That's nice to see Lang.
I have already donated money to the Red Cross
http://www.redcross.org/
I know this is one organization I can trust that the funds given will be
received by the effected parties.
I actually have a mate down there who e-mailed me this morning to my relief=
;
I share some of his experience below with you all.
I wondered if the silly bugger had recorded it!!!
<From Mark Oberle
The deeply brutal part of our experience, however, was where words simply
fail now and perhaps forever. At 8am the day after Christmas (12/26) havin=
g
arrived after midnight on the Thai resort island of Phuket off the southwes=
t
coast of the Malay peninsula in the Indian Ocean, a 9.0! earthquake centere=
d
within 400 mi. southwest of us (just water, no land buffer) gently jostled
us awake around 8am with a second tremor about a half an hour later. Okay,
to breakfast, with plans both to explore the beach and then snorkel/scuba a=
t
a nearby island (PhiPhi, perhaps, a short plane ride for a half-day's
outing; though Mardie's preference was the Similan Islands in the Andaman
Sea, essentially the east side of the Indian Ocean) after an elephant ride.
After packing in so much during this trip, we were late launching this
particular Boxing Day morning after having landed after midnight on the
island. We were tired and had little sense of where we were, save that we
knew we had gone over some mountains en route to our hotel which was only
very close to, but not right on the popular Patong Beach waterfront because
our plans were made too late. Roughly 2 hrs. after the tremor, a loud cras=
h
nearby was heard, which was mostly ignored until the dark grey water starte=
d
surging across our hotel's 36-acre property toward its large, open-air
lobby. Thinking that a nearby dam must have broken (other people thought
of bombs or gunfire), we had no sense of what had really happened. (The
solid wall of waterfront buildings had blocked the first, smaller 15 foot
wave). But then some of the injured ran into our lobby, where Mardie
pressed Doctor Mark (as he came to be known around the hotel) into service
before finding herself helping them instead while he was called to the
waterfront where he had to climb over crashed vehicles inside buildings
there to serve the stranded wounded, some severely injured scattered
throughout. Mark mobilized rescue, first aid, and triage efforts at thre=
e
hotels in the first 3 hours before ambulances could get in .........as
successive tsunami waves struck the ground floor below him in the
waterfront buildings. Meanwhile William was orderedto stay at a safe
location to guard our gear from possible looting, gather provisions for
possible chaotic flight if not organized evacuation. Of the 100 or so
stranded in our hotel lobby, only we and 2 other (expats, living in
Stockholm) were Americans or spoke English as a lst language; all else were
Scandanavian, French, German, Russian, or Asian - all brothers and sisters,
however; bleeding, comforting, holding, finding and sharing strength from
our common wells. The Thais before, during and forever are the most
wonderful people. We've made lifelong friends.The video clips that BBC
World News (Asia edition) have been showing over and over here, is a view
looking down from a very tall building on the bay at Patong Beach near our
hotel. The clip shows the first or second tsunami wave hitting several 3-4
story hotels and then a surge of debris and water enveloping the lower
floors and moving inland down a street to the left of the screen. That
video was taken on our beach about a mile north of our hotel. Local TV and
BBC have been showing that newsclip hourly, but how much of this disaster
has been aired in the US media is unknown.=20
Ironically, Mark is due to start teaching a 'disaster preparedness' course
at the UW on the Monday after. Bluntly, there is no preparation for this.
No textbook; not enough thanks; nor understanding; nor sense of when/how to
manage the tears, when to let them start, or not; likewise the questions
about what happened to the people and their loved ones who we helped; what
made us flee to the nearby mountain and wait for hours for the 10 meter
follow up tsunami that never came; whether to relive or flee from the every
moment that we struggled in languages dormant, pantomime, of the eyes and
heart...=20=20
Mark tells me that this was to be a brief - "Hey, we're okay"...
He knew better, or should have.
Post traumatic... We LIVED!!... (AND why us...) And where's sleep ...
And now chasing it (sleep) again before our driver arrives lst thing
tomorrow to take us to the Palace and Emerald Buddha for our last 48 hrs. a=
s
though nothing happened. Why could one want to let this go, make this a
simple fast "we're fine, thank you" when, region wide, the count is up now
to 26,000 DEAD.
Much love to you. You and this moment, for me and us, are immeasurable
gifts!
Words cannot convey....
here is my wife's take. I will get a more dispassionate summary this
weekend>....
Martyn
Martyn Stewart
Bird and Animal Sounds Digitally Recorded at:
http://www.naturesound.org
N47.65543 W121.98428
Redmond. Washington. USA
Make every Garden a wildlife Habitat!
425-898-0462
-----Original Message-----
From: Lang Elliott
Sent: Tuesday, December 28, 2004 6:03 PM
To:
Subject: Re: [Nature Recordists] Disaster Relief
Re: responding to the tragedy
I don't know if folks in this e-mail group want to discuss it, but I'm
looking for recommendations for donating to the relief effort in southeast
Asia. This tragedy is huge and I feel we should all respond in some way,
probably by donating cash ASAP. I was looking at donating to the
International Response Fund of the American Red Cross. Is that a good fund?
Is anyone thinking about this? What are some other really good options? How
can we offer genuine help to that part of the world?
Lang
"Microphones are not ears,
Loudspeakers are not birds,
A listening room is not nature."
Klas Strandberg
Yahoo! Groups Links
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