For some reason, until a couple of days ago, I hadn’t made the connection between the tsunami in Southeast Asia and my two young coworkers who both went home to Thailand for New Years. 
We’ve tried to text message them but no response yet and none of us are really sure which part of Thailand their families were in. And the news just keeps getting worse. We’ve already had to think about worst case scenarios for the work load if the unthinkable happened or if they can’t make it back (I can’t imagine what’s happening with the transportation systems over there) which seems so cold-blooded but I guess has to be done. Anyway, no point to this message other than voicing my fears aloud…
Statistically speaking they’re almost certain to be okay. The areas in Thailand that took the brunt of the tsunami were very touristy areas. Most people in Thailand are not from those areas (by a long stretch) and also most Thais don’t go there for vacation. Doesn’t mean that they couldn’t have been down at the beach, just that it’s highly improbable. The phone systems there are reportedly jammed up with thousands of other well meaning folks checking up on people. I’m sure they’ll be fine. (keeps fingers crossed just in case)
Well for the past few days I’ve been trying to get in touch with my mother to find out if she had been in touch with my sister. I finally managed to get hold of her today, but she had been unable to call my sister because she is out of town and doesn’t have a phone card, and didn’t have my sister’s number on her. So I had to find her phone list, and figure out which one was my sister’s number (it was written in Thai, which I don’t read or speak). I managed to pick the correct one, and called my sister. A woman answered the phone in Thai, and all I could say was “Pee-Pred” (Pee meaning “Older Sister” and Pred being her nickname). Silence. I started to panick (and to think of my sister’s actual name, because I was pretty sure I had called her work number).
Me: Pee-Pred?
Her: Ha?
Me: Uhhhhh… Sawadee ka… Pee-Pred?
Her: Ha? Ohhh! Nong-Ju-LIE (Nong meaning “little sister” and Julie… But she makes my name sound much more exotic.)
Me: Ka! Pee-Pred… hold on! uhhhh… Hold on! Tohl Ma! (My attempt, probably way off, at saying “Calling mom!”
Her: Ka…
So I frantically switched to the other line and called my mother and got to listen in on a conversation that I couldn’t for the life of me understand, aside from “Phi-Phi… Phuket… Songkla…” and a bunch of "Ka"s.
It was a surreal and emotional moment. But at least we now know definitively that my sister is okay, even though we were pretty sure she was. 
I really need to learn Thai.
Current toll has reached 117,000.
This is truly unreal.
CNN showed before and after satellite photos of areas of northern Sumatra. It was just stunning how severe the devastation was. A man going into the area described whole towns as having been “vaporized.”
I’m afraid the 117,000 estimate may turn out to be severely low, since the hardest-hit areas are just beginning to be reached even to estimate the damage, let alone provide humanitarian efforts.
Glad to hear your older sister’s okay. I always spell that “Pii”, not “Pee”*. It just looks nicer. Pattaya, Koh Chang, Rayong, anything on the China Sea side of the peninsula seems to be just fine. As I mentioned in earlier, most everyone in Thailand is fine, although it’s of course reassuring to actually speak to or get a direct message from your loved ones. And you really should learn to speak/read/write Thai, especially if you can already hear and pronounce the tones. Aside from that and the counting words it’s a very simple language. And if you look even remotely Thai people are going to expect you to be able to speak it when you go and visit. Also, the word for mother or mom is “Mae”, which is pronounced more or less “meh”. No short a sound. Just for future reference.
*My Thai-English dictionary shows it as “phee”, but they use a unique transliteration which uses bolding, italics, and a couple of other things to account for tones.
Yeah, a former colleague emailed to say he had been on Ko Pha Ngang when it happened, and not even a ripple was seen.
Funny; I started with “Pi”, then switched to “Phi” and then to “Pii” before settling on “Pee”, and I actually deleted the E from Ma because, well, then everyone would read it as Ms. West’s first name 
And the confusing names don’t help. AFAIK Koh Pha-Ngang is somewhere near Koh Samui (where they have the Full Moon raves/parties), in the Gulf of Siam off the South China Sea. But Phang Nga is the bay (there may even be a Koh Phang Nga, don’t know – Koh is Thai for Island) that is slightly to the north and west of Phuket, near Krabi and Khao Lak, where lots of people were killed, and is in the Andaman Sea. This is the bay that got it’s fame for being a major setting in the James Bond film, The Man with the Golden Gun. Scaramanga’s island fortress is a “national park” in this bay. Of course it’s just an interesting rock formation with too many tourists for the most part. Especially since James and Goodnight recovered the Solex.
Thailand is a lot bigger than most folks suspect; IIRC it’s about 1000 miles from top to bottom. It’s sort of like when a hurricance hits in Florida and your friend from Ireland (to use an illustrative example) calls to make sure you’re okay, even though you live in the Cincinnati. Unless you happen to be vacationing that week you’re probably fine.
As was quoted on CNN:
Boucher offered advice for Americans who may be traveling in southern Asia, even if they are far away from sites where the tsunamis struck:
“Call your mother. This is a time where people who know they’re hundreds of miles away from … where the disaster might have occurred need to call home and tell their relatives, who know it’s only a quarter-inch on the map.”