You have no idea how relieved I am to get this email from Joe, my brother. He was vacationing in Burma where the tsunamis hit. From the “JM wire” news service:
“Thank you to those who were asking if I am alive. The last travel plan I sent out had me on a ship headed north up the coast of Myanmar in the Andaman Sea on Christmas day. My alternate plan was to kick back in Phuket. Luckily entropy prevailed and I did neither.
The Sumatran Tsunami that hit Africa, Asia and Indonesia destroyed both and the death count is now up to 42,000. We are scrambling here to account for our friends who are in Thailand. I spent Christmas in Bagan with friends from Sri Lanka who are getting pieces of information on their friends there. Apparently the 500 mph wave hit and took out concrete buildings easily. Wow.
Sorry to not post earlier, The Myanmar goverment does not allow access to email and phones were down in most places. I am back in in Bangkok now waiting to get out to Manila. You can imagine the scene here.
Hope your holidays are going well. No doubt they were better than the coastal people here had. Now there is something to be thankful for in the coming year..
Happy New Year,
Joe”