Asia mourns tsunami dead 10 years on

KHAO LAK, Thailand, Friday

Tearful memorials were held across tsunami-hit nations today for the 220,000 people who died 10 years ago when giant waves decimated coastal areas along the Indian Ocean in one of the world’s worst natural disasters on record.

On December 26, 2004, a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia’s western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Among the victims were thousands of foreign tourists enjoying Christmas on the region’s sun-kissed beaches, carrying the tragedy of an unprecedented natural disaster into homes around the globe.

In southern Thailand, where half of the 5,300 dead were holidaymakers, people recounted stories of horror and miraculous survival as the churning waters, laden with the debris of eviscerated bungalows, cars and boats, swept in without warning, obliterating resorts and villages.

As dusk loomed, hundreds gathered for a candlelit memorial on Khao Lak, much of which was washed away by the towering waves.

Among them was Swiss national, Katia Paulo, who lost her boyfriend on a nearby beach.

“I had my back to the ocean. My boyfriend called me... the only thing I remember is his face. I knew I had to run away, then the wave caught me,” the 45-year-old told AFP.

“I was pushed under water many times and thought it was the end,” she said, explaining she called for help only to realise the people nearby were in fact corpses.

“I managed to hold onto a tree branch,” she said, adding that as the waves retreated she was six metres (200 feet) off the ground.

STILL GRIEVING

Nearby, 40-year-old Thai Somjai Somboon, said she still grieves for the loss of her two sons, who were ripped from their house when the waves cut into their fishing village of Ban Nam Khem.

“I remember them every day,” she told AFP, also with tears in her eyes, adding “I will always miss my sons.”

The official ceremony, to be led by the Thai premier, was due to be held at police patrol boat 813, which was swept around two kilometres inland and has since stood as a memorial to the calamity.

Among the international commemorations, in Sweden, which lost 543 to the waves, the royal family and relatives of those who died will attend a memorial service in Uppsala Cathedral Friday afternoon.

Disaster-stricken nations initially struggled to mobilise a relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in makeshift morgues.

The world poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than $13.5 billion collected in the months after the disaster.

Almost $7 billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Indonesia’s Aceh province, where most of the nation’s 170,000 victims were claimed.

The main city, Banda Aceh, held the nation’s official remembrance earlier Friday at a 20-acre park.