The Washington Post on internet donations for the Tsunami relief effort:

As never before, people are turning to the Internet to donate money, the latest step in a revolution that has altered everything from shopping to presidential campaigns. "This is like 1951, when television really took off,'' Paul Saffo, director of the Silicon Valley-based Institute for the Future, said yesterday. "We are in the middle of a fundamental shift from mass media to the personal media of computers and the Internet, and charitable giving is a logical progression.''

Check out Amazon.com, where more than 53 million people have donated more than $3 million to the Red Cross as of yesterday. Here's the direct link to contribute. Kudos to Amazon. And Apple.

Ezra of Pandagon says:

The U.S. says thousands of Americans are still missing. From State Department spokesman Richard Boucher:

Our consular affairs task force has been up and running 24 hours a day," he said. "They're responding to calls, they're responding to faxes. ... The task force itself is placing calls to families to get more information or, in many cases, to pass on information that we can find."

The toll-free number to the task force is 888 407-4747.

He offered this advice to Americans travelling anywhere in Asia: Phone home.

"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."

The death toll now stands at 116,000. Indonesia reports that over 80,000 were killed in that country alone.

Emergency workers reported that in some parts of Aceh, as many as one in every four citizens was dead.

Scenes of destruction -- homes and businesses flattened, buses tossed about like toys, piles of rubble filling the streets -- were repeated across the region, as were the scenes of grief -- residents and vacationers searching in vain for loved ones, or, at times, finding them in makeshift morgues.

Here's a breakdown of the dead by country. In Thailand, more than five thousand remain missing and the death toll approaches 2,000. More than 1,500 dead have been found in the Khao Lak resort area, and the death toll there could reach 3,000.

Via Teresa at Making Light:

The South-East Asia Earthquake is an instant blog focusing on “short news and information about resources, aid, donations and volunteer efforts.” They’re blogging everything: news updates, theoretical articles on tsunami, contact numbers for relief agencies, current death tolls, and, especially, information on how to help.

Please help. This is dreadful beyond words. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, the entire island of Sumatra was moved 100 feet to the southwest. In the lightly populated Andaman and Nicobar islands alone, there are three thousand confirmed dead, 30,000 missing, 15 villages still under water, and several islands nobody can raise on the radio. The extent of the damage around the shores of the Indian Ocean is like thousands of miles of 9/11, in some cases stretching miles inland, from Sumatra to Somalia. Children were hit hard. So were the small indigenous fishing fleets, which would have been out doing early-morning fishing when the waves came. This is world-class bad.

The South-East Asia Earthquake says:

Update: The New York Times also blasts Bush, noting he has "finally roused himself from his vacation" to call the leaders of the affected countries. The Times criticizes Bush for trying to distance himself from the measly $15 million offer, says U.N. relief aid chief Jan Egeland was right on target in calling the U.S. stingy and that Colin Powell should be embarassed:

Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.

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Original Post:

From an editorial in the Minneapolis Star Tribune:

We mentioned here that the Bangkok nation reported a few days ago that the Thais did not send out warnings of the Tsunami because of fears it would hurt the tourism industry. Today, the Financial Times reports:

Thailand's meteorological department knew by 8.10am (local time) on Sunday about an hour before the first waves hit that a powerful earthquake had struck near Sumatra, and they discussed the possibility that the quake could cause large sea disturbances. The department had already distributed information pamphlets several years ago explaining the risks of tsunamis around southern Thai beach resorts.

But without definitive proof of an imminent tsunami, the meteorological department dared not issue a national warning lest it be accused of spreading panic and hurting the tourism industry if the disturbances did not materialise.

Raw Story has more.

Update: Here's a Tsunami weblog addressing the warning issue.

The death toll climbs to 63,000 from the Asian Tsunami. CNN tv reports that islands with hundreds of thousands of people have not been heard from as communications are still down.

Hundreds of Americans are still missing.

The Washington Post mentions this unconfirmed report from the front page of the Bangkok newspaper, The Nation, alleging that the Thai Government stopped the warning of the Tsunami from going out after the earthquake:

The Thai government has generally maintained that it has done what it can under intensely difficult circumstances, with little warning and limited resources. But a front-page story published Tuesday in a Bangkok newspaper, the Nation, reported that Thai officials were aware of the possibility of tsunamis early Sunday morning -- more than an hour before they hit -- but scotched talk of an evacuation, fearing the consequences for the tourism industry during one of the busiest weeks of the year. The report could not be independently confirmed. (our emphasis.)

Wizbang provides this translation it received of a report from Expressen Se:

Now we're talking...the U.S. has increased its offer of $15 million in aid to the Tsunami victims to $35 million.

The U.S. State Department said an additional $20 million in aid will be added to the $15 million the United States has already pledged for nations hit by the tsunamis. In addition, said Powell, nine patrol planes and 12 C-130 cargo planes packed with relief supplies were on their way to southern Asia.

Jailed inmates in India are among those donating. [Link via Jesse at Pandagon.]

The New York Times reports on blogs providing live coverage from the disaster areas. [link via Instapundit.]