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January 05, 2005
Tsunami Syndrome
Is there some sort of tsunami syndrome developing amongst we people? The day started off like any other normal day. After watching fresh set of images of the tsunami tragedy that were shown on the television, I as usual came to the office in the morning and settled down with the normal routine. At around 11 am, one of my colleagues told me that a fresh tsunami has hit the entire coast line of Tamil Nadu and sea water has entered Marina beach and Mylapore.
Ohh god!!! Only now everything seems to have settled down and one more tsunami!! Frantic calls made to everyone you could think of (including me, ofcourse), to get an update on the situation. I was so paranoid that I even went to the 12th floor of my office building to look around the city. There were already quite a few curious onlookers on the terrace just to see if water has indeed come in. But I could see only this.
Finally, it turned out that a warning has been issued by the government and people within a range of 2 Kms from the sea have been asked to move to the higher ground. There was news of evacuation of the Port at Chennai. Immediately, most of the offices on the beach road and all adjoining roads were also evacuated. Even some of the staff at offices as far as Guindy have been asked to go home!!! At around 1.45 PM, there were rumours that there is an earthquake warning and it can strike anytime. To the best of my knowledge, we still don't have any technology to predict earthquakes!!! The relief operations at most of the places along the coastline were called off due to the fresh tsunami warnings affecting millions of people.
Are we guys getting paranoid about earthquakes and tsunamis? Though we cannot be lagging in terms of warnings and getting people to safer places, we need to strike a balance between taking precautions and false alarms. We are already panic stricken and a slightest news that there a tsunami approaching will send shock waves which could lead to commotion and stampede.
Guys please restrain yourself from spreading rumours. It's not going to help anybody!!!
Posted by Vasanth at January 5, 2005 06:46 PM