As many of you may have heard, there was massive earthquake of the coast of Indonesia which spawned a Tsunami. Over 20,000 people are dead and over 250,000 are homeless in 10 countries.
I have many family members who live in Madras, India, one of the worst hit cities. Luckily they are all safe, but the same cannot be said for many of their friends.
For those who are interested in helping, here’s a list of international aid organizations who are taking donations to help with the rescue and relief operation.
its a tragedy isn’t it? i couldn’t formulate any thought after i first read that article… as my mind kinda went numb. i have a close friend from school who lost his grandparents in India.
please if you haven’t done so already, read up on what happened, the CNN article is good, and there are plenty of other articles everywhere right now. ALSO, if you can, lets lend a helping hand… they’re asking for basically the basics right now (not just money), such as CLOTHES and CANNED GOODS.
thanks Karthik for bringing up this recent happening.
Madras is my home town, and I know over 100 people over there. As of yet, I havent heard from all of them, but all I can do is pray for their[and the people affected by this tragedy] well-being. Some of them lived by the sea, and no news from them yet.
I have been following the BBC news, etc. from the very beginning. All of it is unbelievably tragic. My prayers and wishes out to all of you, and all of those many miles away from us here.
I am from further north Hyderabad, but I have friends and some relatives that live in Madras. I have been there a few times, I will never forget that place.
This is a time when we need to come together and help our brothers and sisters in south east Asia.
Now would be a good time to release a water purification system to fight the disease that will soon come with the destruction and devastation the Earthquake/Tsunami caused the water utilities in the countries affected…
The article I read this morning also talked about 5 million people in need of assistance. (injuries, physical displacement of houses, water supplies, electricity disrupted, etc…)
Just to put things in perspective, 100,000 people would be every single person in the city of Nashua, NH where Team811 comes from. (my First team)
To put the 5 millin people affected in perdpective, the entire state of NH has a little over 1 million people. (Massachusetts has only 10 million people total…if I recall, California has something like 35 million…roughtly 14% of California population)
I know that First is not a disaster relief organization, but each of us and our teams might think of organizing some sort of small effort together with our local help organizations. (Red Cross, Religious Aid groups, etc…)
Now would be a good time to release a water purification system to fight the disease that will soon come with the destruction and devastation the Earthquake/Tsunami caused the water utilities in the countries affected…
Don’t worry. I was watching the news and aparently they are sending a water purification system out all ready. You put a packet into contaminated water and mix it a bit. Then you wait for the silt to settle out and then you have fresh water.
Did anyone see the latest first-person POV footage of it on MSNBC’s COUNTDOWN: w/Keith Olberman last night? It could probably help describe how horrific it was.
I couldn’t find it on Olbermann’s blog, but if you do find it on the web, please post.
A couple of my co-workers I deal with on a daily basis are stationed in both Thailand and Malaysia. I don’t return to work until 3 Jan, 2005 and I haven’t heard from them or any of my immediate co-workers in Indy.
Dean Kamen should send over that invention that purifies water and generates electricity. It would seem to be the best time to launch his product and gain world recognition.
I also have relatives in Madras, luckily they are alright. The death toll is horrible, but what is really scary is the hundreds of thousands (at the least) of displaced fisherman who lost their means of feeding their families. A lot of organizations are working to provide tamilian fisherman who survived with boats. Perhaps consider these organizations when donating money. When I get more info on such groups, I’ll post.
How do I contact Dean Kamen directly? Unfortunately you cannot contact Dean directly. His schedule makes it mpossible for him to read or respond personally to all the correspondence he receives. If you have a question, please send an email to contact@dekaresearch.com and we will forward your message either to him or the appropriate person here at DEKA. Bear in mind that we can’t make any promises regarding confidentiality of e-mail messages or letters.
I have been following this quite closely and the one thing that has stricken me the most is to know that nearly 30% (or at least that was the statistics yesterday) of the causalities have been children. It is indescribably heart-braking to see so many little ones dead and to see parents mourn their children.
I have been reading up articles online and the first thing I go to are the pictures, to me … a picture truly says a 1000 words. And the pictures that have been taken from this tragedy are so impacting that you don’t need to read up on the story to know how terrible this has been.
My mother was just mentioning to me today that we needed to get some basic stuff together and take it to the red cross. I hope that we can all come to the aid of our fellow humans and contribute in some way.
I hope that those who have family and friends in the affected area can hear from them soon. My best wishes and hopes go out to those of you who are still waiting to hear from loved ones.
Enclosed: some chilling pictures of this event.
Warning: Do NOT view if this situation is too emotionally strong for you
You know what is scary is the fact that a tsunami can hit both the west and east coast but not at the same time of course. The east has a volcanoe that can blow resulting in a tsunami while the west has earthquakes. Fortunately the east would have a 9 hour warning before the tsunami hits since it would travel across the atlantic.
I hope that anyone who has relations in those areas will find their friends/family in good condition. I have 2 work cubemates and 1 close friend that went home for holidays; 2 in Sri Lanka, and 1 in Malaysia (or Thailand, he was getting married). I know that my friend is fine, but won’t know about my cubemates until returning to work. I honestly believe they have to be fine.
I can’t even imagine the horror over there, and the death toll keeps rising by huge numbers, now 115,000+. I’ve been watching the non-stop news and it’s just insane; people all over the world are affected, children orphaned, tourists missing, some people buried and never identified. The videos of the waves looked big, but g’s… to cause that degree of destruction…
It never seems to fully affect you until you personally know people in that situation. It makes me mad that some think the US is “stingy”. I hope anyone that is able will consider contributing whatever they can to the relief organizations.
(unconfirmed of course…:rolleyes: )