CNN are reporting that the current death toll from the tidal waves in South-East Asia is above 26,000. There are also thousands injured and missing as well as hundreds of thousands homeless in the affected areas of Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka and Thailand.
For more comprehensive coverage of the tragedy, I recommend Instapundit as a great source of links and information.
Here in Israel, there is a focus on those Israelis still missing and those feared dead. Shai argues that this focus, although understandable, is “in the context of the greater picture seems a little self-centered and provincial.” If this is so, then every country can be accused of the same. What is more important than the news coverage focus is the determination of countries to aid the affected nations with humanitarian assistance. And, like usual, Israel is all too willing to help (although at this stage, Sri Lanka is refusing to accept an Israeli aid delegation, and only wants supplies).
Please keep the familes of those who perished, and who are still missing, in your prayers.
Update: To give you an idea as to how powerful the earthquake (which caused the tidal waves) was:
The megathrust earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful it made the Earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicists said today.
