Does anyone have any family/friends/loved ones affected by the tsunami?

[da_chimperor]

A friend of mine is studying in Thailand right now, in bangkok. I just talked with him and he's okay, but he was telling me a few weeks ago he was thinking about going to phuket for a Holiday. Good thing he didn't go though with it is all I can say.

[truthseeker1]

1. Have a friend from Sri Lanka

She's been an online friend for well over a year - she's living in Hawaii right now - but she's from Sri Lanka and that's where her family and many of her friends are. Her family was spared, but they lost many friends. She sent out a message today asking everyone to do whatever they can to help. Here's a snip:

Right now the death toll in Sri Lanka has topped 18,000 and the world as a whole has lost approximately 40,000 people. Reports coming in from that part of the world say that these numbers are only an indication of the bodies that have been salvaged and or identified, and that there are thousands more lying around the coastline that haven't been accounted for yet.

There are also those that were fortunate enough to have been spared their lives, but who lost everything in one single moment. In Sri Lanka alone there are said to be over a million people left homeless - this is over 5% of the island's entire population.

....
If you belong to a church group or any form of social group, please donate maybe just one can of soup or one box of bandaids - this would be one box more than they have right now and might be the bandaid that makes the difference. I know that the Red Cross (ICRC), Oxfam and many UN organizations are accepting donations (UNHCR in particular).

Members of my family who have been donating food and medicine to the shelters have mentioned to me that these shelters are in dire need of basic medicines. They also need things like water purification tablets since many of the waterways are overflowing and are contaminated.