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Tsunami

TSUNAMI

TSUNAMI

That was a word, tucked unobtrusively inside the dictionary (on page 1784 of the Chambers Dictionary, to be precise), and none of us even dreamt that it existed. Within a short time, it has become the most repeated and most dreaded word in English. TSUNAMI - Tsu means harbour, nami means wave. In Japanese. The Chambers Dictionary defines it as “ a very swiftly traveling sea wave that attains great height, caused by an undersea earthquake or similar disturbance.”

What havoc it has created along the TN eastern coast besides others seacoasts in South India, and other South Asian countries. The death toll is over 24000; in TN alone it would cross 4000, Andaman & Nicobar another 4000+. One cannot even visualize the devastation, destruction, and death caused by this demon. Enormous. Numbing.

Could it have been predicted? Could it have been warded off? The answer to both would be NO. However, the earthquake of the order of 8.5 could have been monitored, tsunamic conditions could have been expected, and the people could have been warned – even a forewarning of 60 – 90 minutes would have saved thousands of lives.

The earthquake was indeed monitored by many stations. Magnitude of 8.5 occurred at 0059 UTC Location - 3.4N 95.7E – off W Coast of Northern Sumatra. The warning that it may lead to tsunamic conditions was also provided, by USA. A tiny country like Seychelles acted on this and took precautionary measures but India was complacent. Because tsunamis never ever occurred in these parts.

The remote sensing satellites of ISRO couldn’t have even “seen” this, as these occur under the sea surface! Suitably anchored sensors on the seabed to monitor any seismic disturbances, and a number of floating sensors to measure any change in amplitude of the under-current waves, and a mechanism to relay such data to a hovering satellite tele-metrically, and the satellite transferring the data to the ground station, and mathematical models to compute / predict the propagation time and the amplitude – well, these are the measures Japanese and US are adopting, but the cost would be enormous. Now at least India should join with other South Asian countries to have such measures jointly.

That is for the future. For the present, let us all donate whatever little we can. Let us try to mitigate the pain and the sorrow of the millions, in our humble way. I propose that we send a joint amount to RED CROSS Society. If you agree to this, and if you wish to donate, please send in ANY AMOUNT to my account at the earliest. Later, I will send a cheque to the Red Cross, Chennai, for the consolidated amount, in the name of our Family. “How much” is irrelevant, the act of helping is pertinent.

God bless.

Rajappa
28 December 2004 11: 45

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