National Geographic carries a deeply troubling news item on the possibility of another earthquake off Sumatra. In very crude terms, it would seem the tectonic plates have not settled down since December’s tsunami and the subsequent stress could provoke another earthquake in the near future. For Indonesia, this would be appalling, especially given the 2000 deaths they suffered in the March earthquake which caused wholesale destruction on the island of Nias.
Here in Thailand, the government has been heavily publicising the launch of their tsunami warning system and carrying out evacuation drills in tourist areas such as Phuket. Meanwhile, other tourist resorts which were badly damaged, such as the island of Koh Phi Phi, are rapidly rebuilding and are already open for visitors. (See the site Hi Phi Phi for a moving record of volunteer help and work to restore the island). Lonely Planet’s Annabel Hart has written a good overview of how you can still help tsunami-affected areas in Thailand and LP also provides a comprehensive, non-hysterical tsunami update, indicating that it’s pretty much OK to travel anywhere within Thailand.
The issue now is the continual wrangles that continue over the distribution of aid money, both from the Thai government and overseas charities. The Bangkok Post has almost daily stories of aid money not reaching its intended destinations, and fishermen and their families still going without homes and boats, unable to get on with their lives. It’s difficult to get a real guage, but it’s evident that, as per usual, a lot of charitable money is getting locked up in bureaucratic nightmares and not getting to the people that most need it.
Over all of this hangs the uneasy question – what if there is another earthquake which triggers a tsunami? Early warning seems the key to avoiding the huge loss of life seen in December, but these evacuation plans cannot save the infrastructure that will be destroyed by another wave and the huge setbacks that will cause to already traumatised communities. How to build anew in the face of such uncertainity remains a troubling question that the countries whose coast face into the Andaman Sea need to address in order to minimise the potential disaster of another wave.
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