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Tsunami Relief Effort by Blue Yamuna Team MembersIn the wake of the Tsunami disaster our Blue Yamuna Team members, Mr. Sucharit (Diplu) Dutta, Kolkata, and Ms. Justine Baruch, Denver, CO are going down to Nagapattinam, one of the worst Tsunami impacted area in India. It’s a very small assistance that could be organized by the Yamuna Foundation in a hurry to enable shipment through the kind support of Mr. Nikhil Mallampalli of Maryland, , who traveled to New Delhi on January 8th from Washington DC for a personal visit. Our team went to the keechankuppam village and provided water purification kits to the villagers and showed them how to use the kit for making safe drinking water which was the dire need for the villagers.
See the tsunami relief pictures at http://dipludutta.tripod.com/waterpurification/index.album?i=3 Here are some excerpts of the notes/communication by the Blue Yamuna team members… From: subijoy To: nikhil mallampalli Cc: diplu, hirok, blueyamuna team Sent: Thursday, January 06, 2005 11:25 AM Subject: Tsunami Relief Package Nikhil:
I and scores of other people appreciate your assistance in
carrying these valuable materials for the Tsunami victims in
mainly Nagapattinam area of Tamil Nadu. January 6, 2005 Brij Khandelwaal (Agra) et al.: With some effort I have arranged to send a small relief package (below) to Delhi. Mr. Mital will pick that up from Nikhil Mallampalli at the Oberoi hotel on Jan 10 early afternoon and courier it to Diplu at Kolkata. Ms. Justine Baruch from Denver CO (Ken Brakken's daughter's classmate/friend) is flying into Kolkata by Jan 11 to join the Blue Yamuna team and proceed by train to Nagapattinam. We hope to provide at least 50 families with potable/safe drinking water for 7 days or so. Partial restoration of their damaged homes and water supply is expected to be in place by that time. Shravan: Please print this message and provide to Mr. Mital. Venkatesh: I tried to call you but couldn't get through, please call Mr. Mital and Diplu and render any viable assistance. Subijoy. Crofton, MD January 7, 2005 Thanks Subi for your contribution...Although the devastation is massive, small gesture like this does help victims of disaster in a big way....! Best regards, Venkatesh Dutta, New Delhi Some relevant articles of Tsunami below: The Physics of Tsunamis The mechanisms of tsunami generation and propagation What is a tsunami? A tsunami (pronounced tsoo-nah-mee) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces the water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions, and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis. Tsunamis can savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life. What does "tsunami" mean? Wildlife can sense natural calamity Wild Life has once again perplexed scientific community by their uncanny ability to SENSE TSUNAMI. Animal behavior scientists are foxed by the meager loss of animal wealth while huge loss of humans was reported from all islands. Deputy Director of Srilanka Wildlife Department Ratnayake has said that while the giant waves rushed three kilometers deep which took toll of 24000 people of the Island, Jumbos ran to safety. Dogs, Elephants,Birds,Snakes and Leopards. They all have what the man doesn’t. The inbuilt disaster warning system. Behavior Experts are unable to explain this SIXTH SENSE or Premonition but it happens when ever a calamity occurs. In Lathur in September,1993 pet dogs barked and howled endlessly at day-break before the tremors shook the people awake. It happened in supercyclone of Orissa in October 1999 and again during quake in Bhuj & Kutch of Gujarat on Republic Day in 2001. Restless behaviour of animals is reported across the world during total solar eclipses too. African Wildlife expert Clive Walker says that wild animals pickup impending disaster much ahead of time. In the wake of Tsunami, it is time we train humans to understand animals which may be giving feelers about impending calamity. Great Tsunamis
Source: http://www.newsonair.com/Narsimha%20Rao.html Some of the Newsclips on Tsunami Toll in crosses 8,500; many still missing Tuesday, 28 December , 2004, 15:13 (Source: http://Sify.com) Port Blair: Many thousand people were missing on Tuesday and countless numbers homeless in as the death toll crossed 8,500 from a tsunami that slammed into unprotected coasts. Indian and foreign tourists mobbed the lone airport in the Andaman Islands to catch flights leaving the vacation paradise where huge waves triggered by an earthquake on Sunday killed at least 4,000 people and left many more missing. The seawater rose suddenly again early on Tuesday in the Andamans triggered by aftershocks from the earthquake, sparking fears of more tidal waves. Tourists such as 's Lucy Henderson were frantic to leave. "We were here on our first marriage anniversary to see the emerald green ocean. But on that day, it began to swell and turn black and we decided to run," she said. "And Oh God we never ran like that before. It is a miracle we are alive." A senior coast guard official reported at least 1,000 more dead on remote Chowra island in the archipelago, bringing the Andaman death toll to 4,000. "We have only 500 survivors on Chowra, the rest were totally washed away," he said, noting the island had a population of 1,500 before the tsunami hit. The Andamans lie near the epicentre of the massive underground earthquake off Sumatra in . Witnesses said "waves were taller than buildings". The coastguard official, on conditions of anonymity, forecast the death toll on Car Nicobar Island south of the Andamans could top 10,000, adding there were "a large number of survivors who are injured." "Eighty percent of the buildings were flattened on Car Nicobar where about 45,000 people live, the official who had just returned from the island said. "It's flat and people had no place to run. The exact toll cannot be calculated just now but it is very high, much higher than reported," he said. There was no immediate comment available from government officials. Police had begun listing dozens of islands in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands with populations of 1,500 to 2,00 from where they have no information. 's Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the number of dead was hard to estimate. "If you look at the number of missing people, it's huge," he said. On the mainland, bodies were rapidly heaped into mass graves as worries grew about outbreaks of disease from piles of decomposing corpses. Hospital staff and visitors wore masks where bodies were being collected. Vultures and crows gathered where bodies lay in the open. In Nagapattinam, corpses were washed up by the sea and found wedged among collapsed shacks or floating in large lakes left behind by the invading sea. There was a stench of death up to a kilometre away from the beaches where rescue workers toiled to retrieve the dead from the sea and beaches. "There are very serious health concerns. There's an acute shortage of drinking water and medicine," said Salvation Army worker John Raman in Nagapattinam, the worst-hit coastal district in Tamil Nadu. "Human and animal bodies need to be cleared immediately. Chances of an epidemic are high." Tamil Nadu state recorded the largest loss of life with nearby Pondicherry, accounting for some 4,500 dead. Unofficial estimates were much higher with officials saying many thousands of people were missing. Survivors were traumatised by losses of family members. One woman in Nagapattinam whose children died could only hold up four fingers, whispering "daughters" when asked what happened on Sunday. Tens of thousands spent the night huddling in emergency relief camps as the government stepped up relief efforts and the Indian Red Cross appealed for food, clothes and tarpaulins. PORT BLAIR: Rescuers began reaching Andaman and Nicobar
islands on Tuesday to find barely a third of residents on one
isle were still alive two days after a devastating tsunami. On the Andaman and Nicobar island of Chowra on Tuesday,
rescuers found only 500 survivors from 1,500 residents, said the
territory's deputy police chief, C Vasudeva Rao. “The real worry is if a big quake hits us now, the
entire town can be wiped out" said Mustafa, a motor-rickshaw
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