114,000 dead?

Posted on December 30, 2004 by sheila

I don’t even know what that number MEANS. It’s unreal. It’s so catastrophic. My mind struggles to understand it, to grasp it, to try to see the whole picture of devastation … 114,000?

God. Awful. Just awful. Those poor people. Jesus.

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19 Responses to 114,000 dead?

  1. peteb says:
    December 30, 2004 at 8:56 am

    The figure is even higher than that in some of the reports I’ve just seen, Sheila.

    Ocean disaster toll hits 112,000

    but I’m beginning to find the splash headlines used by the mainstream media every time a new figure is released a little distasteful.. I got a Breaking News alert from the BBC with this latest figure in it… It’s an unreal and horrifically high number, but do we really need breaking news alerts to tell us every time that figure increases?

  2. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 8:57 am

    Well, I just came into work (no Internet at home) – and saw 114,000. Yesterday it was half that.

  3. peteb says:
    December 30, 2004 at 9:02 am

    It’s the emailed ‘Breaking News Alerts’ from the BBC and other organisations that I’m querying, Sheila.

  4. peteb says:
    December 30, 2004 at 9:08 am

    To be more precise it was the language used in the BBC email I received that struck a nerve – the heading was “Asia wave death toll tops 100,000″ [my emphasis].. they changed that in the article heading.

  5. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 9:09 am

    I know, peteb, but what I’m saying is – I have been offline for 12 hours now. So I haven’t been bombarded with: 10 more dead Breaking News emails periodically, which does seem ridiculous. Like – this disaster is unfolding, exponentially. We don’t need Breaking News on it … the numbers are bad enough.

  6. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 9:10 am

    peteb:

    Yeah. “Tops”. No. That’s not good.

  7. Lisa says:
    December 30, 2004 at 9:17 am

    Y’all, this just BOGGLES my mind. If the experts are correct, and this tragedy is followed by epidemics of cholera and other water-borne diseases, the numbers could DOUBLE. Over 200,000 people — the population of Little Rock (the closest city to me) — GONE. I cannot get my mind around it.

    But, like I said on my blog, Jet Li escaped! So, yay. /sarcasm

  8. Emily says:
    December 30, 2004 at 11:00 am

    At this point, I can’t even bear the numbers.

    The town I was born in has a population of 20,000.

    The city I live in now has a population of 84,000.

    More people were killed in SE Asia than both combined. That’s not counting the injured and the pain and suffering of those who have lost countless loved ones. Don’t even talk to me about the beauty of nature right now. This is nature. She can be so goddamm cruel.

  9. Stevie says:
    December 30, 2004 at 11:39 am

    Emily – cruelty of nature? This is about the fragility of humankind and how we build bubbles of perceived safety around us when in fact we are all subject to a myriad of disastrous agonies, both from nature and from our own devising.

  10. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 11:48 am

    Stevie, I don’t understand your comment. I mean, I understand it, but I don’t understand why it is different from what Emily said.

    Furthermore, with a catastrophe of this size, I find it hard to think that there is one way to look at it, as you say: “this is about blah blah blah”.

    People will grapple with meaning in their own ways, grapple with how to deal with this.

    One of the bloggers on my blog-roll quoted scripture, basically saying Jesus foretold this. “I’m just quoting what the man said!” she said, when people got pissed. I can’t stand that attitude – catastrophes backed up with some holy book or other. Yuk.

    However, people are gonna see all kinds of meaning/interpretation in a catastrophe of this size – because it’s hard to deal with otherwise. Wrath of God. Nature’s mercilessness towards man. Man’s continued arrogance in the face of nature. Some will look at it very logically: okay, so we need to get a warning system set up, how do we do that?

    etc.

  11. Emily says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:00 pm

    Stevie,
    I’m sorry. I made a twenty word remark. Of course this is much more complicated than simply nature’s wrath. There are a lot of elements that come into play in this tragedy. So I didnt cover all of them in a 2,000 word essay on somebody else’s blog. Sue me.

    And please pardon my snooty response. This whole thing has made me a bit emotional.

  12. Stevie says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:18 pm

    Well, you’re both right, of course. I just had a knee-jerk reaction to the summing up of it as nature’s cruelty. Sorry.

  13. Alex says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:20 pm

    Attepmting to understand this, or rationalize this, or explain this, or analyize this is good for the soul, but bad for the brain. It’s so catastrophic, and so big, and so unbelievably horrible, that to even suggest there might be a reason for something like this to happen makes some people crawl out of their skin. I guess other people have such huge faiths, that there’s a level of comfort in knowing there’s a Divine Plan.

    I guess I’m saying we need to do what we need to do in order to cope, and it’s all okay. Like that woman who wrote scripture on your site Sheila, that was RE-CLONKULOUS!! I mean….what? It’s like if someone wrote: “Well…hey, this was BOUND to happen. I mean, they deserved it, right?” Extremists. Bullshit.

    Let’s just find the common ground and agree that this is a tragedy of monumental proportions and weep and huddle together. It makes much more sense. Believe what you believe and theorize until you puke, but don’t force it on me, and don’t expect me to agree with what’s tooling around in your head, my friend. It aint like that for me. This thing is too new, and too soon.

    I don’t know, simplicity is my middle name. In an odd, overly abundant sort of way.

  14. Lorraine says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:32 pm

    Re;
    My prayers are with the victim`s families, the survivors and all who have been left homeless.
    God Bless,
    Lorraine

  15. Stevie says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:32 pm

    Thank you, Alex. I was out of line to disparage anybody’s feelings about it, and to make any sort of proclamation about “what it is.”

  16. Emily says:
    December 30, 2004 at 12:43 pm

    My reaction was knee-jerk and inappropriate as well, Stevie. I think we’re all a little burdened by this in ways that we’ve never had to handle before. We should be helping each other deal (and I feel like such an asshole even writing that. Like, what exactly are we dealing with by comparison to the people who are there right now?) instead of sticking to one another in the neck. My apologies to both you and Sheila for my bad behavior.

  17. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 1:25 pm

    No worries, everyone. I think we’re all feeling a bit raw right now. And helpless. Struggling to comprehend what has happened.

  18. Kate F says:
    December 30, 2004 at 4:39 pm

    Sheila, thank you for the Amazon info. I had already donated to CARE, but I wanted to be part of some corporate responisibility. I am so glad that they have put this disaster literallly front and center on their home page. Way to go.

    Also: right on, Alex.

    Kate

  19. red says:
    December 30, 2004 at 4:56 pm

    I know, Kate – it’s incredible. They’ve raised almost 6 million dollars in a little over 24 hours. This Internet thing. Damn. It is changing the fucking world.

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