Tsunami in Vietnam is the real risk | Look At Vietnam

Tsunami in Vietnam is the real risk

April 19, 2012

LookAtVietnam – Scientists’ research works have found proof showing that
tsunamis once attacked Vietnam and brought about serious impacts. They have
warned that tsunami is a real risk for Vietnam, and that this needs further
through research.

The tsunami warning has been issued in 27 countries around the Indian Ocean
–after two earthquakes measuring 8.6 and 8.3 on the Richter scale occurred just
several hours apart from each other in the waters of Indonesia’s Aceh province.
In Vietnam, the Institute of Geophysics is the only agency responsible for
releasing tsunami warnings, for monitoring, analyzing and giving warnings when
it can see a tsunami risk.
According to Associate Professor Dr Nguyen Hong Phuong from the Center for
Earthquake and Tsunami Warning of the Institute of Geophysics, there has been no
official document about the damages caused by tsunamis in Vietnam. As there was
no tsunami monitoring system, no information about tsunami has been reported.
In many cases, tsunamis could be mistaken for the phenomenon of water rise
caused by storms or short wavelength waves.
According to the Bureau of Meteorology and Hydrology and Climate Change, in
Vietnam, the studies on the seismic regime in the South China Sea and the
conditions of tsunami formation only began 10 years ago. The investigations
about the tsunamis in coastal areas of Vietnam have been made based on the
historical records or the stories of coastal residents.
Some documents showed that a tsunami once occurred on the coastal area of Thua
Thien-Hue province in September 11, 1904, which damaged 22,207 houses, sank 519
boats and killed 724 people. Tsunamis also once attacked the seaside of Nam Dinh
in 1930 and Da Nang in 1964. However, no evidence has been found to confirm or
reject the information.
However, reliable proofs have been found to show that three tsunamis attacked
Vietnam in the past. The first one occurred on the Tra Co beach, and had no
relation with any earthquake. The second one attacked Dien Chau seaside in a
year in late 19th or early 20th century. The third once occurred in Nha Trang in
1923.
Especially, the assumption of scientists that a tsunami occurred in 1923 in Nha
Trang has been fortified by the notes taken by Dr Armand Krempt, the assistant
to Dr Alexandre Yersin. The documents showed that tsunami once damaged the
stable of the doctor in Nha Trang City which was just 5-6 meters far away from
the seaside.
The phenomenon was believed to relate to the volcanic eruption that caused the
6.1 magnitude earthquake on the island of Hon Tro, Phu Quy Island. Maybe the
volcanic eruption at Hon Tro Island generated the tsunami.
Vietnam had not paid big attention to the studies on tsunamis until the tsunami
disaster in South East Asia occurred on December 26, 2004 which then killed
273,000 people. However, to date, according to the Institute for Geophysics,
tsunami survey has been carried out in 33 places. The surveys have made
Vietnamese scientists believe that Vietnam was once attacked by the tsunamis
with the 2-3 meter-high waves.
Vietnamese scientists believe that the risk of a tsunami is not high in Vietnam,
but it really exists. In case tsunamis occur, the biggest suffering areas would
be the central region, especially the area from Da Nang City to Quang Ngai
province.
Source: An ninh thu do

Earthquate in Indonesia shakes Vietnam

Earthquake in Indonesia shakes Vietnam’s buildings

VietNamNet Bridge – People who were working on high floors of buildings in Hanoi and HCM City felt shaking from furniture at nearly 4pm this afternoon, April 11. 

Huge quake strikes off Indonesia, tsunami warning issued 

Many people immediately ran away from their offices to the ground.

“Everything around me lightly shook for around three minutes,” says Thu Huyen, who works in a building in District 1, HCM City.

People from several buildings in HCM City reported the same thing.

Tran Kien, who was in his office in the C’Land building in Hanoi this afternoon, says: “It happened very quickly. I felt little dizzy when I looked out the window”.

He adds that many people ran away from their offices to the ground. The building management board contacted the Geophysics Institute to ask for information. Until they knew that the quake was minor, people returned to their rooms.

Mr. Le Huy Minh, director of the Information Center on Quake and Tsunami, says that Vietnam was affected by the quake of 8.9 Richter scale in Indonesia this afternoon. Vietnam is far from Indonesia so only people who were in high-rise buildings could feel  shaking.

According to Minh, the shake was caused by quake waves, not aftershock.

Prof. Cao Dinh Trieu from the Geophysics Institute says that impacts from earthquakes in Indonesia on Vietnam were minor. A quake observing station in southern Vietnam recorded shakes of less than five Richter scale this afternoon. There is no warning of tsunami in Vietnam.

Na Son

Miss Vietnam designs ao dai for Japan | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

VietNamNet Bridge – The highlight of the music show tonight on March 31 to support Japanese victims will be the auction of ao dai owned by Vietnamese beauty queens, including two ao dai designed by Miss Vietnam 2010 Ngoc Han.

Miss Vietnam 2010 Ngoc Han

Ngoc Han has designed two ao dai featuring Vietnamese and Japanese characteristics for the auction in VietNamNet’s show entitled “Be Strong, Japan!”
“Japan is now experiencing a difficult time after earthquakes and tsunamis. But with their resilience, Japanese have been calmly faced difficulties, even in the worst cases. To show my respect for their resilience, I designed an ao dai with a Japanese collar, with cherry blossoms as patterns. I hope Japan will quickly recover!” Ngoc Han said.
The concert will take place on March 31, with the participation of three beauty queens and famous singers at the Hanoi Theatre, 42 Trang Tien.
The show is based on song writer Duong Thu’s idea to raise funds for the victims of earthquakes and tsunamis in Japan on March 11.
The show will feature Miss Vietnam World Ngo Phuong, Miss Vietnam Ngoc Han, Miss Sports Tran Thi Quynh, supermodels Ha Vy, Hong Que in addition to famous singers like Meritorious Artist Viet Hoan, Trong Tan, Tan Minh, Khanh Linh, Quang Ha, Ngoc Anh, Hoang Hai Minh Chuyen, My Dung, etc.
Singers will perform songs by well-known songwriters like Trinh Cong Son, Hoang Viet, Phan Huynh Dieu, Phu Quang, Tran Tien, Le Minh Son, Ho Hoai Anh and others.
The latest fashion collections by designers Duc Hung from Hanoi, Viet Hung from HCM City and evening gowns by brand name designer Miss Khue will be introduced in the show.
The three beauty queens – Phuong Lan, Ngoc Han and Tran Thi Quynh – will auction their ao dai (Vietnamese gown) to raise funds for Japanese victims.
Tickets are available at the Hanoi Theatre, 42 Trang Tien.
In related news, another show entitled “Japan – the Sharing” organized by VietNamNet Newspaper, the Hanoi Young Artist Association and Dong Do Company in Hanoi on March 30 raised more than 300 million ($35,000) for Japan.
The money and the revenues from the “Be Strong, Japan!” show will be sent to the Japanese Embassy in Vietnam.

To support Japanese victims, readers can donate cash to VietNamNet Newspaper, No. 4 Lang Ha Street, Ba Dinh District, Hanoi or transfer money to VietNamNet Newspaper’s account as follows:

Account code: 0011002643148

Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam, 198 Tran Quang Khai, Hanoi

SWIFT code: BFTVVNVX

Ngoc Han’s ao dai:

“Japan – The Sharing” show in photos:

Actor Xuan Bac, his wife Hong Nhung and comedian Tu Long in “Teaching Wife” play.

Chi Trung, Ngoc Huyen and Thanh Trung in a comedy entitled “Motorbike Racing”.

Van Dung, Quang Thang and Cong Ly in another comedy.

Singers Ngoc Anh

Singer My Dung

Singer Dinh Manh Ninh

Comedian Van Dung puts cash into the donation box for Japan.

Actor Xuan Bac also donates cash.

Artists checks the donation box.

Show host Thao Van and VietNamNet Deputy Editor Pham Anh Tuan announce the total donation.

Manh Dung-Huong Giang

Vietnam’s first nuclear power plants to be protected by 15m dike

VietNamNet Bridge – The two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan province will be able to resist quakes of 7-8 Richter scales and will be protected by dikes which can prevent tsunamis of up to 15 meters.

Dr. Tran Van Luyen from the nuclear power plant project preparation board in Ninh Thuan province said that the strongest quake in Vietnam occurred in the northwestern region – 6.1 Richter scale.
Luyen said that the two nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan will be designed to resist quakes 15-30 percent stronger than the strongest-ever quake in Vietnam so far. For tsunamis, the highest wave recorded in Ninh Thuan was 8 meters but the dike designed for the two plants will be 15 meters.
Dr. Nguyen Nhi Dien, director of the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute, said that the reactor in Da Lat can sustain quakes of 6-7 Richter scales and can automatically shutdown in emergencies.
After the nuclear crisis in Japan, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Vietnam Atomic Energy Institute have asked the Da Lat Nuclear Research Institute and the Hanoi Nuclear Science and Technology Institute to perform environmentally radioactive observation at their two national stations.
According to Dien, the reactor in Da Lat is for research so its capacity is low, only 500KW thermo, while the reactor No.1 in Fukushima is 1,500MW. The third reactor, which exploded recently, is over 2,000MW.
“We should not be so worried because the safety of the Da Lat reactor and Fukushima reactor is different,” Dien said.
He confirmed that environmental observation was performed weekly and monthly. After the crisis in Japan, it is performed every few hours.
Dien said that after the nuclear crisis in Japan, the top priority in building nuclear power plants in Vietnam is choosing the right technology. There are nearly 450 reactors in the world, which use different technologies, and Vietnam needs to choose the best of them.
On March 17, the Ministry of Science and Technology organized an urgent meeting to discuss issues related to Vietnam’s first nuclear power projects.
On March 16, National Assembly Chair Tran Dinh Dan said that the NA approved the nuclear power plants in Ninh Thuan and at this moment there is no change to that plan.
PV

Radiation fears spark panic buying, evacuations in Tokyo | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update

Commuters stand in line to board other trains at Yokohama Station, southwest of Tokyo, March 14, 2011

Radiation wafted from an earthquake-stricken nuclear power plant toward Tokyo on Tuesday, sparking panic in one of the world’s biggest and most densely populated cities.
Women and children packed into the departure lounge at an airport, supermarkets ran low on rice and other supplies and frightened residents, tourists and expatriates either stayed indoors or simply left the city.
"I’m not too worried about another earthquake. It’s radiation that scares me," said Masashi Yoshida, cradling his 5-month-old daughter Hana
The nail-biting eased in the afternoon after Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano appeared on national television saying radiation levels at the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex had fallen dramatically since morning.
But confidence in the government is shaken and many decided not to take chances, especially after radiation levels in Saitama, near Tokyo, were 40 times normal – not enough to cause human damage but enough to stoke fears in the ultra-modern and hyper-efficient metropolis of 12 million people.
Many hoarded food and other supplies and stayed indoors. Don Quixote, a multistory, 24-hour general store in Tokyo’s Roppongi district, was sold out of radios, flashlights, candles, fuel cans and sleeping bags on Tuesday.
At another market near Tokyo’s Yotsuya station, an entire aisle was nearly empty on both sides, its instant noodles, bread and pastry gone since Friday’s earthquake and tsunami killed at least 10,000 people nationwide and plunged Japan into a twin nuclear and humanitarian crisis.
At Haneda Airport, hundreds of young mothers lined up with children, boarding flights out of Tokyo.
"We are getting out of Tokyo and going to our home town because of the situation. For the time being we have bought a one way ticket and will wait and see what happens," said a Japanese woman with an eight-month-old baby and four-year-old son, who declined to be identified by name.
Tourists such as Christy Niver, of Egan, Minnesota, said they had enough. Her 10-year-old daughter, Lucy, was more emphatic. "I’m scared. I’m so scared I would rather be in the eye of a tornado," she said. "I want to leave."
Winds over the troubled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power complex, about 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, blew slowly southwesterly toward Tokyo for much of the day before shifting westerly later, a weather official said.
Some scientists, however, urged Tokyo to stay calm.
"Radioactive material will reach Tokyo but it is not harmful to human bodies because it will be dissipated by the time it gets to Tokyo," said Koji Yamazaki, professor at Hokkaido University graduate school of environmental science.
"If the wind gets stronger, it means the material flies faster but it will be even more dispersed in the air."
University of Tokyo professor of bioengineering Hiroyuki Takahashi added: "If the nuclear fuel remains contained, there will be very little health risk."
Leaving Tokyo

MORE INFO
more info --->>>Radiation fears spark panic buying, evacuations in Tokyo | Look At Vietnam - Vietnam news daily update: "- Sent using Google Toolbar"

Strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia

Strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake strikes Indonesia: "Moments ago, a 6.4 magnitude earthquake struck the Asian-Pacific nation of Indonesia in the region of Kepulauan Obi. There have been no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or damages.
Jakarta, Indonesia - On Saturday, Indonesia was struck, once again, by a severe 6.4 magnitude earthquake in the region of Kepulauan Obi, according to the United States Geological Survey. There have been no immediate reports of injuries, deaths or damages in the region.
The earthquake’s depth was measured at 32.6 miles. The earthquake was located 137 miles north of Ambon, Moluccas and 504 miles northeast of Dili. There have been no immediate reports of a tsunami alert.
Hours previous to the 6.4 magnitude earthquake, a moderate 5.7 magnitude earthquake struck the Nias Region off the coast of Indonesia, which did not cause any casualties, reports Fox News."

Estimated Tsunami arrival time/Chile 8.8 earthquake

Estimated tsunami arrival times

At selected locations within the warning and watch areas (not including west coast of United States and Alaska). All times EST. Projected energy model map by NOAA. Warm red colors indicate higher predicted intensity.

SOURCE: NOAA. Nathaniel Vaughn Kelso - The Washington Post - Feb. 27, 2010. Updated 3:52 p.m.

This Story

Earthquake in Chile
Photos | A powerful 8.8-magnitude earthquake rocked Chile early Saturday and triggered a tsunami that is threatening every nation around the Pacific Ocean.

• Chile's athletes, coaches to skip closing ceremony
• Estimated tsunami arrival times
• Raw video: Quake-stricken Chile in ruins
• Comparing magnitude
• Asia braces for tsunami after Chile quake
• Hawaii under tsunami warning, emergency response plans underway
• 8.8-magnitude earthquake hits central Chile

1,000 people homeless on Solomons after tsunami

No injuries have been reported some 30 hours after the biggest in a series of quakes.

• Related
• Solomon Islands
• Map: 7.2 magnitude quake and tsunami

From the Associated Press

January 5, 2010 | 11:42 am

HONIARA, Solomon Islands - Landslides and a tsunami destroyed the homes of about one-third of the population on a Solomon Island, but lives were likely spared as residents with memories of previous disasters fled quickly to higher ground, officials said Tuesday.

From the air, extensive damage could be seen on a remote western island after a 7.2-magnitude temblor triggered the landslides in the Pacific Solomon Islands on Monday, said disaster management office director Loti Yates.

No injuries have been reported some 30 hours after the biggest in a series of quakes churned a tsunami wave that was up to 10 feet (3 meters) high as it plowed into the coast, officials said.

However, more than 1,000 people have been affected after some 200 houses were destroyed on Rendova, an island some 190 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital Honiara. Only 3,600 people live on Rendova.

Photographs taken from police helicopters Tuesday showed debris lining the foreshore and damaged houses on the coasts of Rendova and Tetepare, as well as deep scars on hills and cliffs caused by landslides.

Yates said some 200 households were taking shelter in emergency centers on Rendova.

Hillsides crashed down and the tsunami inundated homes Monday, but residents' memories of earlier disasters probably helped prevent any casualties, officials and residents said.

In April 2007, an 8.1 temblor unleashed a tsunami that killed more than 50 people. A quake-churned tsunami that killed more than 200 on nearby Samoa and Tonga in September was another reminder, locals said.

"People are very sensitive, as a quake conjures up memories, and people immediately begin going to higher ground," police commissioner Peter Marshall told The Associated Press.

"The fact it was daylight, the isolated nature of the wave and that the landslides were in a relatively sparsely populated area" also helped, he said.

The largest quake -- magnitude 7.2 -- happened about 9:30 a.m. local time Monday and caused the tsunami to hit the coast a short time later.

Since then, at least a dozen other quakes greater than magnitude 5.0 have rocked the earthquake-prone region. The strongest, a magnitude 6.9 aftershock, hit the nation's western region again late Tuesday night and generated a tsunami about an inch high, but there were no immediate reports of fresh damage and no reports of injury.

In the provincial capital Gizo, dive shop owner Danny Kennedy said the general rule is that "if there's anything more than 20 seconds of shaking or any sea water recedes, head for the hills."

A police boat patrolled Tuesday to check the coastline, where many homes are at sea level, making them vulnerable to tsunamis, National Disaster Management Office spokesman Julian Makaa said. No casualties had been reported so far, he said.

One village, Retavo, home to about 20 people, was reportedly completely inundated by a wall of sea water up to 10 feet (3 meters) high, but Makaa said no deaths or injuries had been reported there.

Emergency food, water and tarpaulins were being shipped in.

The Solomon Islands lie on the "Ring of Fire" -- an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.

Inside Sumatra's devastated villages

The closer you get to the earthquake's epicentre the worse the damage gets.

First the road becomes blocked to vehicles. Then even motorbikes cannot get through, and soon you can only walk and clamber over the landslides to reach the communities perhaps hardest hit by this disaster.

Homes were just swallowed up here as the quake shook the land from the hillsides, tearing down everything, destroying houses and crushing hundreds of people below tonnes of earth.

The size of the landslides is astonishing - massive tears in the jungle where soil and trees have been ripped from the slopes and dumped into the valleys.

Map

Dawianis Ardo is digging. Others are helping him - smashing concrete beams with the back of an axe, pulling at debris with wire cables and shifting bucket-loads of soil from the hole.

The patch of earth, trees and concrete is what is left of three homes. One was empty, but the two crushed into each other and buried with earth from the mountain were not.

Inside were nine adults and seven children - some of them playing marbles just outside the house when the earthquake struck.

"We found two bodies yesterday - they had been crushed to death - we expect to find the other 14 bodies today," he said.

They were his cousins.

"If we don't find them today I will dig for another five days - that will be a week - and then I will leave them to God."

Crushed to death

A path has been trodden across the face of the landslide where the road used to be and people were carefully making their way across.

I just sat here and prayed
Zaimar
Earthquake survivor

The situation just worsened further along the track - more houses flattened, more landslides scarring the hillside and wider cracks in the road.

Zaimar sat outside her collapsed home as the men dug at the crushed wooden beams to get out their food supplies and possessions.

She described what it was like when the quake hit, kneeling down and showing us how she sat to stop herself falling as the shockwave threw everything and everybody around.

She began to cry - to sob - as she remembered those terrifying moments when she was convinced the world was going to end.

"I just sat here and prayed," she said, still crying uncontrollably.

Her family were all unhurt, but the shock has affected her deeply and her neighbours lost relatives in the rubble.

Waiting for help

At another landslide an ornately tiled porch stands now like a platform overlooking the valley below.

The home which was behind it is crushed and buried, along with a family of 10 people.

Further along, the route is blocked by a house teetering on the edge of another gaping scar - the only way forward to the villages and communities ahead is through someone's front room.

One village is packed with people - all asking when the aid will come. A police helicopter circled overhead, suggesting they have not been forgotten about.

But they feel abandoned and alone. They have rice and basic supplies, but with no electricity and a road it will take many weeks to repair, they are afraid of their new-found isolation, hoping help will come to them soon.

Three-thousand dead is what the government has estimated.

Here amid the destroyed homes, with so many stories of relatives being buried alive, it seems as though it could be even more.

36 dead, villages 'wiped out' in Samoa quake, tsunami

A huge 8.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the remote Pacific islands of Samoa and American Samoa, killing at least 36 and wiping out entire villages, officials and witnesses said.

Buildings were toppled and thousands of people fled to higher ground after the offshore quake struck in the early morning, followed by giant waves, sweeping cars out to sea.

At least 14 people were reported to have died in American Samoa and another 14 in Samoa, the Red Cross said, warning the death toll was expected to rise.

One witness said the wall of water was up to 30 feet (nine metres) high, and a local journalist told AFP entire villages had been wiped out on Samoa's south and southwest coasts where thousands of people live.

Apia, capital of the independent state of Samoa, was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher ground.

Witnesses said cars were swept out to sea in American Samoa, where buildings were destroyed in what the US territory's Congress delegate said was a scene of "devastation". Related article: US scrambles response

The US Geological Survey said an 8.0-magnitude quake struck at 6:48 am (1748 GMT) at a depth of 18 kilometres (11 miles), 195 kilometres south of Apia.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said waves of up to 1.57 metres (over five feet) had smashed into American Samoa. It issued a tsunami alert over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far as Hawaii, which was later cancelled.

Two South Koreans were among the dead while another was missing, Seoul officials said, while Australia and New Zealand both made preparations to send emergency help. Related article: Australia aid

Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa which is headquartered in the territory's capital Pago Pago, told colleagues in California there had been widescale destruction.

National Park Service spokeswoman Holly Bundock said she had spoken to Reynolds, who was sheltering under a coconut tree.

"Park staff when they are able to make cell phone calls are calling in to our offices," she said.

"They said five tsunami waves have hit the park visitor centre in Pago Pago. It would appear park offices and the visitor centre there have been destroyed. "One of the waves was about 30 feet high."

Samoan journalist Jona Tuiletufuga told AFP there was widespread destruction with possibly thousands of people left homeless on the island.

"We are getting reports of missing people in areas were damage is extensive on the south and southeast coasts," he told AFP. "Entire villages have been wiped out."

Tuiletufuga said there were up to 70 villages in the worst-hit area and each housed from 300-800 people.

A New Zealand tourist who called Radio New Zealand to appeal for help said he was looking over an area of destruction from high ground near Apia. Related article: New Zealand aid

"We clambered up a hill and one of the party has a broken leg. We just need help. There will be people in a great lot of need around here, it's flattened."

While information from the islands was patchy, New Zealand deputy high commissioner to Apia, David Dolphin, said most of the damage appeared to be centred on the southern coast where waves of six to eight metres were recorded.

"There are reports of some quite serious damage, at least five fatalities and quite a few reports of people missing," said Dolphin, who was on the north coast at the time.

"It was pretty scary but the house didn't appear to be falling apart so we just took what precautions we could and hunkered down," Dolphin said.

"There were windows rattling, light fittings swaying, a number of light things fell off tables and shelves," he added.

A series of powerful aftershocks rattled the South Pacific in the hours after the initial quake, which prompted Japan to issue a tsunami alert over 50 centimetre (20-inch) waves expected to hit the southern Ogasawara islands.

Several of the Earth's tectonic plates meet in South Pacific and violent geological activity is common. Large quakes with an under-ocean epicentre can trigger tsunamis that can have devastating effects.

In December 2004 an undersea earthquake off Indonesia's Sumatra set off a tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people around the Indian Ocean and laid waste to huge areas of coastline.

Strong earthquakes rock Indonesia

string of powerful earthquakes rocked Indonesia yesterday, leaving at least one dead and dozens injured and triggering panic in the country hardest hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami.
Indonesian authorities canceled a tsunami alert issued after the first of several strong quakes early yesterday morning, but by then thousands of people had fled their homes and were thronging roads leading from the coast. A 7.6-magnitude quake hit before dawn about 150km northwest of Manokwari, the main city in the province of West Papua, which lies on the Pacific Ocean in the far east of Indonesia’s island chain. A 7.5-magnitude aftershock and a procession of smaller quakes, one as strong as magnitude 6.1, later rattled the region, US and Indonesian seismological authorities said. A 10-year-old girl was killed when a wall collapsed and at least 52 people suffered injuries, 37 of them in Manokwari, an AFP tally of hospital figures showed.Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said that based on “unofficial” information, four people had been killed in the quake. The figure could not be confirmed by local hospitals.“There are only two hospitals in Manokwari and we only recorded one killed ... a 10-year old girl,” a doctor identified as Agus at one of the hospitals said.“Any casualty caused by a disaster must be reported to us first before being handed to the victim’s family,” he said.West Papua’s police chief Bagus Eko Danto confirmed that there was only one killed in the quake. “After collecting all information from affected places, we concluded that only one [was] killed, the 10-year old girl,” he said.One of the main tourist hotels in Manokwari was toppled and at least three people were pulled out of the rubble alive. Electricity in the city was down and elsewhere there were reports of flattened houses and damaged buildings.Minor tsunamis caused by the quakes reached Japan, the country’s meteorological agency said, but there were no reports of damage.

In Thailand 388 victims of Tsunami still unidentified

In Thailand, Director Nitinai Sornsongkram of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification and Repatriation Centre in southern Phangnga province said 388 bodies of tsunami victims remain unidentified.Phangnga, just north of Phuket province, is the site of the Khao Lak tourist area, where ten of thousands of Europeans spent their winter vacation prior to the 2004 tsunami, which killed about 180,000 on the Indian Ocean rim.
The centre received 3,696 bodies in February 2005 and 3,308 bodies were unidentified and retrieved by their relatives, he said.
He affirmed that agency workers are still trying to identify the bodies and to return them to their families.
At present, there are 445 still missing persons who have been reported by their relatives. Of these, 290 are Thais, 95 are Burmese migrant workers and 60 are Scandinavians.
Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, and Thailand were all hard hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami triggered by an earthquake with a magnitude of about nine on the Richter scale.
More than 5,000 people, mostly international tourists on holiday, were killed when the killer waves struck Thailand's six Andaman coastal provinces.
- Asian Tribune -

Grumpy pig voted China's favorite animal - Animal weirdness-

ed note:-->>'It's gotten fatter and lazier by the day,' it quoted staff as saying. 'We used to take it out for a walk every morning and afternoon, but it's too lazy — and too fat — to do it.'
And the pig is getting fed up with visitors, after initially being quite friendly.
'Now it just blocks the door to its bedroom when there are too many visitors outside. It's been increasingly difficult for us to convince it to open the door,

Grumpy pig voted China's favorite animal "BEIJING - A pig that survived 36 days buried in the rubble of May's massive Sichuan earthquake has been voted China's favorite animal, but the attention has made him fat, lazy and bad-tempered, state media said.
The hog, trapped in a sty after the 7.9 magnitude quake, was bought by a local businessman who was moved by its ordeal and named 'Zhu Jianqiang,' or 'Strong Pig.'
It survived by eating charcoal and drinking rainwater.
Now it has been voted to the top of an online poll of animals that 'moved China' this year, the weekend edition of the China Daily said.
Other top animals included a dog that guarded its elderly owner when he was sick and accompanied him to hospital, and a cat that almost died of grief when its partner was run over by a car.
The pig 'vividly illustrated the spirit of never giving up,' the report cited the webmasters who ran the poll as saying.
People come from all over to see the pig at its new home in a museum, the newspaper said, but it was becoming increasingly spoiled and ungrateful.
'It's gotten fatter and lazier by the day,' it quoted staff as saying. 'We used to take it out for a walk every morning and afternoon, but it's too lazy — and too fat — to do it.'
And the pig is getting fed up with visitors, after initially being quite friendly.
'Now it just blocks the door to its bedroom when there are too many visitors outside. It's been increasingly difficult for us to convince it to open the door,' the report said."

Indonesia official: No tsunami risk from quake - Asia-Pacific - msnbc.com

JAKARTA, Indonesia - A powerful earthquake struck waters off western Indonesia on Saturday, but local officials said there was no risk of a tsunami.
The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.8 and hit 100 miles southwest of Bengkulu, a city on Sumatra island. It was centered 16 miles beneath the ocean floor.
Fauzi, an official with Indonesia's geological agency, said the temblor did not trigger a tsunami and there were no immediate reports of damage. Like many Indonesians, he only has one name.

Indonesia is prone to seismic upheaval due to its location on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
In December 2004, a massive earthquake off Sumatra island triggered a tsunami that battered much of the Indian Ocean coastline and killed more than 230,000 people.

Quake rocks China`s insurance sector, damages touch $20 bn

The most powerful earthquake in China since 1950 shows the nation's insurance industry is decades behind those of the world's biggest economies.
Just 5 per cent of the more than $20 billion of damages from the quake in Sichuan province is covered by insurance, according to estimates from an official at the China Insurance Regulatory Commission, who declined to be identified.
By contrast, about half of the $120 billion of estimated costs from Hurricane Katrina, the most expensive storm in US history, was insured by companies or the federal government, data compiled by analysts at Jersey City, New Jersey-based Property Claim Services show.
"The earthquake underscores how much room insurers have to penetrate into rural China," said Zhang Ling, who oversees $1.1 billion for ICBC Credit Suisse Asset Management Co. from Beijing and holds Ping An Insurance (Group) Co. shares. "There'll be much more momentum and government support to do that after this year's natural disasters."
China Life Insurance Co. and Ping An, the nation's biggest insurers, have yet to extend their reach across China, where only 4 per cent of the nation's 1.3 billion people have insurance, according to data compiled by KPMG International. By contrast, 77 per cent of Americans own some type of life insurance policy.
The 7.9 magnitude quake has killed about 20,000 people since May 12, damaged and destroyed homes and buildings in 44 counties and districts in Sichuan, and directly affected about half of the 20 million people who live in the region. At least 30,000 people remain buried under rubble.
"If a disaster like this happened in Europe or the US, the claims situation would be very different," said Michael Spranger, a Hong Kong-based earthquake analyst at Munich Re, the world's No. 2 reinsurer after Swiss Re. "Natural disaster coverage rates are very low across Asia, in the single digits."
The Niigata earthquake, which struck central Japan last July, recorded total damages of $3 billion, with insured losses equivalent to 10 per cent of the total, according to Clarence Wong, chief economist for Swiss Re Asia in Hong Kong.

Almost five million left homeless, China says

CHENGDU, CHINA — With the death toll still rising in the Sichuan earthquake, China disclosed that at least four million apartments and homes had been damaged or destroyed in the massive quake, leaving almost five million people homeless.
Strong aftershocks were continuing to rattle the disaster zone Friday, knocking out phone lines and triggering landslides that blocked roads and buried a number of vehicles on a road leading to the epicentre.
The biggest aftershock Friday had a 5.5 magnitude, causing buildings to sway in the city of Chengdu, about 80 kilometres from the quake-damaged region.
About 10 survivors, including a young child and a 23-year-old nurse, were rescued alive Friday after four days in the rubble. Rescue workers could hear weak cries from a few other people in the wreckage. But hope was fading for most of those who were still trapped in the collapsed buildings.

A resident of Beichuan walks away from the ruins Thursday. Villages nearby are short of food, water and medicine. (Jason Lee/Reuters)
The official death toll rose to about 22,000 Friday, an increase of more than 3,000 from the day earlier. The final toll is expected to climb to 50,000 or more. A further 159,000 have been injured.
China has mounted a huge relief effort, with 135,000 soldiers, police and medical staff, along with helicopters that are dropping packages of food and clothing to remote regions that still cannot be reached by road.
Water shortages have become “extremely serious” in Sichuan province, according to Chinese Housing Minister Jiang Weixin. There is no running water in 20 counties and cities in the disaster area, he said.
China's Housing Ministry announced Friday that it is launching an investigation into the collapse of many school buildings in the quake. It vowed to punish anyone responsible for shoddy construction.
Public controversy is still raging in China over the collapse of the school buildings, which killed thousands of children. Nearly 7,000 classrooms were destroyed in the collapsed schools, according to new estimates. Many people believe the schools were shoddily constructed as a result of government corruption. In some cases, the schools collapsed while all other nearby buildings were intact.
Meanwhile, for the first time in its history, the Chinese government officially accepted the help of foreign rescue workers, many of whom have specialized technology and experience in rescuing people from collapsed buildings. A 31-member team from Japan arrived in the quake zone Friday, with special life-detection equipment and sniffer dogs. But the government waited four days before accepting the offer, too late for the vast majority of those who were trapped in the rubble.
Only four countries – Japan, South Korea, Singapore and Russia – were permitted to send their rescue teams to China. An offer of assistance from the Canadian government, which wanted to send the Disaster Assistance Response Team (DART), was apparently not accepted by the Chinese authorities.
A 10-member team of rescue specialists from a British relief agency, who had arrived in Hong Kong on Wednesday, were unable to get permission from the Chinese government to travel to Sichuan Friday.
Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao has been in the earthquake zone since Monday, visiting different sites and consoling the victims and survivors. Friday, he was joined by President Hu Jintao, who told survivors that “we feel your anguish.”
In the badly hit city of Mianyang Friday, Mr. Hu said the relief work has entered its most crucial phase. “The challenge is still severe, the task is still arduous and the time is pressing,” he said, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.
About 20,000 earthquake survivors have taken shelter in a sports stadium in Mianyang. Some are sleeping on ping-pong table tops, treadmills and the floors of boxing rings. Volunteers are providing food, medicine and clothing to the survivors.
The stadium itself was slightly damaged in the earthquake. Inside, several volunteers are painstakingly trying to record the names of the survivors so that their relatives can find them.