Asian Tsunami | SOS Baby Help Foundation

A great earthquake occurred at 00:58:50 (UTC), at 6:58 a.m. local time, on Sunday, 26 December 2004. The magnitude 9.0 event was located off the West cosat of Northern Sumatra. This is the fourth largest earthquake in the world since 1900 and is the largest since the 1964 Prince William Sound, Alaska earthquake. The earthquake had a depth of 10 km.

The earthquake triggered massive tsunamis (soo-NAH-mee) that affected several countries throughout South and Southeast Asia. The tsunami crossed into the Pacific Ocean and was recorded along the west coast of South and North America. Tsunamis also occurred on the coasts of Cocos Island, Kenya, Mauritius, Reunion and Seychelles. The earthquake was felt (VIII) at Banda Aceh and (V) at Medan, Sumatra. It was also felt in Bangladesh, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Singapore, Sri Lanka and Thailand.

Relief agencies struggled to rush aid to more than 3 million people in Asia and Africa after Sunday's disastrous earthquake and tsunami waves. Casualty figures rose dramatically as rescue workers found the remains of entire villages in Indonesia, the nation worst hit, accounting for more than half of the casualties.

By 30 December 2004 the death toll from the Asian tsunami disaster had risen to over 100,000 people, and by 05 January 2005 the number approached 150,000.

In Thailand, this caused great loss of life and destruction to buildings and infrastructure in the popular resort areas of Phuket, Phi Phi Island, Krabi, and other smaller islands in that vicinity. Along the eastern coast of Phuket island, waves crashed over Rassada Pier as passengers were waiting to board ferries for Phi Phi Island. The Laguna Phuket was protected from a direct hit by the headland to its South and thus spared the serious damage reported from other areas of the island. Other areas affected included Bang Tao Beach, Kamala Beach, Patong Beach, Kata Beach, Karon Beach, Nai Harn Beach and Phuket Fantasea. There was total destruction of resort properties and infrastructure on the Phi Phi islands, and all operations had ceased. Phuket's Patong beach along the west of the island took the bulk of the damage, and two-thirds of Thailand's fatalities occurred there.

Military aircraft unloading stores - supplies

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In April 2005 The number of people killed in the December 26 tsunami disaster which devastated 11 Indian Ocean countries has been revised down to 217,000 after Indonesia drastically reduced its number of missing. Indonesia remains the worst hit country, with 163,978 people dead or missing. According to the National Disaster Relief Coordination Agency, the number confirmed dead was 126,915 people while 37,063 were listed as missing. Officials said the figure had been reduced because many people listed as missing had now been identified among more than half a million homeless people living in temporary camps or other shelters. The toll in Sri Lanka, which was second hardest hit by the catastrophe, was 30,957, according to the Centre for National Operations. The number of people listed as missing was 5,637, but many were expected to be among those never formally identified, hurriedly buried and included in the confirmed death toll

Photos of tsunami damage

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