Price of new low-cost homes too steep for tsunami victims

PENANG, MALAYSIA : The tsunami victims in Penang are unable to move into their new homes because the price is not right, said MP Datuk Seri Chia Kwang Chye. The state government had set a ceiling price of RM42,000 per unit of low-cost home but the company engaged by the Federal Government to build the houses for tsunami victims was quoting RM52,000 per unit.

Chia said the state government was not agreeable to the price quoted by the company. �The state has appealed to the Federal Government to look into the matter urgently as the tsunami victims need to move into permanent homes,� Chia said.

The tsunami victims who lost their homes in Dec 2004 have been living in transit longhouses since more than two years ago. The victims have been complaining that the transit homes have started falling apart with cracks and leakages. Chia said the housing problems must be settled soon as the new homes would also fall apart if left unattended for a long time.

Source : The Star

Tsunami 26th December 2006 - recalling the days that followed that bewildering and chaotic day

Date: Dec. 26, 2004

* Tzu Chi volunteers were unable to enter the disaster areas due to a temporary closure ordered by the local police squad for safety concerns.
* Later that evening, Tzu Chi volunteers went to the morgue to help the families of the victims. They served hot meals and provided care and emergency cash to them.
* Number of households helped: 14.
* Amount of hot meal served: 320 bags.
* Number of volunteers participated: 60.


Date: Dec. 27, 2004

* Some volunteers started entering the disaster areas in the morning, while others were preparing hot meals, emergency cash and relief goods.
* Volunteers reported that some of the victims needed help to clean up their houses. Ten volunteers participated in the cleaning effort and cleaned two households.
* At noon, volunteers spread out into different disaster area and started the relief efforts by disbributing relief goods at a designated shelter amd making door-to-door distribution.
* Number of households helped: Tanjung Tokong (57), Permatang Damar Laut (35), Bagan Teluk Kumbar (30), Pulau Betong (40), Kuala Muda (273).
* Medical staff affiliated with the Tzu Chi International Medical Association offered free clinic services to the victims at the relief shelters in Tanjung Tokong and Kuala Muda.
* Number of victims received medical attention: 28 people.
* Households received relief goods: 435.
* Hot meal served: 1,260 bags.
* Number of volunteers participated: 300

Date: Dec. 28, 2004
Methods of relief efforts: 1) relief distribution at a designated shelter; 2) door-to-door distribution.

* Number of households helped: Kuala Jalan Baru (36), Permatang Damar Laut (16), Sungai Pinang (50), Bagan Jermal(83), Tanjung Tokong (20), Tanjung Bungah (88), Kuala Muda (295).
* Another group of volunteers headed to the disaster areas to clean up the trash and debris. Later, they were joined by the relief team and transported a total of seven truckloads of trash.
* Medical staff went to the relief shelter in Kuala Muda to provide free medical care.
* Number of victims received medical care: 100 people.
* Households received relief goods: 588.
* Hot meal served: 690 bags.
* Number of volunteers participated: 200.

Date: Dec. 29, 2004
Methods of relief efforts: 1) relief distribution at a designated shelter; 2) door-to-door distribution.

* Number of households helped: relief goods delivered in Tanjong Bungah of Penang (66) and Bagan Jelma (5). Relief goods were distributed in Kuala Teriang of Langkawi (210).
* Volunteers continued the cleaning effort after the relief was finished. They provided cleaning effort in the same disaster area as yesterday. Another eight truckloads of trash were transported today.
* Forty-five Tzu Chi volunteers from Penang, Kuala Lumpur, Kedah, Johor and Langkawi came to the Langkawi relief shelter to provide relief goods to the victims.
* Tzu Chi volunteers were able to identify residents who needed special care and help in the Tanjung Bungah disaster area with the help of the village's top official. The volunteers collected the case data in preparation for subsequent post-disaster care.
* Hot meals were served to the victims without hot food in Bagan Jelma of Penang.
* Households received relief goods: 281.
* Hot meal served: 24 bags.
* Number of volunteers participated: 77.

Date: Dec. 30, 2004
Methods of relief efforts: distributing relief materials at a designated shelter.

* Number of households helped: Tanjung Bungah of Penang (13), Bukit Malut of Langkawi (330), and Sungain Bakau (51).
* Twenty-eight Tzu Chi volunteers continued the house cleaning and gave personal care in Kampung Nelayan of Tanjung Bungah. Tzu Chi volunteers also teamed up with a local Christian group to clean up the disaster areas. In the afternoon, 18 volunteers took over and continued the cleaning effort.
* More than 60 volunteers from Alor Setar, Jitra, Butterworth and Penang joined to help cleaning the victims� houses in Kuala Muda. A total of five houses belonged to 10 elderly people and a kindergarten were cleaned by the volunteers. Volunteers were ordered to leave the area later by the police due to another possible tsunami attack.
* A Tzu Chi social worker and 10 volunteers provided care and relief goods to the families of the killed victims. Seven households were visited and four households received relief goods.
* Two rounds of relief goods distribution and free medical clinic were provided in Langkawi today -- in Bukit Malut in the morning and in Sungai Bakau in the afternoon.
* A total of 45 Tzu Chi volunteers and social workers from Penang, Kuala Lumpar, Kedah, Johor and Langkawi participated in today�s relief effort.
* About 200 people came to the free clinic for medical treatments. Two doctors, two nurses, one pharmacist and four volunteers helped in the free clinic.
* Number of Households received relief goods: 39
* Number of volunteers participated: 151.

Date: Dec. 31, 2004

* A total of 22 volunteers participated in today�s cleaning up effort in Tanjong Bunga (including the beach area). Tzu Chi volunteers also provided hot meals (170 boxes) to these victims in two relief shelters, delivered relief goods to one household and reported five cases needing for further help.
* Tzu Chi social workers and volunteers continued to provide in-home care to the families of the deceased victims and delivered relief goods to them based on the information from two hospitals. Among the six families they visited, one lost five children when the tsunami hit. Both parents of that family were too devastated to take care of their own injuries. Tzu Chi volunteers provided loving care and would continue to offer their care and support.
* Households received relief goods: 7.
* Hot meal served: 170 boxes (Tajung Tokong: 150 boxes, Bagan Jelma: 20 boxes).
* Number of volunteers participated: 27.

Date: Jan.1, 2005

* A total of 218 Tzu Chi volunteers headed to the disaster areas in Pulau Betong in the morning to help community cleaning up. They also cleaned seven houses damaged by the tsunami. The cleaning work continued until 4:30 p.m.
* Besides Tzu Chi volunteers, there were many other people from local businesses and organizations joining the cleaning up effort during the New Year�s break. The day's volunteers included 218 from Tzu Chi, 150 from Intel, 80 from PPH, 30 from BLIA, 15 from Four-Wheel Drive Team, 3 from Inventec, and 50 others.
* Together with everyone�s cleaning effort, a total of 32 truckloads of trash were transported out from the tsunami-affected area.

Good To Be Back

Well it seems that Blogger/Google finally manage to restore this blog to the original, with all the original tsunami articles and all.

It is really amazing what the people in Google can do. Well, now all we have to do is to add new content to this already magnificent blog.

I for one would like to feature the tourist destinations of both Penang and Thailand. This is to bring more awareness towards these beautifully restored tourist destinations that is already known the world over.

Here are some pictures of famous places in both Penang and Thailand.




Second anniversary - Another earthquake in Taiwan

It has been two years since the Tsunami hit.

The chilling fact is another earthquake measuring 7.2 struck off southern Taiwan. Is this just a coincidence? The perfect timing? Or is it something more? A sign perhaps?

Magnitude 7.2 quake off southern Taiwan - USGS

TAIPEI (Reuters) - A magnitude 7.2 quake struck off southern Taiwan on Tuesday, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

Britain's Sky News, quoting Japan's Meteorological Agency, said the quake had triggered a tsunami heading for the Philippines.

Taiwan's Central Weather Bureau said the quake measured 6.7 and was located at a depth of 22 km. Its epicentre was west-southwest of the Hengchun Peninsula on the island's southern tip.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said no Pacific-wide tsunami was expected, although a local tsunami was possible.

Taken from The Star


It seems like just not too long ago when my family experienced the tremors that shook us in Penang and eventually, caused the tsunami.

May the souls of the tsunami tragedy rest in peace.







Thailand buries last unidentified tsunami victims

Thailand buries last unidentified tsunami victims

By Richard Balmforth
BANG MARUAN, Thailand (Reuters) - Thailand began burying the last 110 of its unidentified victims of the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami in an inter-religious ceremony on Wednesday not far from the beaches on which they were killed.

Muslim and Roman Catholic priests joined Buddhist monks in presiding over the burials in big concrete chambers from which well protected bodies could be retrieved easily if DNA samples and other evidence kept by researchers produced an identity.

Eleven aluminium coffins were interred in each concrete chamber cut into the sandy soil of a cemetery 3 km (2 miles) from the Khao Lak beaches swept clean of tourists, workers and fishermen at the height of the tourist season two years ago.


Thais bury an unclaimed body, one of the unidentified victims of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, at Bang Muang Cemetery in Phang Nga, 788 km (490 miles) south of Bangkok, December 6, 2006. (REUTERS/Sukree Sukplang)
Most of the unidentified victims were believed to be Thai or migrant workers from Myanmar who were among the 5,395 people, half of them foreign holidaymakers, killed by the tsumani in Thailand, where it left almost 3,000 people missing.

DNA samples and other evidence from each body would allow investigators to continue searching for identities, officials of the Thai Tsunami Victim Identification (TTVI) said.

The aluminium coffins and concrete chambers capped by 500 kg (1,100 lb) lids would preserve the bodies from the hot, humid climate, they said.

"If relatives wanted to pick up the bodies in the future, then we could dig them out easily," TTVI official Police Lieutenant Wiwat Sidhisorudej said.

The burial of all 110 bodies was expected to be finished early next week in the cemetery where 300 unidentified bodies were buried over the past two months, officials said.

Still in cold storage at the nearby TTVI centre, which took over in January after most international experts ended their role in what has been called the world's biggest forensics investigation, are more than 100 bodies.

They have been identified but not yet claimed by relatives -- among them one Turk, one Nepali, 73 from Myanmar and 27 Thais killed by a tsunami in which more than 230,000 people died or disappeared in a dozen countries.

About 30 identified bodies of migrant workers from military-ruled Myanmar would be collected next week by one of their representative, said Colonel Khemmarin Hassiri, the TTVI chief.

During the burial ceremony, Sangkeep Kulmee came to pick up the body of her aunt, killed by the giant waves while working at a Khao Lak resort and identified nearly two years later.

"The feeling of happiness or sadness now is equal as I have been waiting for my aunt's body for almost two years," she said.




Copyright � 2006 Reuters

NORTHERN SUMATRA, INDONESIA, Dec 1st, Magnitude of 6.3 earthquake

I personally experienced the tremors right here in Penang. The readings of the quake is said to be :

An earthquake measuring 6.6 on the Richter scale struck Indonesia�s North Sumatra province Friday, but there is no immediate report of injuries or damage so far.

The tremor hit at 10:58 local time (0358 GMT) and was centered in the town of Tebing Tinggi, some 70 km east of the provincial capital of Medan, said Hardiyatno, a national earthquake analysis staff with the Meteorology and Geophysics Agency.


More info, photo of the readings and latest news can be found in my personal blog.