Shockwaves in Sleepy Penang

Swept away

[3pm onwards]

OK, I do not know how I can start this entry. So I’ll get straight down to the point. We were hit by a shockwave coming from Aceh’s earth quake. The quake in Aceh was measured to be 8.9 on the Richter Scale, which makes it the 5^th largest earth quake in the world and the largest since in 1964 in Alaska (if I’m not mistaken). Sadly, there are casualties. It happened at the worst possible time, on a Sunday where families spent their lazy afternoon on the beach having picnics.

Penang was the worst hit with almost the entire stretch of Tanjung Tokong, Gurney Drive and Batu Ferringhi covered with mud and sea debree. My dad witnessed the incoming waves first-hand and estimate it to be at least around 5m in height. My mom, Simran and I went on around checking out the ruins around Batu Ferringhi and Tanjung Tokong area. Several dead bodies were lying around on Batu Ferringhi and Tanjung Tokong has been blocked off by the police. I hope everyone else is OK.

[11pm onwards]

I took a drive later on to pick up a friend and saw the extend of the damage. It did felt like a movie with so much destruction and mess. Cars, vans and other motor vehicles were covered with thick layers of mud, dirt and so on. In my opinion, Tanjung Tokong suffered the most damage with the main road's divider being swept all the way to the other side, slamming onto houses and cars. It doesn't help that there was heavy construction going on within that area.

Note: Current death toll has increased to 53 throughout Malaysia, 38 of them are from Penang.

Lets take a moment of silence for those who perished in this incident.