Tsunami hit Malaysian shore

Received this SMS from a friend who is active in NGO/voluntary works,

Urgent! Ribut ombak besar melanda kg2 di Pantai Merdeka & Kuala Muda
lanjutan dari ribut Tsunami dilautan Hindi! Mohon bantuan pakaian & makanan
segera.

From: <***>. 7:14 pm 26-Dec-2004.

I thought it was a joke. New Year or Year End joke. Come on, Tsunami to hit Malaysian shore? My friend must be joking. I showed the message to my wife and she too, smiled and brushed it off as another "lawak". My limited Ilmu Alam knowledge only have Japan and its many islands as the likely places to be hit by Tsunami - hence the name.

A minute later I was stunned when I caught the news update on TV. Forgive me, even though I heard about the earthquake that rocked some where in Sumatera Indonesia earlier in the morning news, I never realised that the aftermath that hit Malaysia was just as devastating - considering Malaysia never had experience this kind of disaster.

My condolence to the families of those who died and perished in the tragedy yesterday.

I learnt that the earthquake hit the scale of 9 in its magnitude. Wait, that was higher that the one that hit Bam, Iran last year or was it last two years. [OH NO! - just check here - it actually happened almost one year ago.]