify the report, but the Indonesian state news agency that first reported the news said the girl goes by the name Wati and that she made her way back home, only remembering that her grandfather went by the name Ibrahim.
- She was 8 years old when the tsunami hit her village in West Aceh. Her mother lost her grip on Wati while trying to get to higher ground. Waters swept the girl away and her family assumed she had died. It is not known what happened to the girl in the past seven years.
JAPAN TSUNAMI CAUSES PHILIPINES MASSIVE COASTAL RESIDENTS EVACUATION
MANILA, Philippine - Following a warning that tsunami would occur simultaneously in 19 provinces on the eastern side of the Philippines that face the Pacific Ocean, a massive evacuation of coastal residents from northern Luzon to the southern Philippines began Friday.Alert level two has been raised in 19 provinces from northern Luzon to the southern Philippines. Tsunami on the entire length of the country's east coast facing the Pacific Ocean could occur between 5 p.m. and 7 p.m.
"Do not be hard-headed," said Philippine President Benigno Aquino from Singapore, adding that residents should obey the orders of local government and disaster officials to leave coastal areas and stay away more than 10 metres from the shore.- Aquino convened a disaster management meeting through a teleconference from his hotel room in Singapore's Shangri-la Hotel.
The endangered Philippine provinces that face the Pacific Ocean were identified as Batanes Group of Islands, Cagayan, Ilocos Norte, and Isabela, in northern Luzon; Quezon and Aurora, in southern Luzon; Camarines Norte, Camarines Sur, Albay, Catanduanes, and Sorsogon in southern Luzon's Bicol Region; Northern Samar, Eastern Samar, Leyte, Southern Leyte, Surigao del Norte, and Surigao del Sur in central Philippines; Davao Oriental, and Davao del Sur in the southern Philippines, Solidum said.
More than 20 villages in each of the provinces mentioned could be hit by tsunami, and displace about a million people, said National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) head Benito Ramos.- Fishermen were told not to go to the sea. Seaports prevented sea voyages. Small boats were brought inland. But big ships were secured on the ports, said Ramos, adding that local government officials and the NDRRMC jointly prepared for simultaneous tsunami on 19 Philippine provinces.
- Local government officials have brought out amphibian boats to prepare for rescue operations after the occurrence of tsunami, Ramos said.
Local government officials began coordinating with local government officials in other countries where tsunami was scheduled to occur before hitting the Philippines.Guam, Taiwan, the Marshall Islands, the Marianas Islands, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, Nauru, Micronesia, Hawaii, and Russia were also placed under tsunami watch, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said.
34 KILLED AS QUAKE TRIGGERS TSUNAMI IN AMERICAN SAMOA
PAGO PAGO, American Samoa – A powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake spawned towering tsunami waves that swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa early Tuesday, flattening villages, killing at least 34 people and leaving dozens of workers missing at devastated National Park Service facilities.
Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later.
Hampered by power and communications outages, officials struggled to assess the casualties and damage.
The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn about 20 miles below the ocean floor, 120 miles (190 kilometers) from American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people, and 125 miles (200 kilometers) from Samoa.
Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet high roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile inland.
Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, Calif., said Reynolds spoke to officials from under a coconut tree uphill from Pago Pago Harbor and reported that the park's visitor center and offices appeared to have been destroyed.
Source: AP
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