Tsunami 2004: How It All Happened
Immunity from man-made disaster could be possible, but there is no escaping nature's authority. Tsunami, a less-known term until some days before, has acquainted itself to everyone into a nightmare. It was a disaster and tragedy swooped down on about 12 countries at the same time claiming more than 1,50,000 lives and left in chaos lakhs of families living in coastal areas.
THE CATASTROPHE
It was the early morning of December 26 when a tsunami, a destructive wave train created by an undersea disturbance, just off the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, creating mammoth waves, hit coastal areas of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Maldives.
The massive tidal waves slammed the coastlines and tourists, fishermen, hotels, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by 8.9-mangnitude undersea earthquake. The west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra was the epicenter of the earthquake. Towns near the epicentre were levelled by the tidal waves. The tragedy has been global in scope as it affected people in more than 50 countries in one way or the other.
WHAT IS TSUNAMI?
A Tsunami (pronounced su-nah-mi) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis.
It could savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life. The word Tsunami is of Japanese origin which means "harbour wave". 'Tsu' means harbor and 4namr means waves. It is generally referred to as "tidal waves" and "seismic sea waves" by scientific community. It is a kind of ‘wall of water' that can challenge a jet plane in speed, rival a tall building in height and pack enough force to destroy hundreds of miles of coastlines. A tsunami travels at about 200m/s, or over 700 km/hr. A tsunami can have a wavelength in excess of 100 kms. Tsunamis not propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. For instance, in 1960, the earth-quake-generated Chilean tsunami traveled over 17,000 kms across the Pacific to Japan. When a Tectonic earthquake, a particular kind of earthquake that is associated with the earth's crustal deformation, occurs beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position and as displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium, and forms mammoth waves or tsunami.
THE DEVASTATION
At least 90,000 people were killed in Indonesian islands by flood and collapsing buildings. Aceh was by far the hardest hit province that faced combination of serious earthquake and tidal wave. Indonesia was struck hard by the tsunami since the powerful under-sea quake happened to just off Aceh. The death toll didn't show the signs of stabilising almost for a week. Sri Lanka stands second highest in the death toll stood at 40,000. The official estimate is 31,000. The Sri Lankan officials said that one million people or 5% of the population were affected. More than three-quarters of the island's coast devastated. Among the killed 12,000 were children, estimated UNICEF. The massive tidal waves flung a train off its track leaving 1,000 persons dead or missing. To deliver relief over a million of survivors Sri Lanka employed its military service and hundreds of foreign rescue workers for reinforcement. Mass burial was the only alternative to dispose of thousands of dead bodies.
Muslims are the largest ethnic group affected in Sri Lanka as per the report of Coordinating Centre for Relief and Rehabilitation (CCRR). They constitute 50 per cent of the deaths and 70 per cent of the destroyed and damaged. Their estimated deaths are 16,000, displaced 400,000 and houses destroyed 88,000. The Maldives declared a state of emergency as two-thirds of the capital, Male, was flooded. Out of 1,190 islands of Maldives 37 were completely destroyed and 78 moderately damaged. Thirteen islands were evacuated and out of three-lakh population 12,000 were displaced.
The Maldives has reported 80 persons dead and 28 missing. In Malaysia, 42 people were swept away near Penang. Thailand's official death toll rose to 1,829 but with the police saying more than 1,500 bodies had been found in one district alone, the toll could reach 3,000 and more than 1,900 injured.
The Thailand government said 5,288 Thais and foreigners were missing. Two hundred tourists are missing from one hotel in Khao Lak, north of Phuket island. A total number of 437 foreigners of 36 nationalities were among the dead. Thailand and Indonesia face GDP cuts by 0.2-0.5%. Thailand estimated losses at S510 million. The coastal parts of Indian States of Tamil Naidu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Orissa and West Bengal were hit by the tsunami claiming over 15,000 lives. Nearly nine lakh people have been affected. Tamil Nadu was in the forefront in facing the brunt of tsunami. Nagapattinam district being the worst-hit, with 4,347 people killed. Cuddalore and Kanyakumari also reported large numbers of deaths. Thousands of crores of assets in Tamil Nadu alone have been lost. Giant waves crashed in inundating many places and washing away thousands of huts. The seawater entered almost 30-40 feet iinto the city roads. The tsunami had demolished 80 per cent of homes up to a depth of 1 km in affected areas. In Pondicherry about 27 fishing villages, with population of around 50,000, are badly damaged. The calamity has rendered thousands of children orphaned, women widowed, and families asunder. The villages of Prakasam district were lashed and residential localities in low-lying areas inundated. Estimated loss in TN comes at Rs 2730.7 cr, in Andhra at Rs 720.73cr., in Kerala at Rs 1358,62cr., and in Pondicherry at Rs 512cr. Total loss in the Andamans is estimated at Rs 2,500 crores.
Death toll in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was unknown for many days. Due to severe flooding there were no traces of terrain where a chopper could be landed. The areas where no relief could be delivered and the condition of people remained unknown for a number of days were Kondul, Little Nicobar, Trinkat, Champin and Kakana. Katchal was totally flattened and the almost half of the population of Chowra around 1,800 wiped out. It is also one of the largest stations for Indian airfield. There was no life loss in Andaman, however. Similarly Middle Andaman and North Andaman also had not been badly affected. The major concern was the estimate of missing persons, whose number stands at 4,000 in Car Nicobar alone and 800 in Chowra.
POST-CALAMITY NIGHTMARES
Millions of people may have survived the deadliest tsunami in living memory, but many are so deeply traumatised that it would take years for them to recover themselves. After losing their kith and kin the victims didn't admit to believe that the disaster had happened, and underwent through mental disorders. Psychiatrists say survivors of major disasters will suffer emotional turmoil and grief for months and even years. The 'Survivor Syndrome' or post-trauma stress disorder - like dizziness, nervousness, interrupted sleep, anger outbursts, flashbacks, difficulty in concentrating and guilt was widely reported from all the affected areas. Recognising the need for psychological support Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sent 10 psychiatrists to help survivors cope with their new waking nightmare. People were solaced and encouraged to go back to some kind of routine.
THE RELIEF
One of the foremost challenges faced by the relief bodies was the disposal of thousands of dead bodies. The menace of epidemic in such circumstances always hounds. As putrefied bodies were piled on beaches in Sri Lankda, rescue teams reported a stench from human corpses mixed with dead animals in the Indonesian province of Aceh. A huge international rescue effort was made and is under way to provide the victims with food, drink, sanitation, shelter and healthcare. Army troops had been deployed for quick disposal. In India alone 4,000 armed troops were pressed in service in all the tsunami-hit areas. The mobilisation by the armed forces is of war-like dimensions: 32 warships, 82 aircrafts, and 17,500 troopers.
This made it the biggest-ever peacetime operation by the armed forces. Several NGOs and volunteers joined the government machinery for relief and rescue. The army was entrusted with the job of disposing off dead bodies in Tamil Nadu. A mass cremation of the dead was performed at Thennai Atrankarai. An ex-gratia of Rs. 10,000 was paid to the families of each of the victims. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh reassured the victims of the Government's commitment to rehabilitate them and adopt orphan children.
The United Islamic Jama'at did relief work for 20,000 people in Cuddalore, a severely hit town in Tamil Nadu where there was hardly any Muslim population. The Indian Express and NDTV widely covered this purely humanitarian act while Soli J Sorabjee, former solicitor general commended their efforts: 'By the evening, about 3,000 Muslim men were tending over 10,000 Hindus and Christians in makeshift camps in the local schools. The huge community kitchens that had been using for its frequent community feasts were immediately turned into relief kitchens. A few hundred of the survivors were invited to stay in the masjid. The Muslims were carrying bodies on their own shoulders and cremating them in order to ensure that the dead "feel not offended in death".'
THE RELIEF FUND
Forty countries have offered support for the victims. The UN appealed for $977 million aid for covering basic humanitarian need. Nations worldwide have pledged around $3.7 million in aid. However the UN warned that the huge promises of aid from rich countries to the tsunami affected might not be fulfilled because governments traditionally renege on their humanitarian pledges. The Indian Government expected that it would take at least Rs 2,000 crores to provide immediate relief for the victims and an additional Rs 1,000 crore to provide houses for the affected areas in the country. The prominent Indian industrial giants, film celebrities, politicians and bureaucrats contributed to the Prime Minister Relief Fund.
GLOBAL WARNING SYSTEM
The US seismologists claimed tracking the tsunami but they had no way to warn local governments of the danger. 'Scientists wanted to place two "tsunametres" in the Indian Ocean, including one near Indonesia, as a part of a global warning system but the plan has not been funded,' said Eddie Bernard, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. Mr Bernard said the tsunametres each cost $250,000 and took about a month to build.
In Thailand there was much criticism of the Government's failure to provide adequate warning. Don Mckinnon. the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, called for talks on creating a global early warning system to issue alerts about tsunamis. South-East Asian leaders discussed a similar system for the Indian Ocean last year, but the talks came to nothing because the problem was comparatively rare in the region.
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL CHANGES
The earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful that it made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicist Ken Hudnut said. He said that some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 metres and the northern tip of the Indonesian territory to the southwest by around 36 metres. The topography of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was also affected.
Beautiful sea beaches and many Islands like Camebell Bay have disappeared. Car Nicobar, the Indian Air Force station, was the worst affected and has sunk to some extent. Even in and around Port Blair, water level of the sea has come up at many places like Bambooflat Island.
THE OBLIGATION
With so many charities and agencies involved from so many countries, there is a danger of confusion. The aid efforts need to be well managed so that relief assistance reaches people as quickly as possible. We cannot bring back those who have died. But we can help care for the survivors by giving practical support to the huge efforts that the countries are making. We have an obligation to help people rebuild their lives.
THE CATASTROPHE
It was the early morning of December 26 when a tsunami, a destructive wave train created by an undersea disturbance, just off the northern tip of Indonesia's Sumatra island, creating mammoth waves, hit coastal areas of India, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia and Maldives.
The massive tidal waves slammed the coastlines and tourists, fishermen, hotels, homes and cars were swept away by walls of water unleashed by 8.9-mangnitude undersea earthquake. The west coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra was the epicenter of the earthquake. Towns near the epicentre were levelled by the tidal waves. The tragedy has been global in scope as it affected people in more than 50 countries in one way or the other.
WHAT IS TSUNAMI?
A Tsunami (pronounced su-nah-mi) is a wave train, or series of waves, generated in a body of water by an impulsive disturbance that vertically displaces water column. Earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions, explosions and even the impact of cosmic bodies, such as meteorites, can generate tsunamis.
It could savagely attack coastlines, causing devastating property damage and loss of life. The word Tsunami is of Japanese origin which means "harbour wave". 'Tsu' means harbor and 4namr means waves. It is generally referred to as "tidal waves" and "seismic sea waves" by scientific community. It is a kind of ‘wall of water' that can challenge a jet plane in speed, rival a tall building in height and pack enough force to destroy hundreds of miles of coastlines. A tsunami travels at about 200m/s, or over 700 km/hr. A tsunami can have a wavelength in excess of 100 kms. Tsunamis not propagate at high speeds, they can also travel great, transoceanic distances with limited energy losses. For instance, in 1960, the earth-quake-generated Chilean tsunami traveled over 17,000 kms across the Pacific to Japan. When a Tectonic earthquake, a particular kind of earthquake that is associated with the earth's crustal deformation, occurs beneath the sea, the water above the deformed area is displaced from its equilibrium position and as displaced water mass, which acts under the influence of gravity, attempts to regain its equilibrium, and forms mammoth waves or tsunami.
THE DEVASTATION
At least 90,000 people were killed in Indonesian islands by flood and collapsing buildings. Aceh was by far the hardest hit province that faced combination of serious earthquake and tidal wave. Indonesia was struck hard by the tsunami since the powerful under-sea quake happened to just off Aceh. The death toll didn't show the signs of stabilising almost for a week. Sri Lanka stands second highest in the death toll stood at 40,000. The official estimate is 31,000. The Sri Lankan officials said that one million people or 5% of the population were affected. More than three-quarters of the island's coast devastated. Among the killed 12,000 were children, estimated UNICEF. The massive tidal waves flung a train off its track leaving 1,000 persons dead or missing. To deliver relief over a million of survivors Sri Lanka employed its military service and hundreds of foreign rescue workers for reinforcement. Mass burial was the only alternative to dispose of thousands of dead bodies.
Muslims are the largest ethnic group affected in Sri Lanka as per the report of Coordinating Centre for Relief and Rehabilitation (CCRR). They constitute 50 per cent of the deaths and 70 per cent of the destroyed and damaged. Their estimated deaths are 16,000, displaced 400,000 and houses destroyed 88,000. The Maldives declared a state of emergency as two-thirds of the capital, Male, was flooded. Out of 1,190 islands of Maldives 37 were completely destroyed and 78 moderately damaged. Thirteen islands were evacuated and out of three-lakh population 12,000 were displaced.
The Maldives has reported 80 persons dead and 28 missing. In Malaysia, 42 people were swept away near Penang. Thailand's official death toll rose to 1,829 but with the police saying more than 1,500 bodies had been found in one district alone, the toll could reach 3,000 and more than 1,900 injured.
The Thailand government said 5,288 Thais and foreigners were missing. Two hundred tourists are missing from one hotel in Khao Lak, north of Phuket island. A total number of 437 foreigners of 36 nationalities were among the dead. Thailand and Indonesia face GDP cuts by 0.2-0.5%. Thailand estimated losses at S510 million. The coastal parts of Indian States of Tamil Naidu, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Andaman and Nicobar Island, Orissa and West Bengal were hit by the tsunami claiming over 15,000 lives. Nearly nine lakh people have been affected. Tamil Nadu was in the forefront in facing the brunt of tsunami. Nagapattinam district being the worst-hit, with 4,347 people killed. Cuddalore and Kanyakumari also reported large numbers of deaths. Thousands of crores of assets in Tamil Nadu alone have been lost. Giant waves crashed in inundating many places and washing away thousands of huts. The seawater entered almost 30-40 feet iinto the city roads. The tsunami had demolished 80 per cent of homes up to a depth of 1 km in affected areas. In Pondicherry about 27 fishing villages, with population of around 50,000, are badly damaged. The calamity has rendered thousands of children orphaned, women widowed, and families asunder. The villages of Prakasam district were lashed and residential localities in low-lying areas inundated. Estimated loss in TN comes at Rs 2730.7 cr, in Andhra at Rs 720.73cr., in Kerala at Rs 1358,62cr., and in Pondicherry at Rs 512cr. Total loss in the Andamans is estimated at Rs 2,500 crores.
Death toll in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was unknown for many days. Due to severe flooding there were no traces of terrain where a chopper could be landed. The areas where no relief could be delivered and the condition of people remained unknown for a number of days were Kondul, Little Nicobar, Trinkat, Champin and Kakana. Katchal was totally flattened and the almost half of the population of Chowra around 1,800 wiped out. It is also one of the largest stations for Indian airfield. There was no life loss in Andaman, however. Similarly Middle Andaman and North Andaman also had not been badly affected. The major concern was the estimate of missing persons, whose number stands at 4,000 in Car Nicobar alone and 800 in Chowra.
POST-CALAMITY NIGHTMARES
Millions of people may have survived the deadliest tsunami in living memory, but many are so deeply traumatised that it would take years for them to recover themselves. After losing their kith and kin the victims didn't admit to believe that the disaster had happened, and underwent through mental disorders. Psychiatrists say survivors of major disasters will suffer emotional turmoil and grief for months and even years. The 'Survivor Syndrome' or post-trauma stress disorder - like dizziness, nervousness, interrupted sleep, anger outbursts, flashbacks, difficulty in concentrating and guilt was widely reported from all the affected areas. Recognising the need for psychological support Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has sent 10 psychiatrists to help survivors cope with their new waking nightmare. People were solaced and encouraged to go back to some kind of routine.
THE RELIEF
One of the foremost challenges faced by the relief bodies was the disposal of thousands of dead bodies. The menace of epidemic in such circumstances always hounds. As putrefied bodies were piled on beaches in Sri Lankda, rescue teams reported a stench from human corpses mixed with dead animals in the Indonesian province of Aceh. A huge international rescue effort was made and is under way to provide the victims with food, drink, sanitation, shelter and healthcare. Army troops had been deployed for quick disposal. In India alone 4,000 armed troops were pressed in service in all the tsunami-hit areas. The mobilisation by the armed forces is of war-like dimensions: 32 warships, 82 aircrafts, and 17,500 troopers.
This made it the biggest-ever peacetime operation by the armed forces. Several NGOs and volunteers joined the government machinery for relief and rescue. The army was entrusted with the job of disposing off dead bodies in Tamil Nadu. A mass cremation of the dead was performed at Thennai Atrankarai. An ex-gratia of Rs. 10,000 was paid to the families of each of the victims. The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh reassured the victims of the Government's commitment to rehabilitate them and adopt orphan children.
The United Islamic Jama'at did relief work for 20,000 people in Cuddalore, a severely hit town in Tamil Nadu where there was hardly any Muslim population. The Indian Express and NDTV widely covered this purely humanitarian act while Soli J Sorabjee, former solicitor general commended their efforts: 'By the evening, about 3,000 Muslim men were tending over 10,000 Hindus and Christians in makeshift camps in the local schools. The huge community kitchens that had been using for its frequent community feasts were immediately turned into relief kitchens. A few hundred of the survivors were invited to stay in the masjid. The Muslims were carrying bodies on their own shoulders and cremating them in order to ensure that the dead "feel not offended in death".'
THE RELIEF FUND
Forty countries have offered support for the victims. The UN appealed for $977 million aid for covering basic humanitarian need. Nations worldwide have pledged around $3.7 million in aid. However the UN warned that the huge promises of aid from rich countries to the tsunami affected might not be fulfilled because governments traditionally renege on their humanitarian pledges. The Indian Government expected that it would take at least Rs 2,000 crores to provide immediate relief for the victims and an additional Rs 1,000 crore to provide houses for the affected areas in the country. The prominent Indian industrial giants, film celebrities, politicians and bureaucrats contributed to the Prime Minister Relief Fund.
GLOBAL WARNING SYSTEM
The US seismologists claimed tracking the tsunami but they had no way to warn local governments of the danger. 'Scientists wanted to place two "tsunametres" in the Indian Ocean, including one near Indonesia, as a part of a global warning system but the plan has not been funded,' said Eddie Bernard, Director of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory in Seattle. Mr Bernard said the tsunametres each cost $250,000 and took about a month to build.
In Thailand there was much criticism of the Government's failure to provide adequate warning. Don Mckinnon. the Secretary General of the Commonwealth, called for talks on creating a global early warning system to issue alerts about tsunamis. South-East Asian leaders discussed a similar system for the Indian Ocean last year, but the talks came to nothing because the problem was comparatively rare in the region.
THE TOPOGRAPHICAL CHANGES
The earthquake that unleashed deadly tidal waves on Asia was so powerful that it made the earth wobble on its axis and permanently altered the regional map, US geophysicist Ken Hudnut said. He said that some of the smaller islands off the southwest coast of Sumatra may have moved to the southwest by about 20 metres and the northern tip of the Indonesian territory to the southwest by around 36 metres. The topography of the Andaman and Nicobar Islands was also affected.
Beautiful sea beaches and many Islands like Camebell Bay have disappeared. Car Nicobar, the Indian Air Force station, was the worst affected and has sunk to some extent. Even in and around Port Blair, water level of the sea has come up at many places like Bambooflat Island.
THE OBLIGATION
With so many charities and agencies involved from so many countries, there is a danger of confusion. The aid efforts need to be well managed so that relief assistance reaches people as quickly as possible. We cannot bring back those who have died. But we can help care for the survivors by giving practical support to the huge efforts that the countries are making. We have an obligation to help people rebuild their lives.
(Published in Radiance Viewsweekly 16-22 January 2005)
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