BONJOUR L'ESTONIE

A presidential nod

Dr Virachai honoured for helping Estonian victims of the tsunami tragedy

Congratulations to Dr Virachai Techavichit, founder and chairman of the International School of the Regents, on receiving the Order of the Estonian Red Cross from Arnold Rüütel, president of Estonia. The state decoration was awarded to Dr Techavijit for his help in relief work after last year's tsunami in southern Thailand during which three Estonians and nine Finns with Estonian residency lost their lives. As the honorary consul for Estonia in Thailand, Dr Virachai helped to spread information and relocate Estonians from the disaster area. The award-presentation ceremony took place during a recent conference of honorary Estonian consuls in Tallinn, the Estonian capital, an event which is held every two years. According to Dr Virachai, the main feature of the meeting is a formal address by Estonia's president. It was after the conclusion of this speech that Dr Virachai was conferred with his decoration.

During the conference, the honorary consuls also got the opportunity to meet Estonia's prime minister, Andrus Ansip. President Rüütel and Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet organised a reception in honour of the diplomats.

In order to attend the event, Dr Virachai had to miss the annual Round Square conference in Melbourne. (Round Square is an international association of ........

TSUNAMI : Latest news brought to you by the Phuket Gazette

PHUKET CITY : PM Thaksin arrived in Phuket yesterday morning to hear complaints by Phuket residents about the government’s handling of the tsunami disaster.

The meeting, held at the Royal Phuket City Hotel, was attended by some 500 people, including Cabinet ministers and scores of other government officials. The Cabinet ministers reported on the progress of the various relief programs assigned to them, after which local businesspeople and other members of the private sector were allowed to comment.

After the meeting, PM Thaksin told the press that the government would continue to support those whose homes and businesses were damaged or destroyed by the tsunami.

“There is 20,000 baht [available] for each person affected by the tsunami. This is just initial relief funding; we will consider additional support on a case-by-case basis.

“The 20,000 baht may not help all victims fully recover, but it should at least get them back on their own feet,” he said.

http://www.phuketgazette.net

TSUNAMI : now more than 1540 photos

Now with 380 pictures added

AND 280 000 Deads !

Any informations still welcome. Help is still needed and will be through very many years by millions.

Original Caption Released with Image :

Displayed in blue color is the height of sea surface (shown in blue) measured by the Jason satellite two hours after the initial magnitude 9 earthquake hit the region (shown in red) southeast of Sumatra on December 26, 2004. The data were taken by a radar altimeter onboard the satellite along a track traversing the Indian Ocean when the tsunami waves had just filled the entire Bay of Bengal (see the model simulation inset image). The data shown are the changes of sea surface height from previous observations made along the same track 20-30 days before the earthquake, reflecting the signals of the tsunami waves.

The maximum height of the leading wave crest was about 50 cm (or 1.6 ft), followed by a trough of sea surface depression of 40 cm. The directions of wave propagation along the satellite track are shown by the blue arrows.

Model Simulation :
Simulated changes of sea surface height caused by the earthquake two hours after the initial shock. The simulation was performed using a computer model and provided for public access via internet by Kenji Satake, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan (http://www.ioc.unesco.org/itsu/templates/itsu/images/animation.gif). Wave crests are shown in red and troughs in blue. The track traversed by the Jason satellite was also shown. The simulated crests and troughs along the track are in agreement with the satellite observations. The map provides a basin-wide perspective for interpreting the satellite observations along a single track.

Image Credit :

NASA/JPL/CNES/National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Japan

Larger Image : .tif

Tsunami : Jack Straw meeting survivors in Phuket

Some dead may never be identified

PHUKET : British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said today that identification of tsunami victims may take months and, in some cases, identification may never be possible.

Mr Straw was speaking during a visit to Phuket, where he met tsunami survivors and relatives of some of the thousands killed by the tsunami.

He said the tsunami had claimed the lives of at least 49 Britons in Thailand, with a further 391 still missing.

He added that had spoken with British forensic experts who had helped identify victims of the bombing of PanAm flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988, and of the 2002 Bali bombing, and that they had stressed the difficulty of identifying the thousands of tsunami victims in Thailand.

He said, “There are many hundreds of dead in the mortuary areas. It is impossible to tell the country of origin of most of those poor people …

“Some victims may never, ever be identified and my heart goes out to all those who face this terrible and, I fear, continuing ordeal... [of not having the death of a loved one confirmed].

“The agony of long uncertainty for many families, and the scale of the effort still required, is totally daunting.”

British forensic experts have joined colleagues from 29 other countries in the attempt to identify as many of the dead as possible. At the same time, the Thai government is to send DNA samples from 2,500 corpses to China for analysis.

Mr Straw also said he is unable to alter the British Government’s advice to tourists not to travel to Phuket until he has spoken with other members of the British Cabinet.

Oddly the Foreign & Commonwealth Office (FCO) today amended its website advisory to reflect reality with much greater ac curacy, bringing sighs of relief from those who had been grinding their teeth at the its earlier assertions that Phuket’s infrastructure and public services had been "severely disrupted".

Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who escorted Mr Straw on his visit to Phuket, said it was intended to take DNA samples from unidentified bodies, then microchip the bodies to aid identification later.

The Prime Minister told the press conference at the rescue center at Phuket Provincial Hall that good preparations were being made to improve tsunami-damaged Patong and Kamala.

“The recovery is going well, better than I expected,” he said.

Info for the UNITED KINGDOM :

Brought to you by:
The Phuket Gazette
19:01 local time (GMT +7) 07-01-2005

Tsunami : 100's of Foreigners Killed

By The Associated Press (Florida) 05-01-2005 (5.46pm)

Please do not that the numbers of "missing" persons greatly vary, since some takes all into account, others only those people who have been known to "have desappeared". For exemple, for France, one has to add an extra 250 (not mentioned here) who still haven't given any news !

Tally of foreigners confirmed dead from the quake and tsunami throughout southern Asia, according to their countries' foreign ministries, as well as the number missing (Some countries include all tourists who have failed to contact authorities in the count of those missing, while others count only those known to have been present when the tsunami hit) :

- Germany: 60 dead. More than 1,000 missing.

- Sweden: 52 dead. 1,903 missing.

- Britain: 41 dead. 159 missing.

- United States: 36 dead. No clear estimate of missing.

- Switzerland: 23 dead. 500 missing.

- Japan: 23 dead, More than 240 missing.

- France: 22 dead. Fewer than 90 missing.

- Italy: 20 dead. 338 missing.

- Finland: 15 dead, 177 missing.

- Australia: 15 dead. 78 missing.

- Norway: 12 dead. 80 missing.

- South Korea: 11 dead.

- Austria: 10 dead. 591 missing.

- Russia: 10 dead. 16 missing.

- South Africa: 9 dead. 891 missing.

- Singapore: 9 dead.

- Denmark: 7 dead. 62 missing, another 100 unaccounted for.

- Netherlands: 7 dead. More than 30 missing.

- Belgium: 6 dead. 73 missing.

- Canada: 5 dead. Up to 150 missing.

- Philippines: 5 dead. 13 missing.

- Israel: 4 dead. 3 missing.

- China: 3 dead. 15 missing.

- Taiwan: 3 dead.

- New Zealand: 2 dead. 24 missing.

- Argentina: 2 dead.

- Brazil: 2 dead.

- Mexico: 2 dead. 1 missing.

- Czech Republic: 1 dead. 16 missing.

- Ireland: 1 dead. 16 missing.

- Turkey: 1 dead. 9 missing.

- Colombia: 1 dead.

- Chile: 1 dead.

- Poland: 21 missing.

- Ukraine: 17 missing.

- Portugal: 8 missing.

- Romania: 8 missing.

- Greece: 7 missing.

- Belarus: 5 missing.

- Hungary: 5 missing.

- Spain: 3 missing.

- Luxembourg: 3 missing.

- Estonia: 3 missing.

- Latvia: 1 missing.

- Croatia: 1 missing.

Baltimaad koonduvad tsunaamihäda leevendamiseks

Balts rally to alleviate Asian tsunami disaster

TALLINN - Three Estonians and one Latvian remain missing as a result of the devastating tsunami caused by an earthquake in southeastern Asia on Dec. 26, while all three Baltic countries have joined the global community in gathering financial support and carrying out relief operations.

Foreign ministry as well as relatives of three missing Estonians in Thailand are doing everything to receive information on the possible situation of the missing persons.

However there is still no information on missing Estonians and also Finns who were living in Estonia. The remaining Estonians but these three- two men and a woman returned safely home.

Special Estonian identification team of 15 members will be flying to Thailand in order to assist in search and rescue attempts. Estonian search and rescue team will also transport 5,5 tons of supplies.

Tsunami : More pictures

More Pictures links

During and after the wave

Wednesday 29th of December

Thursday 30th of December

Friday 31st of December

Saturday 1st of January

Tsunami : Videos

Mirror site clicks :

Koh-Lanta (download)

Penang

Phuket

Patong (Be patient with this one which takes a little longer to come)

Sri Lanka 1

Sri Lanka 2

Tsunami : Photo albums - 1540 pictures

Tsunami Disaster Photos of the devastation caused by a tsunami that obliterated seaside towns in Asia and Africa, killing tens of thousands of people in nine countries. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/27/2004 11:04:04 AM Album Count:  468 pictures Total Count:  468 pictures

Tsunami Survivors Images of survivors of the tsunami disasters. Changed:  12/29/2004 10:05:12 AM Album Count:  83 pictures Total Count:  83 pictures

Tsunami loss of life Images of the loss of life due to the tsunami disaster. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/29/2004 10:09:09 AM Album Count:  50 pictures Total Count:  50 pictures

Tsunami rescue efforts Images of the rescue efforts from the tsunami disaster. Changed:  12/29/2004 10:16:15 AM Album Count:  176 pictures Total Count:  176 pictures

Tsunami disaster aerial shots Aerial images of tsunami disaster. Changed:  12/29/2004 11:00:30 AM Album Count:  42 pictures Total Count:  42 pictures

Tsunami devastation photos Images of devastation and destruction caused by tsunamis in Asia. Changed:  12/29/2004 11:01:15 AM Album Count:  97 pictures Total Count:  97 pictures

Malaysia Images from Malaysia of the tsunami/earthquake devastaion including rescue efforts and survivors. Changed:  12/31/2004 10:29:35 AM Album Count:  26 pictures Total Count:  26 pictures

Sri Lanka Photos of the devastation caused by a tsunami in Sri Lanka. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/29/2004 12:11:59 PM Album Count:  138 pictures Total Count:  138 pictures

India Photos of the devastation caused by a tsunami in India. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/29/2004 12:11:40 PM Album Count:  128 pictures Total Count:  128 pictures

Indonesia Photos of the devastation caused by a tsunami in Indonesia. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/29/2004 12:11:18 PM Album Count:  143 pictures Total Count:  143 pictures

Tsunami grief Images of the grief, anguish and mourning caused by the tsunami in Asia. Changed:  12/29/2004 11:54:32 AM Album Count:  41 pictures Total Count:  41 pictures

Thailand Photos of the tsunami devastation in Thailand. EDITOR'S NOTE: Some photos contain graphic images. Changed:  12/29/2004 11:27:44 AM Album Count:  152 pictures Total Count:  152 pictures

Tsunami : Lists of Victims

As I annouced it on December the 30th, the toll has last night reached the 145 000 ....

Short list of websites indexing victims in Thaïland

Searches :

http://www.phuketitcity.com/

http://203.151.217.23/phuket/

http://ems.narenthorn.or.th/

http://203.151.217.23/phuket/listbycountry.php

http://sa.ipied.tu.ac.th/tsunami/sresearch.php

Foreign Embassies in Phuket :

http://www.mfa.go.th/tsunami/embassy-eng.doc

Lists of Victims (deads, injured) and missing persons :

http://www.dulwich.ac.th/tsunami.asp

http://www.phuketgazette.com/classifieds/show.asp?TypeQuery=7&page=1&limit=75&ref=200513124148

http://203.113.86.240/phuket/listbycountry.php

http://www.thaichicago.net/tsunami/alien/

http://www.helsinginsanomat.fi/english/article/1101978129821

http://phukethospital.nineweb.co.th/news_phang-nga_hospital_injured.html

http://www.p-h-u-k-e-t.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4913

http://wwwrno.moph.go.th/

http://www.vachiraphuket.go.th/

http://www.missingpersons.or.th/index.en.html

http://www.p-h-u-k-e-t.com/forum/index.php?showtopic=4743

http://www.thaitsunami.com/wps/portal/

http://www.vachiraphuket.go.th/26122547/listall.html

http://hospital.moph.go.th/krabi/tsunami/missing_people.htm

http://hospital.moph.go.th/krabi/tsunami/tsunami__patient1.htm

http://thorntree.lonelyplanet.com/categories.cfm?catid=68

http://tsunamihelp.blogspot.com/

http://findthem.lk/dataentry.htm

Download : Download pangnga_hospital.xls

Lists of Survivors :

http://www.police.go.th/namelist.htm

316 Pictures of the disaster :

http://gallery.phillyburbs.com/albums/Tsunami+Disaster.aspx?page=1

Tsunami : JULIJA BERESOVSKA is Missing

Has any at all got any news, whatsoever, of my very dear friend JULIJA BERESOVSKA, aged 27, who was declared missing on December 27th at Phuket - Thaïland.

JULIYA was from IRKUTSK. She had moved to her aunty in Belarus some 5 years ago to be nearer the West. Lately, she was living in Latvia.

She had studied languages and was fluent in French and English.

Please, give us news.

Helmut Kohl: «See oli nagu pärast pommirünnakut.»

31. detsember 2004

Endine Saksamaa liidukantsler Helmut Kohl , kes pääses Sri Lankas napilt eluga, kui hiidlained tema hotelli nahutasid, võrdles ajalehele Bild antud intervjuus tsunami laastamistööd Teise maailmasõja purustustega.

Reuters/BNS/SLÕL 

«Mulle meenusid noorukieas üleelatud sõjakoledused. Hotelli ümbrus nägi välja nagu pärast rasket pommirünnakut,» ütles Kohl, kes nägi hiidlainete pealetungi pühapäeva hommikul Thalpe kuurordis hotelli Paragon kolmanda korruse rõdult.

«Me ei saanud alguses aru, et lainel on selline purustusjõud,» seletas 74aastane Kohl. «Alles siis, kui nägime, et hotelli esimene ja teine korrus on üleni vee all, mõistsime katastroofi ulatust. Hotelli ümbruses on kõik purustatud ja ka meie hotell sai kõvasti kannatada.»

Aastatel 1982-1998 Saksamaa liidukantsleri ametit pidanud Kohl sõitis enne jõulupühi koos sõpradega Sri Lankale, et teha läbi ajurveda kuur.

Enda sõnul soovis endine liidukantsler pärast tsunamit hotelli jääda. Ükski seal elanud 50-60 šveitslasest ja sakslasest surma ei saanud.

«Me otsustasime jääda. Ma ei tahtnud minema joosta. Ma pidasin oluliseks kohale jääda ja püüda abi organiseerida. Aga kui kaks päeva ei olnud elektrit ega vett, soovitati meil lahkuda,» rääkis Kohl.

Eksliidukantsler ja tema hotellikaaslased toimetati Thalpest ühte Colombo lähedal asuvasse hotelli. Kohli sõnul otsustas ta jääda esialgu Sri Lankasse, näitamaks, et elu läheb edasi ja sellel saareriigil on endiselt olemas tulevik.

Hiidlainete alla jäi Tallinna lennukikapteni pere

31. detsember 2004

Hiidlainete rüüstatud Khao Laki kuurordis Tais on kadunud Tallinna lennukikapteni Matti Aho pere. Üleeile oli Finnairi Eesti tütarfirmas Aero töötava pereisa 45. sünnipäev.

Tõnis Erilaid

Ahode kolme lapse - Petra, Panu ja Paula - passid ja Eesti ID-kaardid leiti Khao Laki rannast. Pere oli elanud Khao Lakis turismifirma Finnmatkat Blue Village puhkusekülas, millest pärast hiidlainete rünnakut midagi järele ei jäänud.

Neljalapselise pere kaks last - Pauliina ja Petra - olid ravil Bangkoki haiglas ja tuuakse täna lennukiga Soome. Isa Matti, ema Päivi, nelja-aastase Panu ja seitsmeaastase Paula kohta seni teateid pole, kuigi neid otsivad nii Soome Punane Rist kui ka Tallinnas soome koolis käiva Pauliina klassikaaslase isa, kirjutab eilne Ilta-Sanomat.

«Lootus elab ikka veel,» märgib ajaleht.

Remember them during the New Year !

TSUNAMI-South Asia-December 26th, 2004

New Year's falls just at the darkest hours,
Even as the sun lies sick and dying.
When the darkness turns hope starts anew,
Year by year a lesson ever true,
Each of us the bitter cold defying.
All my life I want to be with you,
Restoring year by new year what is ours.

New years are a chance for a beginning
Even when there hasn't been an end.
Wheels turn in an interminable bend,
Yet, marked in one spot, seem to wobble spinning.
Each year we hope to do a little better
Although we know that really nothing's changed.
Reason thinks that everything's arranged,
So we must dream if we would fate unfetter.

Happy New Year! To those who will have none,
A wish that knows too well it cannot be.
Perhaps one ought not wish so futilely;
Perhaps one ought, that such not be alone.
Yearning is the price one pays for hope,
Nor can one hope unless one would endure.
Each futile wish makes paradise more sure,
Widening the world's supernal scope.
Yet there are those who find such wishes cheap,
Easy substitutes for sacrifice.
A wish for good is more than merely nice,
Restoring winds that stir the unguent deep.

How sad, the year just passed! A year the past
Arose like smoke from deep beneath the rubble,
Pouring up through fissures in the heart,
Perhaps our own as much as those of others.
Year of hatred writhing in raw pain,
Near mad with certainty arrayed in faith,
Each aggrieved alight with righteous anger,
Whirlwinds swirling through their swathes of rage.
Yet let us in the new year look for justice,
Ever the rock on which to live in peace,
Administered with love for every soul,
Regarding every evil as our own.

Tsunami (a Japanese word meaning harbor wave) are gravity waves generated by large disturbances of the sea floor caused by volcanic eruptions, landslides or earthquakes. Shallow earthquakes along dip slip faults are more likely to be sources of tsunami than those along strike slip faults. In deep water tsunami travel at approximately 0.2 km/sec as compared to 5-10 km/sec for P waves and S waves.

Thus, approaching tsunami can be detected by sea floor pressure gauges which measure the height of the water column above the gauge. Tsunami warning systems consist of networks of such gauges connected to a control center.

A scale of magnitude for tsunami, similar to the Richter Magnitude scale for earthquakes, is based on logarithm of wave height corrected for distance from the source. The first motion (up-crest or down-trough) can be used to determine direction of sea floor displacement in the source area.

Our deepest condolences to the families of over 150 000 people (including 1000's of tourists) who died in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Maldives, Malaysia and on the east-coast of Africa.