Tsunami disaster - State has duty to help ease suffering

Each year at this time some disaster seems to mar the Christmas and New Year festivities.

Usually it is in the form of an airplane, train or ferry disaster, some house or hotel fire. Fifteen years ago Australia’s first fatal earthquake struck, killing 11 people.

Thirty years ago there was a catastrophic earthquake in Pakistan in which some 4,700 people died.

Such disasters - even on the other side of the world - have a way of infringing on our own festivities with a shock reminder of our own good fortune.

Yesterday the most powerful earthquake to strike anywhere in the past 40 years has left a devastating trail of destruction in its wake, triggering massive tidal wave causing enormous destruction in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, India, Malaysia and Thailand.

The number of people killed has been mounting by the hour and it is likely to be some days before the horror’s final tally will be know.

The earthquake, which was centred in the Indian Ocean in deep water off the west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra at shortly after 7am local time, registered 8.9 on the Richter scale. It was the fifth-strongest shock recorded in over a hundred years, and the strongest since the 1964 earthquake in Alaska, which registered 9.3.

Yesterday’s shock was felt on the Indian subcontinent and in places as far apart as Singapore and northern Thailand. Some of the after shocks registered at 7 on the Richter scale.

While buildings collapsed on Sumatra, the most extensive damage was done by tidal wives, or tsunami, that were sent crashing into coast lines more than one 1,000 miles away on the east coast of India.

Some of those waves were as high as 30 feet. They did devastating damage to property, buildings, cars and fishing boats.

Thousands of people were reportedly killed on the island of Sri Lanka, where the south and east coasts were most seriously hit.

What happened has been described as the greatest national disaster ever to hit the area and the government has declared a national emergency.

The islands of Maldives, a string of 1,192 coral atolls, have been inundated.

Popular holiday resorts such as Phi Phi island, where the Hollywood blockbuster ‘The Beach’ was filmed, and the popular Thai resort of Phucket, have been hit seriously.

The tsunami struck at about 8.30am local time, destroying sea-front hotels, restaurants and shops. Streets were flooded and vehicles were flung around like driftwood in the raging torrent.

The European Commission promptly allocated €3 million in emergency aid, but it is to be hope that this is just an initial contribution because the scale of the disaster requires much more.

We cannot rectify the suffering, but a sense of Christian duty should compel us to do our part.