36 replies to this topic

[triggerfish]

what....
no body says anything about the thousands of people washed away in asia?

what a horrible disaster for everyone ......

i hope to god no one here knew anyone diving in phuket or the maldives right now.....

a couple prayers for these poor folks might be in order.....

[bluedolphin]

Yes it is a real tragedy was a tragedy, hopefully the aftershocks won't bring more devistation to the area.

[Funewgy]

a couple prayers for these poor folks might be in order.....

Absolutely!!! I am with you TF. Thanks for the heads up.

[AliKat]

I just saw that on the internet earlier. Not a very nice Christmas present for a lot folks. I'm surprized I haven't heard from work yet. I'm sure we'll be involved with the HA effort.

[WreckWench]

Just saw the news...its awful! Praying no one we know was hurt. -ww

[RICHinNC]

Not having a TV I miss a lot. Both are really sad to hear about.

But at the same time...If I was in Asia....in dive gear is where I would want to have been at the time.

Hope none of you got caught in the big airlines fiasco the last couple of days.

Im sitting here at work.....not quite seven in the morning...not another soul around and wondering why I didnt get the dont come in....or come in late call. Gonna be another one of those days.
rich

[densha99]

Completely frightening prospect. I had only recently decided to come out of the mountains and realized that the ocean was my friend...
In all seriousness, I know that Dec - Jan is the big holiday season for the beaches over there. My prayers go out...... It's a terrible disaster.

[WreckWench]

Not having a TV I miss a lot.  Both are really sad to hear about.

Yeah I don't watch the news much but when I work at the chamber I see plenity of it...people are addicted to it. It is not conducive to healing but then most people don't do things that are good for them anyway!

Hope none of you got caught in the big airlines fiasco the last couple of days.

Ya know...there will be no issues with flying and then you plan a dive trip and it all goes to hell and handbasket. The holidays are so stressful anyway that planning dive trips during this time of year is dicey. But I hope I don't eat my words when we do the SD.com New Year's Eve trip in Cozy next year! Fortunately I did not try to do it this year!

Im sitting here at work.....not quite seven in the morning...not another soul around and wondering why I didnt get the dont come in....or come in late call.  Gonna be another one of those days.

Dude I hate to do this to ya...BUT...it could be worse...you could be lying on the floor with your back out and no one in the house! Or even in dive gear trying to fight the tidal waves in Asia....

[Walter]

Looks like I need to check the news.........

[nextariel]

This is very devastating, I can't imagine no warning on something so powerful.

[Dennis]

The news has mentioned up to 20,000 dead in those hardest hit areas. It is a devastating situation. I am praying for all of those people and their families. The video is very disturbing. There is video of people hanging on to what looks like a tin roofed building and then being washed away. If they didn't drown, the debri in the water is very dangerous as well. The news bite that was going on during the video did not say anything about those people.

Sad, Sad news. I hope and pray we didn't have anyone we know in that mess.

[Walter]

I did a little looking around and found this article about the quake and tidal wave (yes, I know it has nothing to do with tides and is not a good name, but there's not a better option - Tsunami merely means tidal wave in Japanese) and this article about some divers off Phuket.

It's horrible and tragic, lots of people were killed.

If I was in Asia....in dive gear is where I would want to have been at the time.

Actually, the best place to be is on a boat in deep water. Tidal waves are a wave of energy moving through the water. Most of the movement is below the surface. Until it reaches shallow water, the wave height is usually measured in inches. The wave length is a totally different story. As the wave enters shallow water the long wave is compressed vertically forcing the circular wave out of round, shortening the wave length, but dramatically increasing the wave height. Anyway, that's why you're better off on a boat in deep water. You usually won't even be aware of the wave's passage. If anyone is interested in learning more, I highly recomend reading Waves and Beaches by Willard Bascom.

[densha99]

and this article about some divers off Phuket.

I was wondering about divers being in the water and possibly relatively shalow, or close to land. Amazing that all the divers were safe..... My fellow divers have been discussing this type of scenerio since we heard the news.... Thanks for posting that Walter.

[AliKat]

We just had our last week of holiday routine cut short. We have been stood up 24/7 in support of the disaster relief. I will be 1800-0600 for the duration. Doubt that much of the operation will be classified, so I'll let you all know how its going.

[drbill]

I know a few people in Phi Phi and Krabi which were both hit. Haven't reached any of them yet. Reports on another board suggest that the dive boats out at the Similans survived fine (as Walter suggested, those in deeper water were OK). The Similans are now closed indefinitely. I heard Khao Lok was hit bad as well- a lot of the less expensive dive boats leave from there for the Similans. I heard it experienced a lot of damage.

Those I've heard from in Phuket indicate that they will be back in business by next weekend. I hope so.

A horrible disaster.

Dr. Bill