This one is from a tourist's cam right in the face of the waves. Frightening. Worst footage I've seen.

http://www.dagbladet.no/download/tsunamiphuket.wmv

By the way, you can donate to the Red Cross online. Do a search for "red cross" and the website for your country will come up and it will have a link to donate specifically in relief of this disaster. They even email you a receipt.

Richard Attenborough lost his grandaughter and perhaps his daughter in Phukhet as well. ('http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=XA51O5ERA04LYCRBAEZSFEY?type=topNews&storyID=645791')

It seems like the personal impact is going to be felt around the globe. My daughter's dance teacher is there for the holidays. We are waiting to find out how she fared in all of this.

We are praying for those lost, but more importantly, for the survivors. As a Hurricane Andrew victim, I can empathize with some of the feelings they are going through, although Andrew was nowhere near as deadly or calamitous as this.

RB

Man... what can you say....

I was unable to view the first video.

When you look at the power of nature, it is very sobering. It makes you realize just how insignificant we humans really are.

More videos have been posted at http://jlgolson.blogspot.com/2004/12/tsunami-video.html

Seven videos at http://believeinmagic91.blogspot.com/

These stills are amazing. http://www.pbase.com/issels/phuket_tsunami

One of the scariest scenarios imaginable.


RB

One thing that keeps standing out to me is how many people in the various clips that stand there or linger out of curiosity. I spent half my life surfing and 3 years in the Coast Guard. I know all to well the power of the ocean. Everytime I see a new video and some 'tourists' watching curiously I'm screaming run run run!

A terrible tradegy. My heart goes out to all countries and peoples affected by this.

Yeah, it's scary.
I don't know anything about surfing for that matter, and I also didn't really see the waves coming, I now downloaded all the movies (I hadn't watched the news, I'm begin shooting monday, so I'm occupied) and it really shocked me. It's like if you see the waves, at the beaches, they don't look that big, but just before they hit earth you realise how big and especcially powerfull they are.
You saw at one video people just at the beach, and I knew what was going to happen thus I was looking at big waves, and all I saw were 'normal' waves. But then they hit the beach, and I thought: 'damn... it's like you really can't see it coming'.

And you also have some people who indeed keep watching. And you think: RUN! but I were in that position (knowing nothing about waves, surfing,...) I maybe too would be curious, not knowing what would happen.

Those videos are really scary.

One of the things that took me aback, watching the handycam footage, was how late it got before people realised they were in danger.

Until the flood had actaully passed them, they were still clinging to the notion that it was just some strong, exciting and - in terms of human life - innocuous wave.

I hope this isn't a microcosm of how we are reacting to greater enviromental threats.

I spent some time in that area...Phuket, Phi Phi, Langkawi...the Maldives. Heart-wrenching to think of all those smiling faces that that part of the world is famous for and to know that they're suffering so much.

Donations can be made through Amazon.com (http://www.amazon.com) (easy if you already have a credit card on file with them) and Save The Children (http://www.savethechildren.com).

Donations can be made at WalMarts too, if you aren't the online-credit card paying type.

See also http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html for many ways to donate.

My daughter's dance teacher reported to work yesterday. They had left for the opposite side of the island the day before the Tsunami hit, missing all of the major devastation!

Thank GOD for small miracles!

RB