It has been a few days. It always seems like when I take a break from the blog to focus on school, more things happen than usual.

A lot has happened in the past five days: China unveiled a $4 trillion stimulus and celebrated the 50th anniversary of the exile of the Dalai Lama by likening it to Lincoln’s work to free slaves, Ugandan rebels chopped up 12 people in a remote Congolese village and the U.N. announced that the situation in Darfur is just getting worse.

But the one that hit me as worst, and this could surprise some of you, took place on Friday in Jakarta, Indonesia, where a dam burst flooded an entire village and took the lives of more than 60 people.

A wall of mud and water‚ pummeled‚ the city at about 2 a.m., surprising the residents in their sleep. Soon after, parts of the village were completely buried causing many of the residents to suffocate.

Rescue workers are currently rummaging through the mud looking for survivors and bodies. Survivors are being directed to a nearby university, where they are being asked to identify bodies. Many are waiting for word about loved ones still missing.

Residents say, according to the New York Times, the wall of water that ripped through the village was nearly 33 feet high. The situation actually reminds me of Pompeii and how that village was buried in the middle of the night by the eruption of nearby Mt. Vesuvius. Of course this is a more tame version, but deaths are deaths and what makes it even worse is that it was a man-made structure that doomed the town.

About The Author

Sachin Seth is the Blast Magazine world news reporter. He writes the Terra blog. You can visit his website at http://sachinseth.com or follow him on twitter @sachinseth

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