Stravinsky's Sizzlin' Shack

I've just been messaged by my mom who's with Oxfam in Sri Lanka and she says that the tsunami warning sirens have been sounded 2 hours ago. The country's emergency serivces have been put on standby. I've phoned my volunteer coordinator at VolunteerSriLanka in Habantota on the South Coast of Sri Lanka - and some IDP camp residents have been evacuated about 5km away from the coastal areas - thats about 3 camps I've heard so far.

Meanwhile Peter Griffin & Dina Mehta have rallied and sent out an email to all current SEA EAT volunteers in the region and those still involved with the relief operation to standby to start blogging alerts via txt msgs & email. Looks like I'm going back to Sri Lanka in case another quake does happen to help out - I'm getting my travel docs sorted out as i post this & I seriously hope nothing major happens.

There's been the 8.5 R scale that struck banad aceh about a few hours ago - and a unit of the Map Action team based on the East Coast of SL have texted me saying that there would be aftershocks in a few hours. Phone lines have apparently got jammed once again in Sri Lanka & everyone is just panicking instead of remaining calm until we all know what's going on. Shall keep you all posted as i get news.

UPDATE - 10.18PM - Bahrain Time (+3GMT) :
All Sri Lankans living on the coast have been asked to move away from the coast within an hour. This was about a half an hour ago. The information has been distributed fairly widely. The Commissioner of Police has also stated that they are taking steps to stop traffic on the Galle Road. People fleeing also asked to watch out for looters.

-SMS from Sanjaya with the Daily News in Sri Lanka -


(I'm posting alerts about SL with Sanjaya on the SEA EAT Blog - tsunamihelp) - chk there as well.

UPDATE - 10.28PM - Bahrain Time (+3GMT) :
Note to all residing/currently located near to coastal areas - evacuate up to 1,000 miles of epicenter. Use the 26th december, 2004 tsunami locations as a reference to epicenter.

-Email from Nancy Broher at Ground Zero in New York -




UPDATE - 1.30AM - Bahrain Time (+3GMT) : Sri Lanka withdraws tsunami alert
This just in via a volunteer at the International Airport in Sri Lanka:

Sri Lanka's meteorological department has withdrawn its tsunami warning and said it was safe for coastal residents to return to their homes despite a submarine earthquake near Indonesia.

Met chief P. M. Jayatilake said they decided to withdraw the tsunami warning as there were no reports of unusual wave activity anywhere in the neighbouring countries within the Indian Ocean. - this statement was released about 45 mins ago.