The tsunami disaster

Countless, though, have been man's sufferings from ravages of seas down the ages, the worst is, perhaps, the massive destruction of lives and properties from the tsunamis, a horrific example of which has been seen in its devastating onslaught over South East Asia, originating in the sea off Indonesia and quickly spreading over to vast areas in many a land to its north and west.
Massive rescue operations have been scrambled along Asia's devastated coastlines in its aftermath as the death toll from a powerful earthquake and the giant tsunami (harbour waves) coming in its wake rose to over 55,000 and as hopes faded for many thousands more still missing.
Reports have it that billions of dollars worth of damage has been caused by the elemental calamity and the humanitarian relief operation needed to help victims would have to be the biggest ever mounted.
Horrific scenes of death and destruction met emergency teams as bodies piled up by the hour in Sri Lanka, India, Indonesia and Thailand. International aid agencies rushed food and clothing to increasing millions left wounded, homeless and destitute.
Providentially, Pakistan Navy (PN) ships, 'Nasr', an auxiliary tanker, and 'Tariq', a Type-21 destroyer, and helicopters, which were on operational deployment to South East Asia since early November, were able to offer humanitarian assistance to Maldivan government in the evacuation of stranded tourists/locals from the islands and for emergency drop of food supplies to the affected areas.
Having earlier visited Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Brunei, and Indonesia, they were in Male (Maldives) on December 25, and may now stay there for sometime to continue the humanitarian assistance to the Maldivan authorities.
The trail of devastation, over such a large expanse in South East Asia, was set off after an earthquake in sea-bed off Indonesia last Sunday, razing buildings in Banda Aceh and triggering a monstrous tsunami (Japanese for harbour waves, which are different from tidal waves). It battered the coasts of Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Indonesia, the Maldives, Myanmar and Malaysia. (It will be noted that in earlier times seismic ocean waves were called tidal waves, erroneously implying that they were related to tides.
To end confusion, scientists later switched over to the use of the Japanese word tsunami to differentiate them from tidal waves). As the scientists have explained, a sudden shifting of seabed from explosive volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or submarine slumping can cause the water level over affected area to drop and generate a tsunami - a series of low waves with long periods and long wavelengths, and travelling, away at an incredible speed, comparable to the speed of modern jet planes, from their point of origin.
However, significantly enough, their fury goes unfelt in open seas because of the huge depth of water. Scientists have also pointed out that sailors on the deep sea may not even notice the passage of a tsunami beneath the vessel as the ocean swell would hide its presence.
However, it can spell disaster on reaching shallow water, gaining a height of 10 to 50 meters and above, thereby dangerously flooding the coast, with disastrous consequences.
As for the massive devastation from killer tsunami, this time, the fourth largest since 1900, huge waves swept across some 7,000 kilometres as far as Africa, crashing on to the shores of Kenya and Somalia, while also hitting the islands of Mauritius, Reunion and the Seychelles on the way, and leaving 100 Somali fishermen feared dead. As survivors continue to be evacuated from stricken areas, the task of providing relief and succour to such a large number of people is a challenging one not only for the directly affected countries, but also for the world community.
Rising to the occasion, the United Nations has rushed disaster teams, saying hundreds of thousands of people in coastal areas were at risk, with livelihoods from fishing and farming wiped out and disease threatening to wreak more havoc.
The scramble for assistance has been marked with launch of rescue ships, helicopters and planes to evacuate residents and tourists from wrecked resorts and to airlift increasing number of victims to safer places and overcrowded hospitals.
Incidentally, the worst hit are Sri Lanka and India, followed by Indonesia. The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies have appealed for 6.6 million dollars to help an estimated 500,000 survivors. All this is quite understandable.
However, the international community would do well to focus on creation of an effective alarm system to warn in time the vulnerable areas of the threats of tsunami onslaught, on a pattern which has been adopted by Japan and some other countries.