On this day.

[armaghniac]

20 years ago today. Indian Ocean tsunami which claimed an estimated 230,000 lives.  The death toll affected more than 60 countries including four Irish tourists lost their lives.

Dublin woman Eilis Finnegan, a 27-year-old United Airlines air hostess, died in Thailand.

Ms Finnegan, from Ballyfermot, was on the beach in the Phi Phi islands with her boyfriend Barry Murphy (29) from Castleknock in Dublin when the tsunami struck.

The other three Irish victims of the tsunami also died in Thailand.


Lucy Coyle (28), an accountant from Killiney, Co Dublin; student Michael Murphy (23) from Knockbawn, Blackwater, Co Wexford and Conor Keightley (31) from Cookstown, Co Tyrone were killed as the giant wave struck without warning.

Still very eerie watching videos of people standing at the beach watching the water pull back out to sea not knowing what was actually coming their way

This was a particular point in history, when there were video cameras but not no smartphones. With smartphones somebody would get wind of events and probably people further from the epicentre would have been able to evacuate.

There were smartphones in Valencia when it rained a year over an afternoon recently. Even though people may  have understood what was happening they didn't know what to do.

While serious, 1000 times as many people died in 2004 as in Valencia and they had a clear 2 hours to act in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
But the problem in Valencia was almost the opposite. It was not the absence of warning mechanisms, the problem was that there were warning mechanisms but the authorities did not trigger the warnings.
As for knowing what to do, the topography varies, but in Thailand all people had to do was to go to a higher floor in their own hotel.

[jcpen]

Joe Dolan died today in 2007

[seafoid]

20 years ago today. Indian Ocean tsunami which claimed an estimated 230,000 lives.  The death toll affected more than 60 countries including four Irish tourists lost their lives.

Dublin woman Eilis Finnegan, a 27-year-old United Airlines air hostess, died in Thailand.

Ms Finnegan, from Ballyfermot, was on the beach in the Phi Phi islands with her boyfriend Barry Murphy (29) from Castleknock in Dublin when the tsunami struck.

The other three Irish victims of the tsunami also died in Thailand.


Lucy Coyle (28), an accountant from Killiney, Co Dublin; student Michael Murphy (23) from Knockbawn, Blackwater, Co Wexford and Conor Keightley (31) from Cookstown, Co Tyrone were killed as the giant wave struck without warning.

Still very eerie watching videos of people standing at the beach watching the water pull back out to sea not knowing what was actually coming their way

This was a particular point in history, when there were video cameras but not no smartphones. With smartphones somebody would get wind of events and probably people further from the epicentre would have been able to evacuate.

There were smartphones in Valencia when it rained a year over an afternoon recently. Even though people may  have understood what was happening they didn't know what to do.

While serious, 1000 times as many people died in 2004 as in Valencia and they had a clear 2 hours to act in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
But the problem in Valencia was almost the opposite. It was not the absence of warning mechanisms, the problem was that there were warning mechanisms but the authorities did not trigger the warnings.
As for knowing what to do, the topography varies, but in Thailand all people had to do was to go to a higher floor in their own hotel.

How many on the beaches got the warnings? The authorities knew in Spain as well.

[armaghniac]

While serious, 1000 times as many people died in 2004 as in Valencia and they had a clear 2 hours to act in Thailand, India and Sri Lanka.
But the problem in Valencia was almost the opposite. It was not the absence of warning mechanisms, the problem was that there were warning mechanisms but the authorities did not trigger the warnings.
As for knowing what to do, the topography varies, but in Thailand all people had to do was to go to a higher floor in their own hotel.

How many on the beaches got the warnings? The authorities knew in Spain as well.

In the Indian Ocean the governments had decided not to set up a warning system, as it would cost too much. There hadn't been a Tsunami in Sri Lanka for 800 years and they wasn't much awareness of the problem at all.

In Spain they had a warning system and did not use it.

[Wildweasel74]

Was at Uni in Derry with Conor, very quite lad. Seems a different lifetime, when i see he gone 20yrs now.