15 years on, a look back at the Boxing Day tsunami

[webfact]

15 years on, a look back at the Boxing Day tsunami

 

FILE PHOTO: Submerged buildings are seen near the pier at Ton Sai Bay in Thailand's Phi Phi island, December 28, 2004 after a tsunami hit the area. REUTERS/Luis Enrique Ascui

 

(Reuters) - December 26 marks 15 years since a 9.1 magnitude quake off the coast of Indonesia's Aceh province triggered a tsunami that killed more than 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries.

 

When the quake opened a faultline deep beneath the Indian Ocean, it triggered a wave as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet), wiping some communities off the map in seconds.

 

Northern Aceh province bore the brunt of the disaster, where a total of 128,858 people were killed, according to statistics compiled by the government and aid agencies.

 

Day by day, the death toll rose, as bodies littered the streets, waiting to be collected, and others continued to wash ashore, decaying among piles of debris.

 

Hospitals and morgues struggled to cope with injured and bewildered victims and bloated corpses.

 

Over 570,000 people were displaced and 179,000 buildings and homes destroyed in Indonesia as the wave swallowed large parts of the coastline. Massive reconstruction aid in Banda Aceh has since rebuilt a new city on top of the ruins.

 

Sri Lanka was the next worst-affected country with a death toll of about 40,000, while in Thailand almost 5,400 people were killed including many foreign tourists.

 

In India, nearly 42,000 people, or close to 10,000 families, were rendered homeless by the waves that struck islands off the eastern coast. More than 3,500 people were killed and nearly 9,000 died on the mainland, mostly in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.

 

The tsunami garnered an enormous international response, with an estimated $13.6 billion in official aid and private donations pledged for the recovery.

 

WARNING SYSTEM

Those killed in 2004 received no formal warning of the approaching waves and had almost no chance to get out of the way.

 

Since then, millions of dollars have gone into a vast network of seismic and tsunami information centres, setting up sea and coastal instruments and erecting warning towers.

 

More than $400 million has been spent across 28 countries on the early-warning system, comprising 101 sea-level gauges, 148 seismometers and nine buoys.

 

But doubts linger about how ready countries on the Indian Ocean really are for another giant wave.

 

Some experts say complacency about the maintenance of the system is leaving millions vulnerable and governments still warn of the ever-present risks.

 

(Editing by Karishma Singh and Stephen Coates)

 

-- © Copyright Reuters 2019-12-19

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[canuckamuck]

The tsunami thread is fascinating as you can watch the realization occur about what just happened.

I was a member then, but I was up north getting engaged and I didn't pay much attention at first. I did show up 10 days later to help out though.

[Samui Bodoh]

I spent a year of my life in Aceh, North Sumatra, Indonesia working on the re-building.

 

In Aceh City, when I first got there, I went to the shore and looked inwards at the place where the town was, or perhaps better to say 'used to be'. It was nothing but a muddy pile of dirt and water where 70,000 people use to live. Holy <deleted>! 70,000 people wiped out in minutes.

 

The saddest thing were small (3 inches by 5 inches) signs posted in the mud and pools of water saying things like "this is the land of Ahmed and I am still alive" ; It literally brought tears to my eyes.

 

I know that Thailand suffered around 5,000 casualties, but Indonesia had about 175,000 people dead.

 

RIP to all.

 

 

[OneMoreFarang]

I was in my apartment in a high-rise building in Bangkok when the earthquake happend.

I sat down on the floor and hoped it won't take too long.

Until then I was not aware that it's possible to feel earthquakes in Bangkok. Believe me, you feel it. And in a high rise building there is nothing you can do except waiting that it will be over soon.

 

And then it took hours before any news came out at all and many days before the size of the catastrophe became visible.

[steve187]

i had arrived the day before on my first ever trip to Thailand, we had been delayed for 24 hours in London, as we were flying on Phuket air into bkk, while waiting the whole plane load of travelers were staying at an airport hotel, eating in a large room sharing tables with other travelers, during conversations some of these fellow diners were travelling onto Phuket etc, having plans to catch connecting flights to that area from bkk, they would have arrived early boxing day, no friends to me just fellow travelers, i to this day wonder how many of those travelers would have been in the area at the time of the tsunami, and how many may have been killed.

my friends and I traveled onto Phala beach, Rayong area and i was in the sea at the time of the tragedy, unaware it was happening until friends from the UK started to ring to inquire if i was ok.

a terrible day and my heart goes out to the families that lost someone that day, could so easily have been my friends and i that had traveled onto that area instead of rayong.

[lehoa0911]

The tsunami was horrifying, having washed everything away

[unamazedloso]

i was there stranded in khaolak that faithful day and miraculously survived unlike everyone and everything around us. Absolutely horrific memories as fresh as they were 15yrs ago and i can still smell the death in the air. 

[Daffy D]

1 hour ago, Samui Bodoh said:

The saddest thing were small (3 inches by 5 inches) signs posted in the mud and pools of water saying things like "this is the land of Ahmed and I am still alive" ; It literally brought tears to my eyes.

 

In one of the movies I saw developers were there within hours almost with their measuring tapes and bulldozers claiming as much land as they could.

[Scot123]

I was very lucky as was a diving instructor on Kow Tow and was about to move to Phuket but got a phone call from a friend back in the UK asking me to come back and help him as his business was struggling so I just stayed on Kow Tow spending Christmas and new year their then flew out of Thailand early January. Almost obvious to the extent of the devastation occurring as I partied. So lucky, so sad. 

[Estrada]

I was supposed to stay at Kamala Bay Resort Phuket in December 15 years ago but my employers in Libya asked me to postpone so that a colleague could go home to the UK for Christmas. Fortunately I cancelled because otherwise my family and I would have died in the Tsunami. Friends who owned the Central Hotel died.

[Saint Nick]

I was send over to Bangkok at the time, 2 days after the Tsunami.

I worked for a travel company and flew to Bangkok, to help my colleagues with rebooking and helping to (re)locate our customers.

 

We dealt with real tragedies: people, trying to find their relatives, families and friends and it haunts me until today, thinking about the many conversations I had, with devastated people, crying for help and a glimmer of hope, that I could not provide!

But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation!

I am an atheist, but I wished, I would believe in hell, because that is, where these people should be! 

[stevenl]

21 minutes ago, Saint Nick said:

I was send over to Bangkok at the time, 2 days after the Tsunami.

I worked for a travel company and flew to Bangkok, to help my colleagues with rebooking and helping to (re)locate our customers.

 

We dealt with real tragedies: people, trying to find their relatives, families and friends and it haunts me until today, thinking about the many conversations I had, with devastated people, crying for help and a glimmer of hope, that I could not provide!

But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation!

I am an atheist, but I wished, I would believe in hell, because that is, where these people should be! 

" But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation! "

 

As someone who was in the tourism business on Phuket that day, and still is, one of the problems we had in the aftermath was a lack of tourists. We were really, really welcoming all who arrived or stayed during those days.

[xylophone]

5 minutes ago, stevenl said:

" But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation! "

 

As someone who was in the tourism business on Phuket that day, and still is, one of the problems we had in the aftermath was a lack of tourists. We were really, really welcoming all who arrived or stayed during those days.

I was here in the March prior to the tsunami and came back about two months after it occurred, mainly to see if some friends I'd made were still here and okay, and luckily enough they were.

However I was not prepared for the absolute devastation that was there along Beach Road (for example), and I remember the tragic sight of a boat (or maybe it was a car?) wedged in the first floor of a minimart window, and it may well have been the one in which many shoppers were trapped and drowned?

There is one thing I have to say about that whole thing and that was the way in which the Thais never stopped working trying to get the place back into some semblance of working order, and I admired them for that.

What I didn't admire were the number of Thais who had donned some sort of jackets/T-shirts with logos such as, "tsunami relief" or "tsunami aid relief" on them, who were approaching foreigners here for donations, and a Thai friend of mine "in the know", said that they were just crooks and not to give any donations to them whatsoever – – such a shame that this should happen when so much money was needed to rebuild the place and people's lives.

[Samui Bodoh]

37 minutes ago, stevenl said:

" But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation! "

 

As someone who was in the tourism business on Phuket that day, and still is, one of the problems we had in the aftermath was a lack of tourists. We were really, really welcoming all who arrived or stayed during those days.

An extremely valid observation.

 

I saw a photo in a newspaper a few days after the event where some Thai official was walking on the beach in uniform and there were some tourists in Speedos talking with him among the ruble; there was a great deal of (very misplaced!) ridicule at the contrast in that photo. It would have been a greater crime to stay away after that disaster and take away people's livelihood at the time they needed it most.

 

Disaster relief is a tricky, complicated thing at the best of times, but the best thing that a person can do is be able to continue to make a living, try to return to normal as much as possible, and not become a secondary victim.

 

Good for you in encouraging tourism after the tsunami; you likely restored some people's income and, perhaps even more importantly, some people's sense of self-worth and dignity.

 

Cheers to you!

[spiekerjozef]

I nearly died that night

[Happy Grumpy]

5 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

The tsunami thread is fascinating as you can watch the realization occur about what just happened.

Link?

[Laughing Gravy]

Was sat in Rangsit having Breakfast at home and watching the Thai news and thinking what on earth is happening. When I realised, I text the UK saying I am fine. I was due in Phuket the next day, so called the hotel. The line was dead and so was the hotel, I learned later.

 

Very sad day for the world. So many families affected.

 

 

[canuckamuck]

12 minutes ago, Happy Grumpy said:

Link?

Maybe a mod can find it, the search engine doesn't find it.

 

[Somtamnication]

Those days are hard to think of for me. I took water bottles to Khao Lak for about a week (at the mountain top rescue center) then helped families from Latin America to find loved ones. 

By the end of 2005 I was so stressed and almost had a breakdown.

 

What I do remember was how resilient the children I met where (and how they are today) and kindness and lots of greed met along the way.

 

Don't get me going on land reclamation done by rich Thais and how it looks like now.

 

'nuff said. 

[Saint Nick]

2 hours ago, stevenl said:

" But what was even worse, were the many people who got away unharmed or were just arriving in Thailand the day after the disaster, trying to benefit of the situation! "

 

As someone who was in the tourism business on Phuket that day, and still is, one of the problems we had in the aftermath was a lack of tourists. We were really, really welcoming all who arrived or stayed during those days.

Maybe you misunderstood me, or we are just talking about different things.

I was talking about people, who wanted to profit from the situation as in "getting a holiday for free, because the didn't get to go to the place they booked originally and had to settle with another place (Samui instead of Khao Lak) for their holiday.

People who wanted to get compensated on spot, because they could not get the booked New Years Eve Dinner in Phuket and had to fly back to Bangkok and no New Years Dinner was offered by their Bangkok hotel.

These people in contrast to people, who were desperate to find their family!

 

I was and still am in tourism- I love Khao Lak and I was back their in May of 2005 and as soon as the place was halfway back on it's feet, tried to convince everybody to go back there!

Of course, I have no problems with tourists, who went back ASAP!

But I loath those, who tried to profit of the situation.

Another example: we had guests at the Bang Niang Beach Resort. At that time a lovely 3*- resort.

They claimed, they had 10.000 Euro in different currencies and jewelery, worth several hundred Euro in the safe of that resort, for the planned New Years Dinner!

No words for that!

 

[Basil B]

I was not there then, of course I contacted friends in Pattaya who knew very little about it, it was a work colleague who was out in the Maldives who on our return to work the following week that no one had heard from, A text and a few hours later a reply I am ok,  seems when the wave hit the Maldives at 9:30 local time he was diving, he just heard popping and had big currants, he had to just grab the Corral and wait it out, when he surfaced his boat was over 400m away, total devastation.  

[stevenl]

2 minutes ago, Basil B said:

I was not there then, of course I contacted friends in Pattaya who knew very little about it, it was a work colleague who was out in the Maldives who on our return to work the following week that no one had heard from, A text and a few hours later a reply I am ok,  seems when the wave hit the Maldives at 9:30 local time he was diving, he just heard popping and had big currants, he had to just grab the Corral and wait it out, when he surfaced his boat was over 400m away, total devastation.  

Yes, that is a common experience for those who were diving at that time.

[angloirishaussie]

I was due to fly the day before(still have ticket) but too busy at work

I was booked in to Patong Beach bungalows so I would have been gone

so sad lost a lot of local friends 

[steve187]

15 hours ago, canuckamuck said:

Maybe a mod can find it, the search engine doesn't find it.

 

i found a few threads from around that time, but photos not showing, i think its something to do with an update of TV

 

 

[canuckamuck]

13 minutes ago, steve187 said:

i found a few threads from around that time, but photos not showing, i think its something to do with an update of TV

 

 

It is a real shame if the thread is lost, that is a unique piece of history.

[balo]

2 of my Norwegian friends lost their lives that day in Phuket , father and son. I went to school with the father. His son was just 15 years old. 

They had been out early in the morning to enjoy the beach ,  arrived on holiday the day before.  Still remembered every year, I was in shock for a long time.   



 

[scubascuba3]

19 hours ago, unamazedloso said:

i was there stranded in khaolak that faithful day and miraculously survived unlike everyone and everything around us. Absolutely horrific memories as fresh as they were 15yrs ago and i can still smell the death in the air. 

Maybe write a bit more about your experience? I was in khao lak 2 weeks before and always wondered what happened to those there

[Samui Bodoh]

The link below is from a New York Times magazine article of 2005, and one of the best articles that I ever saw on the subject. I actually know several of the people mentioned...

 

If you are interested in the tsunami and the human toll, I highly recommend it; it is a long read but well worth your time.

 

Cheers

 

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/magazine/the-day-the-sea-came.html?searchResultPosition=2

 

[balo]

31 minutes ago, steve187 said:

i found a few threads from around that time, but photos not showing, i think its something to do with an update of TV

 

You can find the original web pages using Wayback Machine. It brings back sad feelings when I read the old posts again. 

https://web.archive.org/web/20050102114755/http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/index.php?showforum=57

 

Edited December 20, 2019 by balo

[balo]

https://web.archive.org/web/20050319145314/http://www.manager.co.th/Home/PostPic.aspx