Summary
Commemorations marked the 20th anniversary of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which killed around 230,000 people across 12 countries.
In Indonesia’s Aceh province, survivors prayed at mass graves, remembering the 170,000 victims lost there. Rebuilt infrastructure and early warning systems reflect recovery efforts supported by international donors.
Thailand, India, and Sri Lanka also held ceremonies, with survivors mourning deeply personal losses.
In Sri Lanka, memorials honored victims of the “Queen of the Sea” train disaster, while India’s Tamil Nadu residents performed traditional tributes.
I had a friend on IRC who disappeared then. Never heard from her again. It’s my hope she just was displaced for a while and eventually found a good place again.
Crazy amount of people. 230.000 is an insane number of casualties.
Yeah. I watched a documentary that recently came out about the tsunami and the numbers were just staggering. What’s crazy to me too is I never knew that tsunamis will refract around land, so when it hit Sri Lanka it wrapped around and hit the western side of the island.
I felt terrible hearing the accounts of the scientists that worked at the pacific tsunami warning center. They didn’t even realize a tsunami of this magnitude was possible in the Indian Ocean at the time so they were completely unprepared. They had no governmental contacts for the nations in the area and were desperately calling what government numbers they could find and just hoping that someone on the other end would know English so they could warn them. In the end they were only able to warn Kenya and Madagascar, I believe.
I was a youngling when this happened but rereading about this event 20 years later… we’ve seen nothing like it. I think the most interesting fact from this earthquake/tsunami is that the Indian Ocean’s volume permanently decreased as a result of sea floor movement, producing a rise in the global sea level by an estimated 0.1 mm.
This event also improved tsunami warning systems throughout the Indian Ocean and Indonesia, hopefully if an event like this happens there will be a lot more notice given.
20 years ?! Ay yi yi.
