At Least 23,000 Die in Tsunami

MADRAS, India — The death toll from a massive undersea earthquake that triggered a wall of water crashing through Asia climbed to more than 23,000 today as officials braced for more deaths and a Herculean cleanup.

Millions of people were reported homeless in a wide swath from Indonesia to the Indian subcontinent. Whole villages were missing and the wreckage was too extensive for any reasonable estimate of the cost beyond many of billions of dollars. It will likely take years to rebuild.

There was a continuing fear of aftershocks from the 9.0 Sunday quake in the waters off Indonesia. But experts warned that the aftereffects were likely to be equally deadly. Disease, spread from rotting corpses, starvation and lack of drinkable water all threaten to keep killing for weeks.

<http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-122704quake_lat.story>

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I remember. From Somalia to Malaysia and beyond. Just unbelievable. My thoughts are with everybody.

it is beautiful, but i can't even being to imagine what devastation its suffered. if memory serves, there isn't a part of the country that is over a few meters above sea-level. i fear for the residents of male, the capital, where something like 60% of the population. the isolation of the country and its outlying atolls will make the tragedy even more acute.

And they were hit with at least a four foot surge.

I can't even imagine the terror that must've been felt by the people running away from that. That is truly the ultimate in scary.

I just hope they can get some aid and medicine in there, or it's only going to get so much worse.