Unforgettable 26 December 2004 Tsunami

No one can easily forget that Black Sunday of 26 December 2004 in human history. On that early morning thousands of innocent people lived along the coastal areas of South-East Asia never knew that was their last day in their life. A powerful earthquake measuring 8.9 on Ritcher scale occurred off the west coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean became the reason for that giant tsunami which caused rough and speedy waves reaching 20 ft to 30 ft in height. The giant waves travelling at a high speed of 900 Km/hr invaded many parts of the coastal areas of Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand, Srilanka and India in South-East Asia. It was so powerful to make effects even along the coastal areas of Tanzania, Africa lying 8000 Km away from the epicentre. More than 2 lacs of people including children lost their life in that great tsunami disaster. The mostly affected is Indonesia where alone more than 1 lac people were killed.

On that day people from various parts of the world were shocked on seeing tsunami videos and photos taken from different parts of the continent. Indeed everyone lived along the tsunami hit areas never expected that much of impact. Since it was Sunday many young children might have planned to spend their holiday with a lot of their favorite games, but, all of them were mercilessly killed by the rude game played by the nature. No words can be found to desribe the tragedies that happened in different parts of South-East Asia. Thousands of survived and injured people became helpless and lost their properties including children and relatives. In some cases many young children became orphans as they had lost their parents.

Almost 5 years gone after the terrible tsunami. Still it remains a lot of tragedies happened in various parts of the continent. We everyone will feel sad whenever we recollect them. Let us pay our sincere homage to the all people who lost their life in that tsunami.

Indonesia is one which has experienced top most tragedies with the death toll of more than 1 lac people. No other country in Southeast Asia suffered from that tsunami as much as Indonesia has. We can learn the severity of tsunami from the video clips that were recorded there on that day. On that mournful day we could find the dead bodies and debris everywhere on the coastal area of that country. The most targeted one is Northern shore of Banda Aceh where the seawater entered up to 4 to 5 Km from the seashore. The country faced unbearable economic damage and cost in human life due to the devastated tsunami.

Phuket is the beautiful coastal region of Thailand with many multistoried holiday resorts. On that day nearby beach was filled with thousands of tourist and local people. As it was morning time many people were enjoying sun bath and sea bath there. When the tsunami hit there many people initially thought that it could be easily tackled. But, the scenes bcame worse after the level of sea water rised up to the first floor of many resort buildings there. The effect of tsunami was also worse in other parts of country like Phi Phi island. It was really unforgettable tragedy to the country as it has lost many thousands of lives and great economy.

Sri Lanka suffered a lot with the tsunami 2004. More than 30 thousand people were killed there alone and eastern coastal area of the country was largely affected. The most pity one is that train named 'Queen of the Sea' totally smashed by the giant waves of tsunami and a very few passengers were survived. When the tsunami waves came there, the train ran along the eastern coastal line of the country connecting Colombo and southern part of the country. There were more than 2000 people on the board. When the first waves hit the train, the seawater stood at the level of 2 ft above the railway track. The passengers on the board thought that that train would take entire force of the waves and many of them stood on the top of the train and some people behind the train. But, the scene took change when 20 ft high second waves wrecked the total train with its many carriages and engine. Very few people survived and more than 2000 were killed in that incident which has been recorded as the worst train accident ever happened in the world.

Though India is lying at about 2500 Km away from the epicentre of tsunami, it also had bad experiences with the loss of thousands of lives and huge damage to properties. All the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu, South Andhra Pradesh and South Kerala in India were devastated by the giant tsunami waves. Nagapattinam and Velankanni are the mostly affected places in Tamil Nadu where more than 7000 people were killed. Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu is famous for fishing and most of the tsunami victims were from fishing community. Velankanni, Tamil Nadu is the holy center for christains where Mary Matha temple is situated. On that day thousands of our beloved christian people celebrated post Christmas day and enjoyed sea bathing just few minutes before the tsunami reached there. The tsunami totally changed the festival atmosphere and it was very pity that hundreds of killed people including young children were burried with the new cloths worn on the previous Christmas day.

How Does a Dreadful Tsunami Occur?

It is usually occurred by powerful surge of moving water caused by an earthquake or volcanic eruption or landslide beneath seabed. It'll become most dangerous and dreadful after the vertical movement of earth crust of seabed due to powerful shallower earthquake measuring on Richter scale between 8.5 to 9.5. The severity of tsunami would become less if the earthquake was happened in the deeper part of earthcrust.

The Possible Precautions to Save Ourself from Tsunami

It's common that many Tsunami warnings were taken back as the sea remained calm even after the happening of powerful earthquake under the seabed. However, we can not always ignore every tsunami warning since it being a life matter for many thousands of people living along the coastal areas. It'll be better to shift all the people from coastal areas at once we experience some symptoms like, particularly after a powerful earthquake ocuured under a seabed, back flow of seawater; bubbling of seawater; roaring noise; change of watercolor and sudden rise in temperature. Moving to elevated places at tsunami time is the most brilliant idea to save ourself. In case, we didn't see any nearby elevated place, there would be no other way than running to distant places before tsunami hits the particular area. The government is responsible to erect tsunami barriers along the coastal line to curb the violent waves. It's also responsible for the tmely issue of tsunami warnings and to make necessary steps to reduce the damage that may be caused by the tsunami.