I’m sad to report the latest disaster to strike one of my favorite places on Earth. Just a few hours ago, a massive earthquake hit near Padang, Sumatra (590 miles NW of Jakatra, Indonesia.

So far reports are speaking of at least 75 dead, but those numbers are obviously not accurate when the details of the disaster are considered. We already know a mall & 2 hospitals have collapsed.

NY Times

The death toll was likely to rise as many buildings in the city of 900,000 people had collapsed, Vice President Jusuf Kalla told a late night news conference in Jakarta.

“We have received a report from the mayor of Padang that the death toll is 75. But many others are trapped in collapsed shops, building and hotels. It is difficult to know because it is dark now,” Kalla said.

NOTE: This is an entirely different quake than the one near Samoa just one day earlier.

My heart aches for the tens of thousands of people who at this very hour are struggling to survive and desperately searching for their missing loved ones. The locals of this region are so kind and friendly. As they say, it couldn’t happen to a nicer group of people.

HuffPo
Initial reports received by the government said 75 people were killed, but the real number is “definitely higher than that,” Vice President Jusuf Kalla told reporters in the capital, Jakarta.

“It’s hard to tell because there is heavy rain and a blackout,” he said.

Health Minister Siti Fadilah Supari told MetroTV that a mall and two hospitals had collapsed in Padang – a sprawling low-lying city in Western Sumatra province of around 900,000 people that geologists have warned could be vulnerable to a massive quake or tsunami.

In addition to being home to some of the friendliest people in the world, Sumatra is home to what believe is its most beautiful animals, the orangutan (please don’t type or pronounce that word with a G on the end; thanks).

There are still painfully few details coming out of the region at this hour; about all we can do at this hour is hope and pray for the best.

The Red Cross was the agency that did some of the best work helping these people after the 2004 tsunami, and surely they will be doing what they can to help at this time of multiple natural disasters in the region.
Link to the Red Cross donation page.

It may not be glamorous or exotic, but the place where I’ve spent the summer working to fund future adventures is not too shabby. Enjoy some shots from the place I currently call home, Camano Island, Washington.

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My apologies for being absent here on the blog of late. Over the past few months, I’ve been working to pay some bills that have accrued over the course of the 2+ years I have spent making The Laughing Planet, parts 1 & 2 a reality. My old gig, Window King, has served me well over the years, enabling me to travel the world many times. This time is might once again fund travels that could become TLP parts 3, 4 and ???

My producers assure me they are working feverishly to bring you the best possible streaming video option of our complete project ASAP. At best it will be ready within the month; at worst, we will call it an early X-mas present an October surprise (since I don’t believe in Christmas)

In the meantime, enjoy this hilarious picture of the bathroom window here at the shop.

It is like the parable of the painter’s house always needing paint. The weathered wreck of a sash has peeling paint, failed glazing putty, and doesn’t have obscured glass (all of which are standard work that we do here).