I know it's the festive season, and the last thing you'd like to read is something like this, but I had to put a note here.
There was a massive earthquake in SE Asia on 26th Dec. The epicentre was somewhere off the coast, west of Sumatra, at the Richter scale of 8.9; apparently it's the strongest earthquake in 40 years, and the 4th strongest since 1899.
What's worst was the tsunami waves that were generated were powerful enough to hit Sri Lanka and India (which are thousands of kilometres away). There was no tsunami warning system in place at the Indian Ocean, unlike for the Pacific Ocean, so the devastation came without warning. The death toll has been catastrophic, at about 12000 but is still rising. For more details, please check your favourite news source. I'd suggest CNN or BBC.
Singapore was lucky; it was sheltered by the surrounding land masses and only felt slight tremors. I'm very relieved.
Please keep the victims of this horrible disaster, and their families in your thoughts and prayers this festive season.
metwin1
