Tsunami In Paradise

As some of you know, there was a huge tidal wave hitting many of the holiday destinations in SouthEast Asia. If you have family there that you cannot get in touch with, please contact your Embassies in the affected areas.

Here's a list of Foreign Embassies/Consulates that cover Sri Lanka/Maldives, Thailand(Phuket), India, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Malaysia. Another avenue is to give details to Aid Agencies such as Medecins sans Frontiers, or the International Red Cross that are already out there. (I found many obstacles yesterday trying to locate Kaoru and Tomomi...) These are the most affected areas, altho' the tidal waves reached the east coast of Africa. Please give the embassy your family's name, passport# (v.important if they are travelling thru multiple destinations -- immigration records will be able to track which country your family is in), DOB, gender, and preferably a fax, or email with photos of loved ones. If you know where they are supposed to be, let the embassy know. Give them all the info you can. If they are not answering their phones, send them an email, and then follow up with a call. They will do their best to locate your family

Also if your family went on a tour, pls contact the tour operators, for they will contact local operators to find your family. Any small piece of information helps.

Unfortunately the countries hardest hit did not have a process in place to share information with other countries about the approaching tidal waves, and the death toll is rising by the minute. Be strong, there are many people who *have* survived, who are alive. Do not give up hope. The highest peak in Sri Lanka is over 2000m above sea level, and you have to only be in a RC building that is higher than 4 floors in Phuket to ensure safety.

If your family is carrying a GSM phone, but cannot get thru to them, you are more likely to get a text message thru them (don't ask me the mechanics behind it, but seems to work).

I wish you all the luck in locating your loved ones. If you get stuck, or your mind just goes blank, and you don't know what to do? (don't worry, it happens) Send me an email at: drunkenwenchrambler@hotmail.com. I will try my best to find a way to locate your family; I know what it's like to be in the dark... Let's help each other to find our loved ones, and bring them home safely.

D.W.R