The Tsunami

Its just unbeievable the death and destruction from the tsunami. My family is made up of news junkies who are also compassionate to a fault. Trying to understand the magnitude of loss and the science behind the tsunami has dominated our conversations of late. While out on the Deerfield Beach pier after dinner on Monday night, we watched the waves come in and tried to size the tsunami. It was windy and cold but we just stood there talking about how tsunamis are generated, how far inland the tsunami went and the emotion of standing on a beach and seeing the wall of water rushing toward you.

Some interesting facts--the largest tsunami ever recorded was in 1958 in Alaska. The wave was 1,700 feet tall! It was generated from a rock slide in a bay. Lituya Bay Tsunami

I would encourage everyone to donate to their relief agency of choice. The government shouldn't be expected to do it all and, as I learned on my trips to Haiti with Food For The Poor, government to government aid is riddled with corruption. If you don't know who you can trust, give money to www.worldvision.org. (Their site may be tough to get to due to the disaster response but keep trying.) Even $5 will help.

My co-worker from Food For The Poor went to work for them in 2002 and was communications director in Herat, Afghanistan beginning in August 2002. Her stories of their work and dedication were incredible.

And, one little bit of humor I've found in the news coverage is this caption on msnbc.com. Does this guy have the perfect name to be discussing a tsunami that killed tens of thousands of people?

Dec. 27: Waverly Person, a geophysicist with the U.S. Geological Survey, says lives could have been saved after the earthquake in Asia if there had been a tsunami warning system in place.