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Here's part of an email my brother sent us about the tsunami.

"Update on the tsnuami ...

I drove out around the affected area yesterday morning. Apart from some mud deposited a few meters inland, a few beached boats, some smashed up boats and squatter houses, there was not a lot of damage to be seen.

What we find the saddest is a lot of these people would have been less well-off, and would have taken their family to spend a a day at the beach rather than hanging out at a shopping mall or watching DVDs. The tourist hotels at Batu Ferringhi apparently got calls from Langkawi hotels warning them a tidal wave was coming and so they got the warning out to their guests, so the main Batu Ferringhi beaches were relatively unscathed. I haven't heard of any foreign tourists reported missing.

Compared with the physical devastation in other areas of South Asia, the impact on Malaysia is very small.

We spend a lot of time at the beach with the family, it's free and the kids have a good time. I guess you are remembering your trip to Phuket too. Given the serenity of a day at the beach it is hard to comprehend this happening.

Psalm 103 seems just right
As for man, his days are like grass, he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind (or wave) blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more.
But from everlasting to everlasting the LORD's love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children's children-"