Tsunami has killed 22,000

We have a co-worker out in Thailand right now. Sure hope she's OK...

This is a truely amazing event. How horrible it must be for those affected. I'm sure none of us could imagine. My prayers go out to all in that region. Hopefully the after-shocks will not trigger any more Tsunami's.

An unbelievable number of people died, and I am afraid there will be many more with the disease associated with the standing water and dead bodies left behind. God Bless those lost and the ones left still suffering.

Did you read the that entire Island of Sumatra in Indonesia moved a 100 feet from it's original location?

Is San Francisco next?

Yeah, crazy isn't it? We still have not heard from our co-worker. She was scheduled to be out on PTO until January 3, so if something did happen to her, it may be awhile until we are made aware of it.

My daughter-in-law is from Indonesia and all her family lives there. I called my son this morning and she is attempting to get in touch with her mother but she thinks they are ok. I'll feel better after she talks to her mother!!

You can donate at Red Cross. And I heard on the news this morning that the death count is nearly 40,000.

40,000??? Unbelievable. Did they say how high the waves were? I did read that they were traveling about 500 mph across the ocean, and that people died 3,000 miles away from the epicenter of the earthquake.

15-20 feet in some places according to one internet article I read. The death toll is 40,000 and rising. They still haven't been able to contact 2 islands in the area nor have they been able to reach every area affected. Roughly half of the dead are children who were simply unable to navigate those waters. This is just awful. My heart breaks for these people.

I heard them talking to Nate Berkus (the designer that Oprah uses on her show) and he and a friend were there. At that time, he hadn't been able to locate his friend. Haven't heard anything since.

In some places the waves and/or tide reached 40 feet high. The NY Times online has good coverage. The death toll keeps climbing. Was at over 43,000 about an hour ago.

The pictures on USAtoday.com yesterday were unreal. I can't imagine being a parent and losing my whole family in a matter of minutes.

I heard a report this morning that ticked me off. The reporter asked if this could happen in the US. He was told by a scientist that it wasn't a concern on the East Coast but a possability in the Pacific Northwest, particularly Alaska. (We've had them in the past. In 1964 a tsunami wipped out an entire town). The reporter said something to the effect of "oh not the real northwest, just Alaska". It's good to be expendable in this idiot's mind!

Actually, Dawnie, I've heard that the East Coast is vulnerable, too, if something were to happen in the Canary Islands. We watched something on this topic a few months ago on the Discovery Channel.

FOX News reported over 44,000 at lunch. This is almost the entire population of the county in which I live! They also stated that the earthquake was so strong that the earth actually wobbled on it's axis and time slowed down by about 3 millionths of a second. The scientist they were interviewing stated that an earthquake this size with the major plate shift that occurred, would cause more earthquakes in other parts of the world.

We had 32 of them yesterday and we're at 7 so far today. Only a couple over 4 though.

Wow Dawnie, my prayers are with you for your safety. My ex-fiance's wife and family are living in Thailand and i haven't been able to get hold of anyone...I'm saying prayers for them. My ex is serving in Iraq right now so I'm sure it will be awhile before I hear anything.

Oh that's normal earthquake stuff for us Ene A bit more than normal, but not too far off. But thanks for the kind thoughts. I'll pray for your family. We just found out a teacher from Alaska was alive in Thailand. She was in a badly hit area and her family wasn't able to find out anything. They just received an email from her saying she and her family are fine.

Be patient They're trying to contact family but it's hard!!!

We still haven't heard from our co-worker. We aren't sure exactly where she was in Thailand, only that she was there visiting family. I know her father is a fisherman, which kind of worries me.

Now the estimate is going up to 60,000 with the possibility of it doubling due to disease. Unbelievable.

Imagine watching a football game and suddenly the entire crowd is wiped out by a huge wall of water.

We just heard from a family member of our co-worker. She is in a hospital with (unknown) injuries. Her father is dead and she is missing a sister, an aunt and two cousins. It's just beyond belief...I am so sad to think about it...

someonelse, they are definitely in our prayers. After reading these posts, I am becoming increasingly worried about my ex's wife.

No place on this earth is safe from nature's fury - this is just the begining - when all is said and done, there will be over 200,000 dead in this one and many more to follow in what is to come next.

Aside from the apocolyptic warning from Anon...we tend to forget that we live on a volatile planet in this universe which is subject to change, growth, bombardment, etc. We get so comfortable in our surroundings that it seems unfathomable when these natural disasters occur. However, this Earth is, has, and always will be affected by its environment. An environment of asteroids, tectonic plate activity, solar flares and the fluctuation of the polar ice caps. We are here but for a brief time, we should remember to respect Nature and its powerful force. How lucky we are to be here!

Did you all hear that Jet Li was injured in the Tsunami?