pres.umptuo.us

The death toll is now up to 20,000 on this magnitude-7.6 earthquake that hit Kashmir on October 8.

I believe The Onion says it best in a situation like this.

Network for Good has a page set up with links to ways to help out. I’ll probably hold up until some more organized stuff starts showing up.

Did anybody else not realize how bad this was going to get until it finally happened?

Having never experienced a hurricane first-hand and not having any real knowledge of the geography of New Orleans, I just kind of figured, “Eh.” Florida seems like it gets hit by a hurricane every year, and they just appear so routine and like nothing all that special.

But then you get the swamplands. And the beneath-sea-level thing going on. First everyone’s just evacuating and you figure it won’t be such a big deal. And then you realize the poor have no way of leaving.

Then the hurricane passes over, and the looting and fighting and pushing and shoving and all the other great aspects of human nature surface from the flood waters.

It’s feeling a lot like the carjacking mob scene from War of the Worlds.

A few links:

Former Clinton Advisor: “No One Can Say they Didn’t See it Coming.”

Donate to the American Red Cross

I’m too busy to keep posting follow-ups on the reported four bombings in London today, but kottke’s got a good roundup of the news, Lifehacker has their own roundup, and Londonist is on top of things.

It’s a bit odd, being awake at 2 in the morning and reading about an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hitting way out in the ocean near Indonesia, only to go to sleep and wake up 9 hours later to find out massive tidal waves have hit several countries.

I’ve heard the death toll is anywhere from 10,000 to 40,000, although I’m sure the number will be leaning towards the high end. I’m not gonna try to keep up with any of the coverage that’s been going on, but Wikipedia has very comprehensive coverage of it, and Boing Boing has been doing a good job of it too.