It was December 25, 2004 when a 9.15 magnitude earthquake lasting 8 minutes unleashed waves up to 33 feet high — South Asia’s Killer Tsunami, a tragedy that would have been even mentally incomprehensible except for the horrific live and video images seen around the world.
Read our detailed original long post on the breaking story HERE. (It was on our now-vanished old Typepad blog and the photos are no longer on it but this version does have many of the roundup update links). And today? People aren’t forgetting: The AP:
Beside gentle seas, survivors, friends and family remembered the fury of the Indian Ocean tsunami that swept away more than 200,000 people in 12 countries one year ago Monday and laid waste to entire communities in one of the worst natural disasters in memory.
On Thailand’s Patong beach, a man sat weeping in the sand before a gently lapping sea, a bouquet of white roses in front of him. He was among hundreds of Westerners survivors, relatives and friends of the dead who came to Thailand’s famous beachfront where their loved ones disappeared.
On India’s southern coastline, thousands of fishermen visited mass graves, sharing stories about lost families and friends.
“I searched for my daughter for hours but never found her. I don’t know where she was buried,” E. Jayaraman said Monday as he looked forlornly out to sea.
“The sea is like God to us. My wife will come later in the day and pray at the same site for peace to the soul of our daughter.”
Last Dec. 26, the most powerful earthquake in 40 years ruptured the sea floor off Sumatra, displacing billions of tons of water and sending 33-foot-high walls of water roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds. At least 216,000 people died or disappeared.
The BBC has this photo essay of people marking the anniversary around the world.
Reports Reuters:
Mourners from across the world wept, prayed and observed moments of silence along ravaged Indian Ocean coastlines on Monday to remember those killed by one of nature’s deadliest disasters.
A year after the Indian Ocean tsunami, a huge recovery operation has brought hope to hundreds of thousands of survivors. But the sorrow, pain and trauma remain strong — along with fears that monster waves could come again.
“We think about the lost lives, lost property and lost jobs,” said Kanagalingan Janenthra, 19, in Sri Lanka’s eastern town of Batticaloa. “We are in fear. Some of us think it might come again.”
About 230,000 people were killed or disappeared in 13 Indian Ocean countries, nearly three quarters of them in Indonesia’s Aceh province on the northern tip of Sumatra, according to tallies made by individual countries.
Survivors, friends and relatives joined national leaders and foreign dignitaries for memorials in the worst affected countries of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.
In Aceh, Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono set off a siren at 8:16 a.m. to begin a minute of silence.
“It was under the same blue sky exactly a year ago that Mother Earth unleashed the most destructive power among us,” Yudhoyono said in a flattened suburb of the capital Banda Aceh.
The Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) notes that the recovery is still not over, in this report from Indonesia:
“We have been bathing in tears all night,” said Saridah, alongside her sister Rafnila, who lost 100 family members when the tsunami struck. “It reminds us it is a year since we lost our families,” Rafnila said. She cried as she told of how the waters took her father while she clung to a cable. Today, alone, Rafnila has moved into a new house, built atop the wreckage of the old one.
She thanks Oxfam for the home but she has no bed, no stove, not even a mat to soften the concrete floor. “We really hope we have a future,” she said.
CNN notes that there has been criticism over the pace of relief and reconstruction:
Though local economies are quickly recovering, 80 percent of the 1.8 million people displaced by the disaster still live in tents, plywood barracks or the homes of family and friends, according to the aid group Oxfam International.
Margareta Wahlstrom, the U.N.’s assistant secretary-general for humanitarian affairs, urged survivors still waiting for houses and jobs to be patient.
“If you don’t do things well they will collapse in couple of years,” she told The Associated Press on Sunday. “If you don’t take time to do proper planning, and ask people what they want … then you are going to create new problems along the way.”
Survivors and officials, meanwhile, were taking stock of peace drives in Sri Lanka and Aceh, the two areas hardest hit.
In Aceh, the tsunami served as a catalyst for the government and separatist rebels to end three decades of fighting, with each side saying they did not want to add to people’s suffering.
But in Sri Lanka, disputes over tsunami aid and an upsurge in violence have dashed hopes for an end to the long-running conflict.
India’s NDTV offers these details about Sri Lanka:
In Sri Lanka, President Mahinda Rajapakse led the memorial ceremony, held in Peraliya village.
The southern village was largely unknown until December 26 last year, when raging waves washed a passenger train off its tracks, killing nearly 2000 people.
The mourning comes as survivors and officials take stock of the massive relief operation and peace processes in Sri Lanka, one of the hardest hit by the tsunami.
Troops have been patrolling the streets of the Sri Lankan capital, Colombo, as security has been tightened for ceremonies marking the tsunami’s anniversary.
Disputes over aid delivery and an upsurge in LTTE violence have dashed hopes that the tsunami would bring a final end to the country’s long-running civil conflict.
The blog Serving Sri Lanka has a good mix of excerpts from stories that indicate what has been done since the killer waves hit.
UPDATE:
— Newsweek on how a small Thai fishing village hit by the tsunami is trying to rebuild its lives.
–Tourism is on the rebound with many hotels having recovered.
–A top priority for tsunami victims, according to the Christian Science Monitor, is homes.
SOME WEBLOGS REMEMBER:
–Glenn Reynolds, InstaPundit, who also has some links about problems with UN relief.
—Stormtrack remembers with a host of terrifying videos.
—Blogs4God has a roundup
—Silentnitz
–South East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami Blog
—Michelle Malkin
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.