Interesting tid bit of the day...

[lithera]

Jet Li was in the Maldives on vacation with his daughter during the tsunami. Apparently he was slightly injured while rescuing his daughter and getting them to safety. (A foot injury.) He was missing for awhile but he got somewhere safe and called his agent. I can't even imagine what it would have been like to be on Maldives... a lot of those islands are barely above sea level. Some of they may not exist anymore.

And did you see the story about Petra Nemcova, 2003 Sport Illustrated model? She clung to a palm tree for 8 hours with a crushed pelvis and multiple internal injuries as the water surged around her.

Then there was the womand and her husband who missed the whole thing until they came to the surface after their dive. She started helping people on her way to the American officials. When the found them they were in the lounge... The story is crazy.

If these are the stories that are getting out, how many more are there? Man.

Comments

[cleverusername2.livejournal.com]

I just saw one of an Austrailian woman who only had the strength to hold onto one of her two sons, ages 3 and 5, and had to decide which one to let go. Man, that one's going to keep her up for nights. Luckily both of them survived, even the older son she let go.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Oh my god, that brought tears to my eyes! What a thing to have to go through! I'm not sure I could make such a choice, I wouldn't be able to live with myself afterwards ...

[cleverusername2.livejournal.com]

Imagine growing up as the son your mother had to let go of. She was worried that if she held onto both of them all three would be swept up however. I don't know what I would have done in that situation myself.

[kat-box.livejournal.com]

Got to this entry by way of a link from stone_princess.

One picture in my local paper that really got me was this Scandinavian boy of about eight years old holding up a sign saying he lost his parents and two brothers. Oy! :(

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Wow. I'm glad it turned out well but that's hideous.

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

Yahoo is saying that at least 42 of the Maldive islands have been flattened... they just say that everything on them has been wiped out, not that they've been covered with water.

[lithera.livejournal.com]

*nods*

Okay. I had gottten the impression that some of the southern islands were low enough as it was that enough of the earth was washed away that there wasn't really much above the water anymore.

[pullthestars.livejournal.com]

it's possible... Yahoo tends to be hideously slow about news stories sometimes, and I haven't had the chance to check other news sources.

[innocentsinner.livejournal.com]

If the water surged over entire islands before subsiding, wouldn't the salt from the ocean also leave the soil barren now?

[lithera.livejournal.com]

That is possible too.

*makes a face* Oi.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

The story that has hit me the most - although the one comment about the Australian above comes close - was the woman who was looking for her daughter's body. She said she was in her car when the tsunami hit, and she was swept out of it. She said her daughter hated even having her hair washed, she hated water near her face ... and the mother couldnt' imagine what her daugher went through in those minutes, drowing.

That was my daughter for years and years ...

[lithera.livejournal.com]

Wow.

I don't even know what to say to that.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

1. On a lighter note, Jet Li has proven that Kung Fu can even save you from tidal waves.

2. On a less thrilling note: what the fuck was wrong with our officials? Seriously. I have not the words.


... On a far less thrilling note, this entire thing is getting more and more horrifying to me by the day. I am not lying when I say that this damage halfway across the world has unquestionably hit me harder than 9/11. The sheer volume of loss is unreal to me.

[eggiebert.livejournal.com]

I don't quite understand why it's so much easier to feel sympathy for the folk in this natural disaster. Maybe there's just this indescriminate and neutral face that caused it, meaning we don't waste our energy on trying to lay blame and answer why. We only have room for sympathy.

[leiden.livejournal.com]

For me it's twofold. There's the fact that 9/11 had a centralized body count short of 5,000 vs the current death toll which has crested the 100k mark without slowing down. There's also the political aspect of it. Right now all we have is "people are dead". I'm not doubting and second guessing what the response is or asking whether or not it will be exploited politically and if it's going to be the catalyst for frightening future precedents to be set.

When the WTC went down in fire the only thing I heard was how we were going kill more people to make it right and that in turn made me angry at America and forced out my sympathy. In the current instance, with the utter randomness of the death, the only coalition of the willing that exists are people who just want to ease the pain. And that as you said, has left room for sympathy and for sorrow.

[eggiebert.livejournal.com]

Nature is cruel and the source of all life. Sometimes that duality is terrifyingly disturbing.

[samy.livejournal.com]

Now I can't get rid of the mental image of a 'Jet Li is TSUNAMI WARRIOR' movie with him spending 1h40m kidneypunching and roundhouse kicking a tsunami wave.