Bidding war

Seen in the news:

Asia quake death toll tops 13,000
Toll from Tsunami rises above 25,000
Quake, tsunamis kill more than 26,000
Toll From Tsunami Rises to More Than 51,000
Tsunami death toll tops 56,000
Disaster’s toll surpasses 58,000
Officials warn of disease; death toll tops 60,000
Quake, tsunami deaths top 76,000
Tsunami death toll tops 80,000
Red Cross fears tsunami toll could top 100,000

Twenty, twenty, who’ll give me twenty? Thank you, sir! Twenny fi’, twenny fi’, yes, and thirty, thirty thousand corpses, the gentleman in the back. Can I see forty, forty, forty?

Makes you just wanna’ say, “Phuket!” But I suppose the regional governments already said that years ago by declining to implement an Indian Ocean tsunami warning network.