Deadly 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Five Years Later

December 26, 2009

People across Asia paused Saturday to observe the fifth anniversary of the devastating earthquake and tsunami in 2004 that killed up to 230,000 people in about a dozen countries.

Damage on the coast of Sri Lanka was extensive following the 2004 tsunami, which originated 2,000 miles away. Credit: NOAA

The devastating December 26 tsunami destroyed entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches, sweeping away everyone and everything in its path.

Brief memorials were held in mosques throughout the region beside mass graves, and at seaside resorts and communities on the rim of the Indian Ocean.

The tsunami was triggered by an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 that struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Over the next seven hours, a wall of water reached across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa.

In a coincidence, a strong earthquake struck Indonesia on Saturday just before 6 p.m. local time (0857 UTC). The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake, measuring 6.0 on the Richter scale, was centered in the Banda Sea region off the Tanimbar Islands. A tsunami warning was not issued by authorities, and there were no immediate reports of injury or serious damage.

In the 2004 tsunami some locations reported waves of nine meters or more on the shoreline. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives and Thailand sustained massive damage.

Tens of thousands were reported dead or missing in Sri Lanka and India, a large number of them on the Indian Andaman and Nicobar Islands territory. The low-lying island country of Maldives reported more than 100 casualties and immense economic damage. Several thousand tourists vacationing in the region also were reported dead or missing.

The lack of food, clean water and medical treatment extended the list of casualties.

Long-term environmental damage was severe as well, with villages, tourist resorts, farmland and fishing grounds demolished or inundated with debris, bodies and plant-killing salt water.

Because these events are rare, people may have a tendency to get complacent and think that one will never happen near them. However, every coastline in the world is vulnerable to a tsunami, as we saw on September 29, 2009, in American and Independent Samoa.

Most of the citizens on those islands heeded nature’s warnings signs — a strong or persistent ground shake and a sudden fall of the ocean tide — and moved inland and to higher ground before the tsunami arrived, saving countless lives.

If you live near or visit the coast, NOAA encourages you to take this opportunity to develop and discuss a tsunami safety plan with your family and friends so everyone will be prepared when a big tsunami strikes the United States.

Through NOAA, the United States has made a significant investment in tsunami detection and warning systems since the catastrophic tsunami occurred in 2004. Although the earthquake triggering that tsunami was detected, warning systems were not in place in the Indian Ocean region for governments to alert people to evacuate the coasts to safety.

Today, NOAA manages an expanded network of tide and seismic stations, and 39 tsunami buoys positioned throughout the world’s oceans to detect tsunamis. If NOAA’s Tsunami Warning Centers detect a tsunami threat, they broadcast alerts over an advanced telecommunications infrastructure.

Other components of the nation’s upgraded tsunami warning system include NOAA’s two 24/7 Tsunami Warning Centers in Alaska and Hawaii, a network of advanced forecast models for at-risk communities, and TsunamiReady — a public preparedness and education program.

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