Catastrophic tsunami in Southeast Asia: stories of eyewitnesses. Tsunami in Phuket Thailand killer wave
More than 10 years have already passed since a terrible disaster occurred - the tsunami in Thailand. What people had to go through on December 26, 2004 (it was on this day that this terrible event happened) cannot be expressed in words. Waves of monstrous height, rushing at enormous speed to the shores of Asia, swept away everything in their path: people, animals, houses, cars, trees and everything else. The disaster brought a lot of grief and casualties: more than 300 thousand people died, of which 8,500 people died in Thailand.
World history and those people who managed to survive then keep in their memory the tragic events of that day. Let's remember how it was.
How a global tragedy occurred
To the question about When there was a tsunami in Thailand, which brought a lot of trouble not only to local residents, but also to numerous vacationers in this country, the events of 2004 immediately come to mind. It was the worst disaster in the country's modern history.. A similar one was recorded on the territory of this state more than 700 years ago.
How did it all begin and what was the cause of this global tragedy?
An ordinary December morning did not foretell any trouble. Everything was as usual. People were doing their usual things: some were still sleeping, some were already working, and some decided to go to the coast. Meanwhile, at 00:58 UTC and 7:58 local time in the Indian Ocean near the Indonesian island of Simeulue An earthquake of unprecedented magnitude occurred. Its magnitude was 9.1-9.3 points! The tremors provoked the emergence of a series of incredibly high, powerful and fast waves, which just a few hours later rushed fiercely towards the shores of Asian countries (Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Somalia), including Thailand.
It's scary to imagine, but the speed at which the waves rushed was about 1000 km/h . Approaching shallow water, they slowed down a little, as if they were gaining strength before delivering a brutal blow, and acquired simply monstrous sizes - sometimes even up to 40 meters in height!
The photo shows that some eyewitnesses on the beach realized the approaching disaster
The earthquake in Thailand was practically not felt, so people did not even suspect that an angry disaster would soon hit the coastal lands. No one knew that the west coast, where Phuket, Krabi province and the surrounding small islands are located, would soon come face to face with an uncontrollable natural disaster. Since there had never been phenomena of such monstrous proportions here before, the tsunami rescue system actually did not work.
About an hour after the fatal earthquake occurred in the Indian Ocean, something inexplicable began to happen. Birds began to fly away from the shore, and animals also ran away from the sea in restlessness. Even the sound of the surf stopped. When the water “went away” and the seabed was exposed, people even then could not think that this was a harbinger of impending disaster. Interested in the beautiful shells and fish remaining on land, they began to go out to the shallow bottom.
Even at that moment, when a huge 15-meter wave rushed towards the shore, no one saw it, since it did not have a characteristic white crest, which is why it simply merged with the horizon. Only when she came close to the coast did panic begin. But it was already too late, because no one could outpace the moving wall of water and manage to escape.
The wave easily swept away everything that stood in its way: people, animals, cars, houses, uprooted trees, pulled out metal reinforcement, tore off live electrical wires, and crushed concrete. And it was not so much the water that caused more trouble, but rather what was in it.
Ocean waters affected hundreds of meters of land, and in some places up to 2 kilometers.
The terrifying consequences of the tsunami
What the raging water element did was terrible. The consequences of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand are incredibly tragic, but Thailand was much luckier due to the shallower Andaman Sea than, for example, the island of Sumatra. Those who were further from the shore and were able to survive this nightmare saw a shocking picture when the water receded.
Various huge objects were in the most unexpected places: giant trees in houses, motor boats on the roofs, cars in the spacious hotel lobby... There were no streets as such. Everything became like a dump of fragments of furniture, cars, bricks, trees. You can watch the video to see what people saw then.
But the worst thing is the many bodies of dead people and animals. According to official figures, the tsunami killed 8,500 people in Thailand. 5,400 are tourists from around the world, about half of whom are children.
The amazing thing is that the earthquake of monstrous force literally pierced the planet right through. The energy of the vibrations was so powerful that some small islands near Sumatra moved to the southwest by about 20 meters, and the planet itself changed its rotation.
The state government, concerned about possible outbreaks of infections, urgently sent forces to search for bodies with a view to identifying and burying them.
The grief the 2004 Thai tsunami brought to the island of Phuket cannot be measured in words or numbers. It will forever remain in the memory of those who lost their loved ones.
Let's not even talk about the fact that many survivors lost their shelter, clothing, food and any means of subsistence. Many countries around the world began sending humanitarian aid.
Today Thailand has fully recovered from the tragedy. According to special requirements, new housing was built on the coast, additional measures were introduced to prevent devastating consequences if the population suddenly had to endure a tsunami.. And only the memory of people preserves the events of that day - December 26, 2004.
How high is the risk of a tsunami?
In Thailand, tsunamis are rare events. In order for waves of monstrous strength and height to form, several conditions must simultaneously coincide:
- the epicenter of the earthquake is located close to the bottom surface;
- the magnitude of the earthquake is more than 7 points;
- the shock from the earthquake resonated with the vibrations of the water;
- noticeable vertical displacement of parts of the bottom relative to each other.
Often, tsunamis are not even felt by people, but are simply recorded by special devices.
Rescue system
In 2004, in Thailand and neighboring countries, which were attacked by rogue waves, the danger warning system was not properly adjusted. But after those events, increased attention was paid to this issue.
Today the rescue system in Thailand consists of two parts. This is a warning of impending danger and the evacuation of the population and tourists. In 2012, the system was tested in Phuket. The alert went off and most people moved to higher ground. At least no one was wandering along the shore anymore.
Procedure in case of a tsunami
Of course, it’s better not to get into such situations at all, but the elements are the elements and you need to be on your guard. If you are in Thailand and hear a tsunami alert, you should do the following:
- Don't panic under any circumstances. The state has a well-functioning tsunami early warning system. And the likelihood that a repeat of the 2004 scenario is possible is negligible.
- If you suddenly notice that the sea has “removed” and there was no warning about the danger, immediately leave the coastal areas, following the signs.
- It is necessary to go as far as possible from the sea and climb to higher ground - for example, to the roofs of multi-story buildings.
- It should be remembered that there are always several waves, and do not go down ahead of time. Sometimes the break between waves can be more than an hour.
- Even if everything has calmed down, you should not approach the coastal areas for as long as possible.
The 2004 tsunami once again proved to humanity that, despite its inflated sense of superiority and scientific and technological progress, it can be absolutely defenseless against the greatness of the elements. Perhaps more attention should be paid to the safety and protection of people from various natural hazards, than to develop another “important”, absolutely useless invention?
The New Year's bustle of 2004 was overshadowed by a terrible disaster - the tsunami in Thailand, which claimed the lives of thousands of people and became the deadliest and most destructive in modern history. The cause of this tragedy was a powerful underwater earthquake that occurred on December 26 at the deep bottom of the Indian Ocean.
According to experts, the magnitude of the tremors ranged from 9.0 to 9.3 on the local Richter scale, which led to the formation of huge waves that brought enormous and irreparable damage, troubles and suffering, deprivation and the bitterness of loss in a short time.
2004 Thailand Tsunami
The day on the West Coast and nearby islands began normally, many people were rushing to work, vacationers were basking on the beaches in the morning sun, and no one could even think about the impending mortal threat. Before the terrible tsunami in Thailand in 2004, this phenomenon was extremely rare in these parts, which is probably why extreme carelessness and ignorance played a fatal role in this tragedy.
The epicenter of the earthquake was located near the island of Sumatra; at 7:58 a.m. local time, two tectonic plates – Indian and Burmese – collided, resulting in a displacement of one of them by 18 meters.
A sharp change in the position of the 1200-kilometer platform caused a huge drop in the huge volume of water masses. In just a few minutes, there was a critical rise in the water level to the western part of the plate fault, which led to tragic consequences and caused the 2004 tsunami in Thailand.
Catastrophe
Despite the powerful underwater tremors, the earthquake was practically not felt on land. Only an hour later the first signs of trouble began to appear: birds flew away screaming, animals hid and also strove away from the shore, the sound of the surf began to subside, and the water began to quickly recede from the beaches, revealing the seabed.
Instead of being wary, many vacationers rushed to the vacated areas to replenish their collections of shells and collect fish. No one even noticed the high wave that appeared on the horizon, since, without a white cap, it was practically invisible against the background of the sea surface.
A tsunami generated by vertical shocks of the ocean floor has one peculiarity. Passing through deep-sea areas, this wave looks like harmless small tubercles, which at the same time rush at very high speed. Approaching the shore, it begins to slow down sharply, forming a huge wall of water with powerful energy potential.
1100 km continental plate has moved forward by as much as 18 meters
A similar tsunami occurred in Phuket in 2004 and on the coast of Thailand. With a wild howl and growl of a wounded predator, thousands of tons of water suddenly fell on the coastal land and rushed with crazy speed to destroy and break everything in their path.
The energy of the water was so great that in some places the ocean deepened into the land up to several kilometers. In Patong, at the moment of impact of a relatively “small” wave of 3-5 meters, a speed of about 500 km per hour was recorded.
When the forces of the elements were exhausted, the water stopped, but after a short period of time, with no less swiftness, it rushed back. And now, for the people who were escaping, in addition to the frenzied water currents, the danger was posed by everything that the wave carried back to the sea. Trees, pieces of metal structures, concrete, vehicles, furniture - all of these presented deadly traps for the few survivors.
Today on the Internet you can find eyewitness videos about the 2004 tsunami in Thailand, the footage of which shows all the horror and hopelessness of the rampant natural disaster.
Consequences
After the deadly wave subsided, a sad and depressing picture appeared before the eyes of the survivors. It seemed that nuclear military tests had taken place on the site of the recently prosperous resort, which wiped out almost all buildings near the shore from the face of the earth. Large coastal hotels were dilapidated skeletons of iron structures, furniture and interior items turned into heaps of small splinters. The streets were filled with piles of rubbish made up of wood and concrete debris, broken glass, mangled vehicles, poles with downed wires and, worst of all, human and animal bodies.
Shock and horror did not allow the survivors to come to their senses, comprehend the disaster that had happened, and leave the terrible place after the first water left. Perhaps then there would have been fewer victims, since the rogue wave returned two more times. As a result of this triple blow, the death toll from the tsunami in Thailand alone numbered in the tens of thousands, and in all of Indonesia in the hundreds.
Mitigation measures
When the water finally receded, local authorities quickly joined the fight to eliminate the destructive effects of the tsunami. Special camps were quickly organized for victims of the disaster, where psychological and material assistance, drinking water and food were provided. Hundreds of mobilized military personnel, volunteers and local police kept order, helped search for survivors and clear away the rubble.
The hot climate and destroyed sewage system could provoke outbreaks of various infections, so the first priority was to locate the dead, possible identification and burial. Many countries contributed to solving this problem by sending everything necessary to eliminate the consequences: people, equipment, materials and humanitarian aid.
Thailand recovered relatively quickly and recovered from the devastating disaster. It has now joined an international system designed to detect deadly waves early and mitigate their effects in the Indian Ocean. It was successfully tested during a tsunami threat in 2012, then all warning systems were activated and a complete evacuation of tourists and the population was carried out.
Now tourism in Thailand is thriving, tourists from all over the world, forgetting about fears of a tsunami, go on vacation to this amazing country; only posters with rules of conduct in case of natural disasters remind of the 2004 tragedy.
BANGKOK, December 26 - RIA Novosti, Evgeny Belenky. Ten years ago, on December 26, 2004, six thousand people died in the resorts of southern Thailand as a result of a devastating tsunami that swept along the Indian Ocean coastline. More than half of the dead were foreign tourists, including Russians. A tourist paradise in southern Thailand turned into absolute hell within one hour.
Indian Ocean Tsunami - Ten Years LaterOn December 26, 2004, an underwater earthquake with a magnitude, according to various estimates, from 9.1 to 9.3 shifted the tectonic plates of the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami immediately hit the shores of the island of Simelue, Sumatra, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Africa.Phuket
Having arrived in Phuket the night before and spent the night searching for surviving Russians in hospitals in Phuket and five surrounding provinces, on the morning of December 27, driving along a relatively intact section of the embankment in the Patong Beach area, we saw for the first time in daylight and realized the scale of the destruction. Completely collapsed and dilapidated houses of the first line, cars half sticking out of the windows of the third floor, and a small car wrapped around a cracked concrete pillar, so that the front bumper was in contact with the rear. There were no more bodies of the dead on the streets, there was only debris from wooden buildings demolished by the wave and mangled cars and motorcycles, and this made the picture even worse: imagination filled in what was missing. In Patong, the wave was “only” three to five meters high, but its speed at the moment of impact reached 500 kilometers per hour. On the embankment there were palm trees, bare as lampposts, not broken by the wave, but completely devoid of leaves.
Phuket was less affected than the mainland coast of neighboring Phanga province or Phi Phi island in Krabi province, and had fewer fatalities. But it was in Phuket on the day of the tsunami that there were the largest number of Russians, more than 900 people, and two of them died.
On December 28, in one of the hospitals in Phuket, the body of a young woman from Moscow was found, who came to rest with her four-year-old son and on the day of the tsunami refused an excursion deep into the island, going with the child to the beach. Her son's body was discovered in another hospital the next day, and together with visiting relatives of the victims, Russian diplomats and local doctors made a visual identification, then confirmed by identification from dental records. On the island of Phuket itself, no more Russians died.
Phuket became the center for survivors and the identification center for all surrounding provinces. On the very first day, the Thai authorities provided a plane for the flight from Bangkok to Phuket for consular workers of those countries whose citizens were in the disaster zone. On the third day after the tsunami, the evacuation mechanism was already in full swing: a transit camp for foreign victims in Phuket, free flights to Bangkok, refugee camps in Bangkok, from which tsunami victims were sent home.
All the bodies of people who died both on the island itself and in neighboring provinces were brought to Phuket. There were no places in the morgues, so the bodies were placed in plastic bags and sheets on the floor of hospital basements, where there were such, or on the ground in the courtyards of hospitals and on the territory of several Buddhist monasteries. Only before the New Year, the first 12 refrigerated containers arrived in Phuket, but even a week later, when there were already several dozen of them, there were still not enough containers, and a decision was made to temporarily bury the unidentified bodies. Most of the bodies found after several days in the water could not be visually identified. For several years after the tsunami, an operation was underway to identify the victims by DNA.
There was a lot of confusion: for example, Russian diplomats had to defend the body of a Muscovite who died in Phuket, which their colleagues from Italy suddenly began to lay claim to: one elderly Italian recognized her as his daughter from a photograph. The body had already been identified by the Russian woman’s relatives and identified by doctors, so the Russian side invited the Italian side to carry out a DNA comparison. The analysis was done in Rome and showed a negative result, after which Italian diplomats were forced to apologize to the Russians. Then the German rescuers working with the refrigerators introduced their own body numbering system, “cancelling” the previous one used by the Israeli rescuers who had worked before them, and they had to open the refrigerators one by one to find the identified bodies that had to be prepared for shipment to their homeland. It turned out, however, that the neat Germans had nevertheless compiled a list of matching numbers, but for some reason they decided to stick it not to the outside, but to the inside of the door of one of the 18 containers standing nearby.
Phanga Province
In the Khao Lak area of Phanga province on the mainland, a forty-minute drive from Phuket, a strip of beach lined with several five-star hotels looked like something out of a crazy surrealist's dream on the second day after the tsunami. There was no asphalt road that previously led from the highway to the Sofitel Khao Lak Hotel. In its place was a broken and washed out dirt road. Along it, mattresses, mini-fridges from rooms, and safes hung on the branches of completely bare trees. The hotel's concrete and brick buildings were intact, but they looked as if some giant rabid cat had torn off the paint and plaster from the first to the third floor with its claws. The piles on which the buildings were built were exposed, and underneath them darkened eerie, almost black water. Paths made of plywood boards were laid between the hulls, along which the Thai sailors leading the rescue operation moved. A wave 15 meters high here traveled almost two kilometers deep into the shore.
“We collected most of the bodies, but not all the bodies have been removed here yet, some are under buildings, some are under plywood shields. We had to put these shields on the dead in some places so that we could collect and transport other bodies, from the beach and from the pools ", said the officer commanding the operation.
It was at Sofitel that seven of the ten Russian tsunami victims died. A family of three from Buryatia, a girl guide from St. Petersburg who came to discuss their vacation program with them, a young couple with a daughter from Moscow.
Another Russian died at the nearby Grand Diamond Hotel. He walked out of the hotel building onto the beach, while his family stayed in the room and survived.
Survivors at the Sofitel told how powerful whirlpools tore people out of rooms on the first floor through window panes broken by the first blow of the wave. An elderly woman from Kazakhstan and her one-year-old grandson survived because the bed they were lying on rose to the ceiling. The grandmother and grandson took turns breathing air from the air pocket that had formed there. within fifteen minutes. Another grandson of this woman, an eleven-year-old boy, took the blow of a wave at the door of his hotel building - he returned from the beach to get swimming goggles - also survived, although he broke his ribs on the statues that stood between the buildings. His last memory before the impact was of his father and mother running along the beach from the wave towards him, already knowing that they would not have time to escape, and putting all their strength into warning their son: “Run, run up!”
1,500 Russians survived the tsunami in southern Thailand
The emergency headquarters at the Russian embassy in Bangkok worked around the clock, receiving 2,000 phone calls per day. The first list compiled by the headquarters included one and a half thousand Russians, presumably located in the provinces that suffered the disaster.
All subsequent days, until January 6, when this list was “closed,” a search was carried out for everyone mentioned in it individually. Names were crossed out one by one only after double-checking confirmation that the person was alive and well. Most of the names were “closed” by the Bangkok headquarters, which received calls from relatives and the wanted persons themselves. The rest were searched for and found by Russian diplomats who flew to Phuket on the evening of December 26 - in hospitals, in hotels, in evacuee camps.
From the first day in Phuket, they were helped by volunteers - employees of travel agencies, Russians living in different parts of Thailand, the mother of one of the Russian citizens who disappeared in Sofitel, who came to look for her son and did not want to sit back and wait for news, journalists from Russian TV channels and newspapers who came to cover the consequences of the tsunami.
Gradually the lists melted away, people were found, and at the same time another list began to be drawn up - for evacuation flights of the Russian Ministry of Emergency Situations. On the very first flight, which brought bottled drinking water to Phuket before the New Year (there was a chronic shortage of it on the island), Russian diplomats managed to send home more than 80 Russians and citizens of neighboring countries, including Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania.
There was a third list: those who were considered missing, but due to the circumstances of their location at the time of the tsunami and eyewitness testimony, most likely died. On January 8, this list became final. Ten names left. Identification of the dead took years. The list has not changed, only the people named in it have today ceased to be considered missing and have become officially dead. Here are their names: Oksana Lipuntsova and her four-year-old son Artem, Sergei Borgolova, Natalya Borgolova, their son Vladislav Borgolova, Maria Gabunia, Olga Gabunia, Evgeniy Mikhalenkov, Alexandra Gulida, Vitaly Kimstach.
In the history of mankind, December 26, 2004 was marked by a tragedy of enormous proportions, which brought a sea of suffering to a huge number of people. At 00:58 UTC (07:58 a.m. local), a powerful earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 to 9.3 occurred in the depths of the Indian Ocean, near the Indonesian island of Simeulue. It gave rise to a series of rogue waves, which within a few hours brought terrible destruction to the shores of Asia, killing approximately 300 thousand people. Among the countries hit by the disaster was Thailand.
Start
On the most ordinary December morning, powerful tremors of the seabed led to the displacement of huge masses of water in the ocean. In the open sea, it looked like low, but stretching for thousands of kilometers water semicircles, rushing at incredible speed (up to 1000 km/h) to the shores of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka and even African Somalia. As the waves approached shallow water, they slowed down, but in some places acquired monstrous sizes - up to 40 meters in height. Like enraged chimeras, they carried an energy twice as high as the energy of all the explosions of the Second World War with the nuclear bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki inclusive.
At this time, residents and guests of the western coast of Thailand (Phuket, Krabi province and the surrounding small islands) began a very ordinary day. Some were in a hurry to go to work, some were still basking in a soft bed, and some had already decided to enjoy the sea. The tremors were practically unnoticeable, so no one, absolutely no one, suspected the impending mortal danger.
About an hour after the earthquake, strange phenomena began to appear on land at sea: animals and birds ran away in anxiety, the sound of the surf ceased, and the water in the sea abruptly left the shore. Intrigued, people began to go out to the shallow areas of the seabed to collect exposed shells and fish.
No one saw the approaching 15-meter wall of water, since it did not have a white crest, and for a long time visually merged with the surface of the sea. By the time she was noticed, it was already too late. Like an angry lion, the sea crashed onto the land with a roar and howl. With tremendous speed it carried streams of enraged water, crushing, tearing and grinding everything in its path.
The ocean traveled hundreds of meters inland, and in some places up to two kilometers. When his strength was exhausted, the movement of the water stopped, but only to rush back at the same speed. And woe to those who did not have time to take cover. At the same time, the danger was not so much the water itself, but what it carried. Huge pieces of soil, concrete and reinforcement, broken furniture, cars, advertising signs, broken high-voltage cables - all this threatened to kill, flatten and injure anyone who found themselves in the frantic flow.
Video
When the water left
After it was all over, a truly terrifying picture appeared to the survivors. It seemed that evil giants were playing terrible games here, moving huge objects and leaving them in the most unexpected places: a car in the hotel lobby, a tree trunk in a window or a swimming pool, a boat on the roof of a house, a hundred meters from the sea... Buildings that once stood on the shore and were almost completely destroyed. The streets turned into a hellish mess of fragments of furniture, mangled and overturned cars, shards of glass, broken wires and, worst of all, the bodies of dead people and animals.
Elimination of the consequences of the tsunami
Measures to eliminate the consequences of the tsunami began to be taken immediately after the water left. All military and police were mobilized, camps were organized for the victims with access to clean water, food and a place to rest. Due to the hot climate, the danger of outbreaks of infections associated with contamination of air and drinking water increased every hour, so the government and local population faced a tough task: to locate all the dead in the shortest possible time, identify them if possible and properly bury them. To do this, it was necessary to clear away the rubble all day long, without sleep or rest. Many governments around the world sent human and material resources to help the Thai people.
The total number of deaths on the shores of Thailand reached 8,500 people, 5,400 of whom were citizens of more than forty countries, a third of them were children. Later, after the governments of the affected countries were able to assess the total damage, the 2004 tsunami was recognized as the deadliest ever known.
The earthquake that raised giant waves was so strong that it pierced our planet right through, causing ground vibrations of up to 3 mm in the United States. At the same time, such a mass of energy was released that the Earth changed its rotation, reducing the length of the day by 2.6 microseconds. Some small islands near Sumatra have shifted to the southwest by up to 20 meters.
Years after the tragedy
Next year will mark 10 years since the tragedy that claimed more than 300 thousand lives and brought grief and despair to even more people around the world. During this time, Thailand was able to recover and completely restore the affected areas. A year after the disaster, the issue of providing housing for those who lost a roof over their head was resolved.
New homes, especially on the coast, are now being built to specific specifications. Their design, materials and location will allow them to withstand the elements of the sea and, in the event of a threat, reduce casualties and destruction to a minimum.
But most importantly, Thailand has joined the international system of deep-sea tracking of the movement of masses of water in the ocean, with the help of which it is possible to predict the arrival of a tsunami in advance. On islands and cities where there is a possibility of giant waves, warning and evacuation systems have been created. Extensive educational work has been carried out to familiarize people with the rules of behavior in the event of a natural disaster.
On July 9, 1958, a strong earthquake triggered a giant landslide in Lituya Bay, southwest Alaska. Three hundred million cubic meters of soil, rock and ice then fell into the sea, raising a record-high wave in the entire history of tsunami observations. A wall of water 524 meters high moved at a speed of 160 km/h, blocking the sky and the sun, and hit Cenotaph Island, creating several more giant waves in the bay.
Today, the general phobia of a possible tsunami in Thailand has practically disappeared. Tourists flock to the shores of the kingdom with renewed enthusiasm and enjoy traveling around this amazing country. The coast now looks more beautiful than it was, and only signs with the rules of behavior in the event of danger remind of the tragedy of 2004. But this is only external. The elements left behind a huge number of broken human destinies. People will keep memories of the fear they experienced for a long time and grieve for those who can no longer be returned.
In the last article we wrote about the fire that hit the Caribbean islands, Cuba and the United States. But let's remember that on December 26, 2004 at 7:58 am an earthquake occurred in the vastness of the Indian Ocean, which brought irreversible consequences. The magnitude of the destruction reached 9.1 - 9.3 points. It triggered the development of a powerful tsunami in Thailand. Many countries were hit by natural disasters, including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, and the Maldives. Residents of the islands of Phuket, Phi Phi, Khao Lak, Lanta, Krabi, located on the west coast of Thailand, took most of the blow. According to Wikipedia, between 225 thousand and 300 thousand innocent people died. Accurate calculations of victims are complicated by the fact that many were carried away by the giant wave into the open sea.
How did the greatest tragedy of the century begin?
December 26, 2004 was an ordinary morning with no signs of trouble. The people who visited during their trip and the local population went about their usual business and could not even imagine that this day would bring so many victims.
Meanwhile, changes began to occur in the sea, which in the future led to irreversible consequences. As a result of a sudden earthquake, water masses shifted in the ocean depths. This led to the fact that sea waves formed water semicircles that stretched over a distance of thousands of kilometers and headed towards the coastal zone of Thailand, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, reaching speeds of up to a thousand km/h. Approaching the shore, the waves slowed down, however, they could reach 40 meters high.
The earthquake did not make itself felt on land, and the giant waves had not yet had time to reach the embankment and appear before people's eyes. Therefore, everyone who was currently on the islands of Thailand, in particular Phuket and Krabi, could not imagine that they would witness a deadly devastating tsunami.
An hour after the start of the tremors provoked by the earthquake, the first signs of the approaching cataclysm appeared on land: animals and birds left the beach with worry in their eyes. The water from the sea suddenly moved away from the shore. Shallow areas of the seabed were strewn with fish and shells, which ended up on land due to the fact that sea water narrowed its boundaries. People with undisguised interest went to collect seafood. This was theirs fatal mistake.
After all, a wall of sea water was approaching the shore, rising to 15 meters up. Guests and residents of Thailand could not notice the approaching tsunami with the naked eye, because the wave did not have a white crest and seemed from afar to be a reflection of the sea surface. When the real picture of what was happening appeared before people, it was already too late to run - attempts to hide from the disaster were unsuccessful.The water rushed with furious energy, covering the land for two kilometers. At the same time, she demolished everything in her path, bringing only destruction in her wake. After a short period of time, the sea wave headed back. The threat was posed not only by water, but also by pieces of earth, concrete, destroyed furniture, building materials, cars, and billboards that it carried behind it. These items could easily claim the lives of people who managed to escape the disaster.
Tsunami in Thailand 2004 video
Those who were at the epicenter of the events managed to capture unique moments on video cameras. These images are striking in how ruthless the elements swept through Thailand and the losses humanity suffered. You can watch the 2004 Thailand tsunami in the video below:
Tsunami in Thailand 2004: how many died?
The number of deaths seriously surprised everyone: 8500 people died, about 3 thousand were residents of Thailand, the rest were citizens of more than forty countries. The 2004 tsunami caused the largest and deadliest damage of any natural disaster ever recorded.
What did the tsunami leave behind?
When the water left the land and returned to the seashores, the people who were destined to escape the tsunami could not believe their eyes. Exotic corners of Thailand, impressive with their beauty and attracting many tourists every year, have turned into ruins. All around one could see destroyed buildings, shops, restaurants, pieces of metal from broken cars, fallen trees, mutilated human bodies under the rubble.
Elimination of consequences
When the deadly disaster receded, work immediately began to eliminate the consequences of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. Points were created for the surviving people where they could receive medical care, food and clean water, and spend the night. All victims were distributed among medical institutions. The big disadvantage of the fact that hot weather always prevails in Thailand was the high probability of contamination of the air and drinking water, which could result in an outbreak of infections. Therefore, the list of initial tasks of the local authorities included the search for all the dead, their further identification and burial. Since there were only ruins all around, discovering dead bodies under the rubble took a lot of time, personnel and effort.
The authorities of many countries around the world provided the necessary assistance to the Thais: be it human resources or material resources.
The tremors generated by the earthquake had an impossible force, as they passed through planet Earth and caused ground vibrations of up to 3 mm in the United States. As the storm raged, a large amount of energy was released, which provoked a change in the rotation of the planet. Because of this the length of the day decreased by 2.6 microseconds. Some of the islands located near Sumatra moved 20 meters to the southwest.
Thailand today
In the entire time that has passed since the 2004 tsunami, Thailand has managed to completely recreate the destroyed areas. A year after the cataclysm, people who lost their houses and apartments were provided with new housing.
All buildings that are built in Thailand, especially on the coast, meet special requirements. They are designed in such a way that in the event of a new disaster they will be able to withstand the impact of the sea elements and save the lives of thousands of innocent people.
Thailand takes part in an international system for monitoring the movement of water masses in the ocean, thanks to which they can anticipate the onset of a tsunami. In settlements located close to the sea, notification systems for approaching disasters and evacuation plans have been created. People were familiarized with the rules of behavior in the event of another natural disaster.
The authorities managed to restore the former atmosphere of a tourist center in Thailand, although all these achievements were not achieved easily. In 2005-2006, people planning to travel were still in fear of the event and were in no hurry to buy tickets to these resorts. Therefore, the cost of travel packages has dropped significantly so that it is possible to at least somehow attract tourists to vacation on the Thai coast.
Years later, the situation in Thailand is the same as in the old days before the fatal natural disaster - it is one of the popular, world-famous resort areas in the world. Reviews from tourists satisfied with their trips only confirm this information. Nowadays, only fragments of video files and warning signs on the shore remind us of the 2004 tsunami in Thailand. However, we will always remember the losses that this cataclysm brought to humanity.
Please rate:
(6 ratings, average: 4,83 out of 5)
✓Tripster is the largest online excursion booking service in Russia.
✓Travelata.ru - search for the most profitable tours among 120 reliable tour operators.
✓Aviasales.ru - search and compare prices for air tickets among 100 agencies and 728 airlines.
✓Hotellook.ru - search engine for hotels around the world. Compares prices across many booking systems, finding the best.
✓Airbnb.ru is the most popular service in the world for renting housing from owners (often it turns out to be more convenient and cheaper than a hotel). Follow this link and receive $25 as a gift for your first booking.
✓Sravni.ru - travel insurance online, including for visas.
✓Kiwitaxi.ru is an international service for booking car transfers. 70 countries and 400 airports.
Today we decided to show in the photo and tell you what fruits look like in Thailand and give their description. Thailand is famous for its abundance of very tasty fruits, and if you find yourself in this country, it will be useful for you to know about the most delicious ones. See the fruits of Thailand (photos with names in Thai) and descriptions. Also recommended: Gibbons in Khao Phanom Bencha and SirinathBaan […]
More than 10 years have already passed since a terrible disaster occurred - the tsunami in Thailand. What people had to go through on December 26, 2004 (it was on this day that this terrible event happened) cannot be expressed in words. Waves of monstrous height, rushing at great speed to the shores of Asia, swept away everything in their path: people, animals, houses, cars, trees and everything […]