The 2004 Tsunami

Tsunami

A fault rupture was encountered at the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia along Sunda Trench zone plate boundary, causing a devastating tsunami around the Indian Ocean on the 26th December 2004. Since the entire water column is involved, the tsunami in open oceans strike with long wave lengths about 200km. The highest waves spread east-west from the North-South running fault line. 

PHYSICAL & HUMAN IMPACTS

According to the Indian ocean earthquake and tsunami research group,from Japan, there was 174,500 casualties, 51,500 were missing, and roughly 1.5 million people displaced. The Tsunami affected regions are along the coasts of Sumatra, Thailand, India, Sri  Lanka, Myanmar, and the Maldives. Even the coasts of Africa and on islands in the Western Indian Ocean, such as Seychelles Islands were strike by the Tsunami. Innocent life were lost due to the disastrous effects. Of the 31,000 lives lost in Sri Lanka, 80 % were in the most heavily affected areas of the Eastern and Southern provinces. In India, 75% of the 10,700 fatalities were in the South state of Tamil Nadu. In Thailand, residents and foreign tourists in the Phuket Island and the surrounding Southern Coastal Provinces were severely affected by the tsunami.

 Before and After the Tsunami

Economic and Insured Losses

Overall economic losses from the Tsunami is estimated at $ 10 billion, with 75% of the loss attributed to the damage in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and India. There was damage to residential buildings, infrastructure, including roads, water supply, schools, hospitals, electric power systems and healthcare facilities. In the worst affected countries, the insurance to recover the loss was extremely low.

Snapshots

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