On December 26, the 20th anniversary of the devastating South Asian tsunami was marked by survivors and the families of victims across Asia holding beach memorials and religious ceremonies to mourn the over 220,000 people who lost their lives in the tragedy. The tsunami, one of the most severe disasters globally, struck on that fateful day in 2004.
It was on December 26, 2004, when a powerful magnitude 9.1 earthquake hit the coast of Aceh Province in Sumatra, Indonesia, triggering a massive tsunami that generated waves as high as 17.4 meters (57 feet). The waves ravaged the coastlines of 14 countries including Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, and India, releasing energy equivalent to 23,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs, causing destruction beyond imagination.
According to data from the global disaster database EM-DAT, the natural disaster resulted in a total of 226,408 fatalities. Indonesia bore the brunt of the disaster with over 165,708 deaths, accounting for more than half of the total fatalities. In Aceh Province alone, over 100,000 people perished. Following Indonesia, Sri Lanka suffered with over 35,000 deaths, India with 16,389 fatalities, Thailand with 8,345 deaths, Somalia with nearly 300 fatalities, Maldives with over a hundred deaths, and Malaysia and Myanmar with several tens of casualties.
Notably, the tsunami also prompted a reevaluation of disaster preparedness in coastal communities around the Indian Ocean basin. At the time of the earthquake, the Indian Ocean region countries did not have early warning systems in place. Today, with 1,400 monitoring stations around the globe, the tsunami warning time has been significantly reduced to just a few minutes, demonstrating the progress made in disaster prevention and response capabilities.