Maldives... the sunny side of life
While I was enjoying egg nog with relatives late on Christmas Day, a massive earthquake (magnitude 9.0) occured in the Indian Ocean about one hundred miles off the coast of Sumatra. Hours later, tsunamis struck Indonesia (of which Sumatra is part), Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, and the Maldives. Over 22,000 people were killed.

I have always been fascinated by tsunamis and I have imagined what it must feel like to see the ocean recede suddenly from the shoreline and then return as an enormous wall of water. However, my mind reels at the thought of tsunamis striking the Maldives, a collection of 1,000+ tiny coral islands south of India. According to the CIA World Fact Book, the highest point on the Maldives is only 2.4 meters above sea level. Eighty percent of the country is one meter or less above sea level!

Given millions of gallons of water in the form of a forty foot wave and a collection of short-statured islands, it is possible that the Republic of Maldives temporarily disappeared from the face of the earth. It is miraculous that out of 340,000 Maldivians, there are only (as of this writing) 52 dead and 68 missing.

For a country whose main industry is tourism, you may not be surprised that the Maldives Tourism Promotion Board paints a bright and sunny picture of the country. It takes some digging to find a Press Release and a "Situation Assessment" that are a little bit suggestive of a nation recently underwater. Planning your next vacation? I know an exotic location on the equator that has recently become very affordable. - served up by Oven @ 5:37 PM