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Tsunami Satellite Images

Posted by samzenpus on from the wow dept.

JakeisBland writes "Here is a collection of before/after satellite pictures of the devastation in Asia due to the tsunami/earthquake."

15 of 732 comments (clear)

  1. Tsunami by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    This is simply amazing. I think that every so often Mother Nature decides she needs to show everyone who's boss, a sort of bitchslap to bring the nations of the world together; if only for a little while.

  2. one point about the Sri Lankan pictures... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    it's worth noting that the pictures show Kalutara, a town about 25 miles south of Colombo, and situated on the west coast of Sri Lanka, which pretty much escaped major damage and loss of life compared to the the south and eastern coastlines.

    Flooding caused at least 40 deaths in Kalutara, though...

    1. Re:one point about the Sri Lankan pictures... by OffTheLip · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The people of Galle, one of the hard hit areas on the west coast, might take exception to your comment about escaping major damage.

  3. A couple more images by centipetalforce · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage s/images.php3?img_id=16774Very
    http://eobglossary.gsfc.nasa.gov/Newsroom/NewImage s/images.php3Devastating
    If you donated to lokitorrent but not this, I don't know what to say to you...

  4. Re:don't hear too many by oz_canetoad · · Score: 5, Informative

    From the CIA world book on Sri Lanka;

    Buddhist 70%, Hindu 15%, Christian 8%, Muslim 7% (1999)

    I can see why you wouldn't, but continue to play your banjo...

  5. Re:wow by Gentlewhisper · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Current death tolls approaching 130k people.

    If you thought 9/11 was big think again, we are talking about FOUR HUNDRED 9/11s here.

    --
    Online backup with Mozy, sounds like Ozzie, but more!
  6. Helping by gregbaker · · Score: 5, Informative
    Perhaps this would be a good time to donate to the Red Cross? (US, Canadian, others)

    The Canadian one, at least, is a fast online credit-card donation. You can print out your tax receipt right away. (hey, before midnight gets it in for this tax year, right?)

    Or, there are plenty of other organizations that would be happy to receive a donation.

  7. Re:So much for clean water.... by Malc · · Score: 5, Informative

    Have you thought that perhaps most of that discolouration is no more than just sediment such as top soil? It isn't necessarily related to human activity at all.

    If I were there, smell would be the least of my worries. I'd be more concerned about things such as cholera, and other miscellaneous tropical diseases and the general environment that means even a simple scratch can become life threatening.

  8. Rescue efforts update... and some thoughts by asliarun · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Speaking as an Indian, a big heartfelt THANKS for all of you who've empathised with the tragedy and have helped the rescue efforts. It's in trying times like these that one's faith in humanity is restored.

    Thankfully, in spite of Indian bureacracy being well Indian bureaucracy, rescue and rehabilitation efforts are going on VERY effectively. An enormous number of people in India, be it the government, armed forces, or even the common woman/man is pitching in. Most companies here have setup collection boxes and at the very least, we're donating medicines, soaps, toothbrushes, disinfectants, clothes, utensils, non-perishable food items etc. There's also an army of volunteers who's landed in the disaster struck areas with truckloads of donated stuff and are distributing it to the needy.

    Strangely enough, it seems that too many clothes are being donated! A friend of mine is physically helping out with the rescue efforts and he tells me that there's piles and piles of clothes lying around but of little use to anybody. Well, i guess too much help is always better than too little help.

    Another thing that amazes me is the resilience of the common man or woman. Here are people living on the edge of poverty, getting hammered everyday with issues like eking out an existence. Perhaps they've scrounged and saved enough to get their daughters married, hidden a few hundred rupees in a hole in the wall. Perhaps they've just bought a shiny new radio or a bicycle. What do they wake up to? A tsunami that takes away their children, their friends, and everything they own. What do they do? Shrug it off eventually and mark it off as karma, god's will, or god's punishment depending on their religion (no, most poor Indians cannot afford the luxuries of athesim or agnosticism). Then, they take it one day at a time and slowly start rebuilding their lives.

    You want to see miracles, mental strength, and the answer to life, the universe, and everything? You don't have to look far in times like these.

  9. I've said it before and I'll say it again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    WWI: 16-18 million.
    WWII: 40 million.

    On a single day in the American Civil War, approximately 30,000 men were killed.

    Feel free to dispute those figures, they vary from source to source. You'll not escape the orders of magnitude.

    That's what war is like in the age of modern machinery. 9/11 was murder, not war.

    1. Re:I've said it before and I'll say it again by MightyMartian · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Well, the fact remains, that under international law, the attack on the Pentagon was not a legal act of war. It was not preceded by a declaration of war, it was not done by soldiers fighting under a flag, and it involved the intentional killing of civilians.

      I don't have any problem with the US battling terrorism. Battling terrorism is a good thing, even if it isn't a winnable thing. Overthrowing the Taliban was a good thing. They were nothing more than an arm of a much larger international terrorism ring and were only recognized by three countries as the lawful government of Afghanistan anyways.

      Attacking Iraq was a) stupid, b) illegal and c) has mired the US in a mess that no one else wants and it will be pumping money and manpower into for years to come.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  10. Perspective, yes, but not as personal as this: by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The sattelite images show the extent of damage, but remains impersonal. This picture graphically shows the actual devastation and number of deaths..

    http://img145.exs.cx/my.php?loc=img145&image=ruumi ita4ft.jpg

    1. Re:Perspective, yes, but not as personal as this: by madprof · · Score: 5, Insightful

      After seeing this I feel physically revolted.
      Every one of those people could well be someone's brother or sister, or parent....or child....

  11. per capita counts are unusable by klang · · Score: 5, Informative

    Denmark: 300M DKR (USD$55M) at a population of 5.4M .. that's $10,14 per capita ..
    USA: USD$45M at a population of 293M .. that's $0,15 per capita

    both theese sets of numbers are what the Government provides, not what is collected privately. (no taxreductions are given for donations in Denmark)

    I guess that every country will give what it can.

  12. As a Christian Libertarian... by SonicSpike · · Score: 5, Insightful

    As a Christian Libertarian... I half agree with you and halfway don't.

    My faith says that yes, we should help our brother in time of need, however my political philosophy says the government shouldn't be the ones to do it.

    Legally, internationally, politically we are under NO obligation or responsibility to do such - nor should we be. However since we do have an abundence of wealth, I don't see a problem with the government having am emergency aid fund, or even low interest loans for foreign countries in times of crisis. But this should be used rarely and saved for large scale disasters such as this.

    I don't think that the US Gov should dispense money to anyone out there who has a papercut however. The country shouldn't be overly philantropic.

    As a Christian, yes I feel obligated to help anyone who needs help when they do - it is just the right thing to do. I would rather give my money to a private fund that I know, respect, and trust to properly distribute my donations. The government is usually the LAST place to trust in terms of spreading goodwill.

    --
    Libertas in infinitum