The Associated Press reports that massive tidal waves slammed into villages and seaside resorts across Asia on Sunday, killing more than 3,200 people in five countries:
Tourists, fishermen, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water up to 20 feet high unleashed by the 8.9-magnitude earthquake, centered off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra.
A police spokesman in Sri Lanka said 1,677 people were killed in that country. Officials in India reported 1,000 dead. More than 400 were reported killed in Indonesia, 158 in Thailand and 25 in Malaysia. Hundreds were reported missing, and the death toll was expected to rise.
The U.S. Geological Survey measured the quake at a magnitude of 8.9. Geophysicist Julie Martinez said it was the world's fifth-largest since 1900 and the largest since a 9.2 temblor hit Prince William Sound Alaska in 1964.
Tragedies like this put California Yankee's challenges into a proper perceptive.
At the Command Post, Alan E Brain and Michele Catalano are all over this story.
Speed of Thought is also posting about the quake.
Information on how to help is posted at The Command Post here.
UPDATE: Agence France Presse now reports the death toll at over 4,000.
This earthquake struck a year to the day after a quake in the ian city of Bam killed over 30,000 people.
UPDATE II: The Associated Press now reprts that Sunday's earthquake and tsunamis killed nearly 10,000.
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