Twenty years on, Asia commemorates the lives lost in the devastating 2004 tsunami. Emotional ceremonies across the region honor the 220,000 victims and reflect on the lessons learned from the tragedy.
Emotional ceremonies were expected across Asia on Thursday to remember the 220,000 people who died two decades ago when a tsunami devastated coastal areas around the Indian Ocean , in one of the worst natural disasters in human history.On December 26, 2004, a 9.1-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia 's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummeled the coastline of 14 countries from Indonesia to Somalia.
Beachside memorials and religious ceremonies will be held across Asia in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand, which were the worst hit countries.'I hope we will never experience that ever again,' said Nilawati, a 60-year-old Indonesian housewife who lost her son and mother in the tragedy.'I learned the devastation of losing a child, a grief I can't explain with words. It feels like it just happened yesterday. Whenever I am reminded of it, it feels like all the blood rushes out of my body.'Victims of waves as high as 30 meters (98 feet) included many foreign tourists celebrating Christmas on the region's sun-kissed beaches, bringing the tragedy into homes around the globe.The seabed being ripped open pushed waves at double the speed of a bullet train, crossing the Indian Ocean within hours without warning.A total of 226,408 people died as a result of the tsunami, according to EM-DAT, a recognized global disaster database.There was no warning of the impending tsunami, giving little time for evacuation, despite the hours-long gaps between the waves striking different continents.But today a sophisticated network of monitoring stations has cut down warning times.Candlelight, train vigilsIndonesia suffered the highest death toll, with more than 160,000 people killed along its western coast.In its westernmost province Aceh, mourners were to hold a moment of silence before visits to a mass grave and a communal prayer at the grand mosque in provincial capital Banda Ace
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