Study Shows that Boxing Day Tsunami hit both coasts of Canada

Waves from the Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia late last year travelled tens of thousands of kilometres around the globe, eventually lapping at Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts several days later, an international report concludes. The waves that hit Halifax were less than half the size of a typical wave, but still higher than those that hit a small string of islands in the Indian Ocean directly south of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, says the report, published yesterday in the on-line edition of the journal Science.

Waves from the Boxing Day tsunami in Southeast Asia late last year travelled tens of thousands of kilometres around the globe, eventually lapping at Canada's Atlantic and Pacific coasts several days later, an international report concludes. The waves that hit Halifax were less than half the size of a typical wave, but still higher than those that hit a small string of islands in the Indian Ocean directly south of the 9.0-magnitude earthquake, says the report, published yesterday in the on-line edition of the journal Science. Read More ....


(Source: The Globe and Mail)

Ernst & Young - Indonesia Develops Tsunami Accounting Software

Ernst & Young Indonesia has developed a 'Tool Kit' to help organizations that provide humanitarian aid to Tsunami victims, to establish proper systems of accountability and internal control. Adlair Goldberg, Ernst & Young, Jakarta, the author of the tool kit named as EYe Tool Kit explained the details of the tool kit at a brief seminar arranged in association with the Consortium for Humanitarian Agencies held at Ceylon Continental Hotel, Colombo, Sri Lanka, last week.

As part of Ernst and Young commitment to support the Tsunami Relief Efforts and to help provide transparency and accountability in this very important humanitarian mission, Golberg said, theErnst & Young has developed EYe Tool Kit as a resource to help providers establish adequate systems to accountability and internal control within their organizations.
He said that an NGO is required to get the resources needed the plans and budget to do a solid programme and experienced people, proper organization and support systems should be in place and there should be solid relationship with the community of which they serve.

Read More ....

(Source: Indonesia Tsunami Relief Portal)

GOAL revitalises Sri Lanka schools

GOAL is undertaking a schools rehabilitation programme in Ampara District, Sri Lanka. With a budget of $7.5m the project will take approximately one year to complete. Seven months after Sri Lanka's unprecedented tragedy of December 26th 2004, there are signs of a society slowly getting back on it's feet. Amid the destruction wrought by the tsunami the humanitarian agency GOAL is rehabilitating sixty-four schools in the underdeveloped and neglected eastern province of Ampara.

With a budget of $7.5m the project is GOAL's biggest ever single project. It will have a significant impact on the lives of over 31,000 school children in the hardest hit community on the island, where livelihoods and lives were swept away in the terrifying ordeal.

Work has already started in several locations, directed by Ailbhe Gerrard, a project manager from Coolbawn near Nenagh in Co. Tipperary, Ireland. "Three of the schools had been directly hit by the tsunami wave, the force had smashed buildings leaving roofs hanging precariously over space where walls used to be, quarter structures standing abandoned and foundations exposed. Sixty one schools had hosted the thousands of refugees for weeks and in some cases months. These people needed shelter and had broken locks to enter classrooms, burnt wooden furniture to cook and heat water. There was extensive damage to latrines, water pipes and electrical fittings. " Read More ....



(Source: AlertNet)

Drama group aids tsunami victim

A Sri Lankan teenager has spoken of how a drama group now performing at the Edinburgh Festival eased the trauma she suffered from 26 December's tsunami. Ruwani Sitara, 15, lost seven members of her family in the disaster.

She is now taking part in Children of the Sea - based on Shakespeare's Pericles - as part of the Fringe Festival at the Royal Botanic Garden. Drama organiser Anoja Weerasinghe said workshops had helped many children who became terrified of the sea. Read More ....

(Source: BBC News)

India: Rebuilding Tsunami Ravaged Infrastructure To Take 3 Yrs

Indian government on Tuesday said it would take nearly three years to rebuild tsunami-battered areas, as the killer waves had rendered certain coastal areas highly salinated making them unfit for cultivation, according to a news report by the Press Trust of India (PTI).

"The tsunami has rendered certain coastal areas highly salinated thereby making them unfit for cultivation," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said here after releasing a report on the calamity that struck several South Asian countries on December 26 last year.

"The government is trying its best to put life of the affected populace back on the rails," Ahluwalia said.

The report titled "Older People in tsunami: Challenges of Survival" prepared by the Helpage India noted that the fishing community was the worst-hit and that the agricultural land destroyed by salinity did not receive adequate attention. The Planning Commission Chairman said the government was making efforts to provide infrastructure of better quality like modern fishing harbours.

British Deputy High Commissioner Mark Runcares said his government has been extending financial assistance to the various NGOs for reconstruction of infrastructure. In course of its study, Helpage surveyed 856 old people, who said there were no specific component in the relief operations for them. Among the older victims of tsunami, 14 per cent of those surveyed were living alone, while two per cent had no income and eight per cent were unable to work. Three per cent respondents lost their assets and their entire family while four per cent lost their assets and young members of their family.



(Source: Malaysian National News Agency)

Tsunami alert system 'useless without communication'

A tsunami warning system will be fully operational in the Indian Ocean by July 2006, but it will be of little use unless nations in the region are ready to respond to its warnings, said participants at a conference in Perth, Australia, last Friday (5 August). The meeting, organised by the United Nations, gathered representatives of 27 countries at risk from future tsunamis in the Indian Ocean.

Those attending the Perth meeting agreed to add dozens of hi-tech seabed sensors and surface buoys to make tsunami detection faster and more precise. But accurate detection will only be valuable if warnings can be communicated to coastal communities and if authorities prepare evacuation plans. Read More ....

(Source: SciDevNet)

Hawaii study: Trees buffer tsunami impact

Planting trees and bushy plants between buildings and the ocean helped to lessen the impact of the waves when the Dec. 26 killer tsunami struck in the Maldives Islands, University of Hawaii researchers said. The observations by the UH researchers, who traveled to the Maldives about six weeks after the tsunami that killed about 180,000 people and left another 50,000 unaccounted for in 11 countries, could one day make hotels and other buildings in Hawaii safer. Read More ....



(Source: USA Today)