A Boxing Day like no other: The Indian Ocean tsunami, ten years on

An elephant which belongs to forest ministry removes debris in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko — An elephant which belongs to forest ministry removes debris in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko

ON BOXING Day 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck in the Indian Ocean, triggering a deadly tsunami which battered coastlines across Asia. In the first in of five days of coverage of the disaster which shocked the world, The Yorkshire Post examines what happened.

It hit 14 countries, killing around 230,000 people and making 1.7 million homeless.

It was indiscriminate, Thai fishermen working out at sea were swept away, as were tourists relaxing in luxury resorts.

Stark images of villages razed to the ground filled television screens around the world.

An Acehnese man walks through debris near the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, about 240 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter.

AP Photo/Dita Alangkara — An Acehnese man walks through debris near the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, about 240 kilometers from the earthquake's epicenter. AP Photo/Dita Alangkara

In total, 149 British citizens or those with close links to the UK died, including many from Yorkshire.

Some families were told within days that their loved ones had been lost, but many had to wait months for news. For some, that phone call never came as some bodies were never recovered.

The earthquake that caused the tsunami was 23,000 times more powerful than the Hiroshima atomic bomb and caused a shift in the ocean floor that displaced enough water to fill a tank 1.6 kilometres wide, 1.6 kilometres high and more than 11 kilometres long.

No early warning system was in place, so many had no idea what was happening, and barely registered what the shift on the horizon meant - or were prepared for the waves that followed the initial hit.

A boat passes by a damaged hotel, at Ton Sai Bay on Phi Phi Island, in Thailand
AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File — A boat passes by a damaged hotel, at Ton Sai Bay on Phi Phi Island, in Thailand AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File

The risk of a large earthquake in the Indian Ocean had been “significantly underestimated”, Tim Henstock, senior lecturer in ocean and earth science at the University of Southampton said.

Only a “small number” of people were involved in monitoring seismic activity in the region when the massive the massive earthquake struck, causing the Earth to physically wobble on its axis.

The lack of an early tsunami warning system was a “significant factor” in the devastation caused, Dr Henstock said.

Whereas the tsunami reached Banda Aceh, Indonesia, 20 minutes after the earthquake struck, just before 8am off the coast of Sumatra, it was hours before it reached other shorelines in the region.

Villagers walk with their belongings past two boats that were washed ashore by tidal waves at Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu.
AP Photo/Gautam Singh, File — Villagers walk with their belongings past two boats that were washed ashore by tidal waves at Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu. AP Photo/Gautam Singh, File

“Looking at Thailand, Sri Lanka and the coast of India, an early warning system would have made quite a significant difference, where there was a couple of hours of travelling time,” he said.

“The lack of an early warning system meant people in Sri Lanka and elsewhere would not have been aware of the earthquake happening.”

The force of the earthquake created the biggest tsunami in more than 40 years, something Trevor Guymer, an advisor to the UK’s Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) office, said was “not possible to predict.”

“We might see, on average, one occur a century. It doesn’t mean it won’t happen again in a few years.

An Acehnese man walks through debris near the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque in Banda Aceh, about 240 kilometers (150 miles) from the earthquake's epicenter, Indonesia.