We are fine and safe here in Jakarta after yesterday’s earthquake off the coast of Sumatra. It’s about 1000 miles away from where we are, and we didn’t feel a thing. Also, the island of Sumatra blocked any waves that might have been headed our way.
We’re not sure what the coverage has been like at home, but it’s the only story on all the local and international news stations. Every time we check the number of dead rises which is very depressing.
Here in Indonesia, the problem has been communicating with the worst hit areas. The epicenter was off the coast of Aceh, the region at the northern tip of Sumatra. This area has had considerable unrest amidst the separatist movement that has been active over the last decade, and thus there is not much in the way of an established communications infrastructure. So the news is slowly trickling out, and government officials were rushing there yesterday to try and asses the damage. This morning the news was reporting about 4000 dead there, but this could be a gross underestimate.
But we’re fine here, business as usual in Jakarta.
tompepinsky.com 
Josh December 27, 2004
I was just about to send you an email, dude. From the map on cnn.com, it looked like Jakarta was fairly safe, but it was a little worrying not to hear for a while.
Apparently they’ve upgraded the quake to a 9.0, which makes it the biggest since 1964 in Alaska. People have died as far away as Kenya, which is kind of insane.
I saw a report online that said there were windows rattled in Jakarta, I take it you didn’t experience that?
fazu December 27, 2004
The north coastal areas of peninsular Malaysia have also been affected, with whole villages flattened within a few minutes. Whole families have been killed while the more fortunate ones have lost everything they have, home, livelihood everything. As the Malays say, “malang tak berbau” – misfortune carries no scent.
Rita & Mike Zarcone December 27, 2004
We are glad to hear you two are OK!!
We hope you have some great memories to treasure for your “different” Christmas this year.
We wish you a very Happy, Healthy, AND Safe New Year!!!
beth December 28, 2004
glad to hear you are okay – we were just talking about you and how we’d miss you at the pickle drop, when we saw the news report. happy holidays!
Julie and Tom December 28, 2004
Hey all, this is quite nice to hear from all of you. We didn’t notice the windows rattling…probably because it’s always noisy here anyway. At 7:59 AM JM was awake but TP was still sleeping.
Anyway, thanks for all of your concerns, hope everyone is doing well, and having a nice holiday.