how good/bad has the tsunami hit langkawi island?

we were planning to start our S.E. Asia trip with a few days in Holiday
Villa resort, Langkawi. Is it better to change our travel plans and not
going there, or is it still ok to go?

thanks
RePa

"re.pa" wrote in message
i.nl...
we were planning to start our S.E. Asia trip with a few days in Holiday
Villa resort, Langkawi. Is it better to change our travel plans and not
going there, or is it still ok to go?


Not much damage in Malaysia. Look at the map, the quake is on the west side
of Indonesia. Malaysia appears to be protected.

thanks
RePa

"Peter L" wrote in message
...
Not much damage in Malaysia. Look at the map, the quake is on the west
side
of Indonesia. Malaysia appears to be protected.

53 dead in Malaysia.
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...fti&sec=latest

report
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...411&sec=nation

Best contact your holiday resort in Langkawi, we can't advise on that here.

--

re.pa wrote:
we were planning to start our S.E. Asia trip with a few days in
Holiday Villa resort, Langkawi. Is it better to change our travel
plans and not going there, or is it still ok to go?

thanks
RePa

I've copied and pasted my post and Plutos reply from today.
I would suggest that if you have accomodation booked, that you email or
phone them before travel.

Jan

"On Mon, 27 Dec 2004 12:55:02 -0000, "Jan" wrote:
"
Does anyone know the situation in Langkawi?
I 've found from the news reports that Pantai Cenang was badly affected.
We have many friends along that beach area. Specifically Irish Bar,
Sunset
Bar and AB Motel area.
I'm just hoping everyone is ok

Jan



Dec 27, 2004
Tourists rescued from trees in Langkawi
By Reme Ahmad
Malaysia Bureau Chief

KUALA LUMPUR - ONE moment the holidaymakers were relaxing by a beautiful
Langkawi beach. The next, they found themselves stuck on trees 50m away,
carried there by giant waves.

Brute force: The waves which hit Penang pushed this car over a concrete
barrier. At least 42 died in Malaysia as the tsunami struck. -- AFP


Some two dozen tourists got the shock of their lives at the Berjaya
Langkawi Beach & Spa Resort yesterday in an incident that quickly became a
centrepiece of the believe-it-or-not lore arising from the massive
earthquake that shook South-east Asia.

'The wave pushed the guests into the jungle. We had to rescue them,
including those who were stuck on trees at the back of the beach,' Mr Addie
Chang, operations manager at the resort, told The Straits Times.

Of the 25 injured guests, four who suffered severe cuts were sent to
hospital, he said. Several people were also reported to have gone missing
in Langkawi.

A 70-year-old man confined to a wheelchair drowned in his home when it
flooded and he could not escape, AFP reported.

At least 42 people died after Malaysia was hit by one of the biggest
tremors it had ever experienced in its history.

About 200 others were injured.

That the earthquake happened on a Sunday, a day after Christmas, was
something of a blessing: a bigger panic was averted as most Malaysian
offices were closed and roads empty.

But it also meant that many were holidaying by the beach.

Worried that other waves might hit Malaysian shores in the coming days,
Deputy Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak called for the evacuation of coastal
areas in Penang and Kedah, which also includes Langkawi island.

'This is a disaster that our country has never faced before in history,' he
told a hastily-called news conference at his home. 'I have ordered
precautionary measures to shift people to safer areas. It is possible there
might be more tidal waves. We should be ready if there is another round,'
he said.

Experts say a major earthquake could trigger more seismic activity over the
next few days, making it likely that other tidal waves might be created.

'We advise people in Kedah, Perlis and Penang to be cautious as aftershocks
may cause high waves in the next few days,' Mr Low Kong Chiew, a director
at the Malaysian Meteorological Service, told reporters.

Looking at the numbers, it would be easy to say that Malaysia was lucky
compared to India and Sri Lanka, where several thousand died.

But that was no consolation to the hundreds of local picnickers at
Balikpulau on Penang island, where a happy family outing turned to horror
as waves crashed onto the beach, killing more than a dozen people.

TV news showed family members grieving over loved ones being brought down
from the back of an army truck, one wrapped in a mat more often used for
picnics.

The famed Jalan Batu Ferringhi, the winding road that houses dozens of
beach hotels in Penang, was closed. Sea water had flooded parts of the road
and the authorities feared other giant waves might follow.

Two fishing boats sat incongruously in the middle of the road, while one
car was smashed into a house, TV footage showed.

Consumer activist Jacob George, who was holidaying on Ferringhi beach, told
the station TV3: 'We saw the tall wave at about 1.30pm for about three
minutes. And then the wave hit the beach hard and waters flowed right into
the lobbies of hotels.'

In Gurney Drive, Penang's famous tourist street, cars were hit by the huge
wave and parked motorcycles were swept away.

There were reports that a jet skier had been hit by waves and had landed in
a coffee shop.

In Kuah town, the capital of Langkawi, the waves swept into restaurants and
shops near the beach, bringing with them a thick layer of mud.

In Kedah, 1,000 houses in Kuala Muda were destroyed, while the coastal road
was caked in mud. Seven people, including a seven-month-old boy, drowned.

One of the houses flattened was being used to host a wedding, according to
a guest who had left the feast just three hours previous.

Hundreds of fishermen's boats in Penang and Kedah sank or were damaged.

The death toll will probably climb over the next few days, as there were
fishermen who went out to sea and have not yet returned.

'Three fishing boats went out and have not returned. And we are now bracing
for another wave,' said a Kedah state assemblyman, Datuk Azmi Abdul Hamid.

A total of nine out of 13 states in Malaysia felt tremors, the biggest
number of states ever affected by a single earthquake.

Even Kelantan and Terengganu were hit, a rarity as earthquakes normally
affect only west coast states such as Johor and Penang.

Panic ensued in some areas as condominiums, hospitals and offices were
evacuated from Johor to Kuala Lumpur to Perlis at around 9am.

Patients at major hospitals in Selangor, Terengganu and Kelantan were
evacuated after the tremors were felt.

But authorities later declared the buildings safe.

Said Mr Osman Sadikin who lives in a Putrajaya apartment: 'I was putting on
a shirt when I felt that I was swaying. Then I heard my neighbour shouting:
'The block is about to collapse!' I quickly ran down.'

He will join thousands of others on full alert over the next few days,
praying that the worst is over, even as rescue teams carry out the grim
task of looking for those missing from the day that the seas went on a
rampage.

=======================================


Dec 27, 6.30 pm (Singapore time)
TIDAL WAVES DISASTER


Dec 27, 2004
MALAYSIA: Rescuers search for more than 100 missing

PENANG - Rescuers scoured Malaysian beach resorts and towns on Monday for
about 100 vacationers, fishermen and villagers missing after tidal waves
killed at least 52 people and injured more than 220 others.


About 100 people remained missing in Penang, said the state's civil defence
director, Mr Mohamad Johari Mohamad Taufik.

'I pray that there will not be another round of tidal waves,' Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said in a televised statement.

Many victims drowned while swimming or riding jet skis near crowded beaches
on Sunday afternoon, swept away by waves as high as five metre that were
triggered by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake near Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak on Monday toured several villages where
more than 1,000 homes were destroyed and fishermen lost millions of ringgit
worth of property and equipment.

Petronas Twin Towers checked for safety
Engineers were inspecting Kuala Lumpur's world-famous 452-m Petronas Twin
Towers, the world's second-tallest buildings, to rule out any structural
danger caused by tremors. Initial checks showed no damage, but a skybridge
linking the towers was closed to the public as a precaution, the building
management said.

Tens of thousands of people were temporarily evacuated on Sunday from
high-rise hotels and apartments throughout peninsular Malaysia due to
tremors from the quake.

The devastation shocked a country that - due to its geographical location -
has virtually no experience with the earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanoes or
other natural disasters that plague its South-east Asian neighbours.

A narrow strait separates peninsular Malaysia's western coast from Sumatra.
-- AP

Judging from reports, Penang got hit.
Seeing Phuket in such a state - really struck a chord.

Planning to go back for a week later in the new Year.

Time I took a break anyway.

Condolences to those who lost loved ones.

Best wishes,

Ka.


-- wrote in message ...

"Peter L" wrote in message
...
Not much damage in Malaysia. Look at the map, the quake is on the west
side
of Indonesia. Malaysia appears to be protected.

53 dead in Malaysia.

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...0379Listofti&s
ec=latest

report

http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp...752411&sec=nat
ion

Best contact your holiday resort in Langkawi, we can't advise on that
here.

--