Dear Martyn and Lang,
Good to see your suggestions on helping out. The Red Cross is the most
general and universal one and certainly will be needed in the aftermath
as, particularly in Indonesia, Sri Lanka and India, the threat of
disease becomes a very serious issue. I do hope it'll spur the countries
around here to install some early warning systems and implement a
regional disaster response plan. Cleaning up and repairing the damage
from this disaster, let alone loss of future revenue must surely be more
expensive than that.
I also just returned home (to Singapore) from Thailand on the Sunday
morning, fortunately I'm not a beach-going person (seen one seen them
all!) and so we spent a family holiday up in the northern parts of the
country and avoided the catastrophe unfolding down south, still counting
our lucky stars.
Regards and best wishes
Horst
Martyn Stewart wrote:
>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 relie=
f;
>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) havi=
ng
>arrived after midnight on the Thai resort island of Phuket off the southwe=
st
>coast of the Malay peninsula in the Indian Ocean, a 9.0! earthquake center=
ed
>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 =
at
>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 becaus=
e
>our plans were made too late. Roughly 2 hrs. after the tremor, a loud cra=
sh
>nearby was heard, which was mostly ignored until the dark grey water start=
ed
>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 thr=
ee
>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 wer=
e
>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 an=
d
>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 t=
o
>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 ever=
y
>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 ...
>=20
>
>><DEFANGED.11
>>=20=20=20
>>
>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. =
as
>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? Ho=
w
>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
>=20
>
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