Tsunami-Hit Nations Mark 10th Anniversary of Disaster
Beachside memorials and religious services have been held across Asia to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter of a million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.
The devastating December 26th, 2004 tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim, eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches, with survivors wading through a horror show of corpse-filled waters.
Survivors, politicians, diplomats and families of victims gathered in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and elsewhere. Moments of silence were planned in several spots to mark the exact time the tsunami struck.
The disaster was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the region’s most powerful in 40 years, that tore open the seabed bed off of Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as east Africa.