I wanted to just send my condolences to our fellow Café members living or vacationing in the areas affected by Sunday morning's devistation in the South Pacific.

My heart goes out to you all.

Brian Proctor

Same here....Here is a link to share what has happen over there.

http://www.cnn.com/2004/WORLD/asiapcf/12......dex.html

The best to all of you and your family's

Michael

I'll echo that Brian,

There was a program on TV not so long ago about these disasters waiting to happen. You guys on the East coast of USA watchout !

http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2000/mega_tsunami.shtml


Howard

What a sad day for humanity. This reminds us that we are nothing next to Nature. My heart goes out to all those families, especially the poorer ones (most of the victims) touched forever by this mega tragedy.

José

My thoughts and prayers are with those people effected by this disaster. We have members of The Café from some of those areas. I hope they and they are all. I wish we could hear from some of them and get an update.

Regan

It is truly a sad day for the millions of people it has affected.

30,000 people dead - more than half of them children acording to the Red Cross.
10 countries hit
13 other countries have missing tourist whom were vacationing in many of those places.

I hope the world comes to the assistance of the countries in need and people from all over will send money to help.

I feel very sad for all of the losses. Today, a co-worker joked...."Well, that's Mother Nature's way of population control". Shortly after that statement he was very unpopular for the day. My prayers are with all!

This is the sddest disaster after I was born. 'Tsunami' is an English but its origin is Japanese word. Japan has suffered so many earthquakes and Tsunami, but we never had such a big earthquake and Tsunami.

Stop the war, don't kill each other. The earth is angry!

Hideo Kato

I've heard these comments over the years too friend from San Diego; i.e. "aids is God's wrath for uncleanliness" etc. They are attention grabbers and encourage base instincts.

If you have true feelings towards the human (and other species) race though, you cannot fail to be moved by disasters of this kind.

The death toll is partly man's fault, as other Oceans are monitored for activity, but apparently not this area. Just a couple of hours warning could have saved so many lives. But the event happened with horrendous consequences. Let's not forget the Iranian quake too, was it around the same time last year?

I sometimes feel the human race cannot control itself, let alone the planet Earth.

Tony.

This is a sad event. My feelings go out to those affected.
I was shocked at the extent of the damage. Please bear in mind that as tsunami go this one was quite small.
Americans, please read this...
http://www.cdnn.info/article/tsunami/tsunami.html
a small section...
The eruption of a volcano in the Canary Islands could trigger a ''mega-tsunami'' that would devastate Atlantic coastlines with waves as high as 330 feet, scientists said on Wednesday.

(this is quite old information)

Thanks Partizan! As a frequent visitor to Lanzarote we may even eventually retire there one day!

Seriously though, yes, the volcanic activity is still active in Lanzarote! Visit Timanfaya National Park. Wear good shoes though as you can still feel the heat on the ground! Have a ride on a camel while you are there . . .

http://www.mma.es/parques/lared/timan/

Tony.

As I type this the BBC News is coming up with revised death toll numbers. This is just awful!

Tony - unfortunately, noone is prepared to spend the billions of dollars need to protect every stretch of coast line with early warning systems.

This disastor WAS predicted but no one knew who to call. How do you evacute dozens of countries and millions of people with just a few hours notice?

Actually it was about 20 mins notice in some places and max of 2.5 hours in others...

It is ashame. The death rate has went up to 116,000 now....so hard to believe. I wish the best for those that are left over there.

Michael

I believe India is now prepared to spend money on the latest 'pressure sensitive' ocean bottom devices from the USA.

My cousin was in Thailand when it happened, quite close to the beach. She got washed away amongst the debris, but thankfully is alive and in a hospital. She haven´t seen her classmates since it happened. I´ve been crying most of the day today, as have my co-workers. The scale of this is just so hard to understand.

I´m praying for everyone affected by the event, and especially the ones lost in it.

Just terrible what happened and everybody if they can should donate to help rebuild and feed the thousands that are left homeless.
Has to be one of the worst disasters to happen that could have been prevented and saved many lives if they would have put in a warning system.
Whatever country you live in give whatever you can to help these people that are going through a terrible time with all the lost lives of loved ones.

MV I'm sorry to hear what happened to your cousin.

TheHawk you are absolutely right as Michael stated at the beginning of this post. What ever you can afford - every bit helps. You can skip coffee at Starbucks for a few days, forgo buying that new pair of shoes or clothing, anything that is not as of importance to you as the ability that your few dollars can make a huge difference.

Buy only one less trick and donate that to this people. I think whatever low amount is better then nothing.

Heartbreaking beyond belief. Do we know if any Café members are affected or missing?