Due to the topography of the seabed, coastline and reefs offshore, the tsunami waves piled on top of themselves and in doing so, create the infamous 'disappearing sea effect' which enticed many tourists to their deaths. Thailand has a liberalised, flexible and robust economy, which has shown powers of rapid recuperation after previous setbacks. At 7.58am local time on December 26, 2004 - 15 years ago - a 9.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the Indonesian coast, at the northern tip of Sumatra.. The tsunami was the deadliest in recorded history, taking 230,000 lives in a matter of hours. The elephant's natural instinct to flee the sea saved the life of a young girl who was upon his back. With waves traveling 500 mph across the Indian Ocean, the tsunami hit the coastal provinces of Phang Nga and Phuket an hour and a half later. Case study: tsunami. “It’s a wave, but from the observer’s standpoint, you wouldn’t recognize it as a wave,” Titov says. The severity of the situation in Khao Lak is probably explained by the fact, that unlike the high-rise hotels of Phuket, the village of Khao Lak only had low built bungalows instead of high-rise concrete hotels. People flee as a tsunami wave comes crashing ashore at Koh Raya, part of Thailand's territory in the Andaman islands, 23 kilometers from Phuket island, southern Thailand, on December 26, 2004. “[The Indian Ocean tsunami] came ashore in these places that had no natural warning either, because they were far enough away that they didn’t feel any of the earthquake,” says Borrero. While the destruction in Thailand… In 2004, the Belón-Álvarez family traveled to Orchid Resort Hotel in Khao Lak, Thailand for the Christmas holidays. The fishing industry was damaged by the extensive destruction of fishing boats and tackle, which individual fishing families could not afford to replace, particularly since many lost their homes as well. All bodies of unknown origin will now be DNA tested to determine their ethnic origin. European governments have pledged large sums of money to rebuild infrastructure and to fund new schools and orphanages for the Thai communities affected, as a gesture of thanks for the assistance given to their citizens by the Thai people. In the process, massive segments of the ocean floor were forced upward an estimated 30 or 40 meters (up to 130 feet). The follow-on tsunami killed about 280,000 people and remains one of the largest humanitarian disasters in recent history. It was during these expeditions that scientists confirmed maximum wave heights of more than 131 feet on the northwestern tip of the island. The tsunami was the deadliest in recorded history, taking 230,000 lives in a matter of hours. Ten years ago, on 26 December 2004, the Earth’s crust shifted along a 1,300 km fault off the northern coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Despite the time lapse, locals and tourists were caught completely unaware of the imminent destruction. Thailand held legislative elections on 6 February 2005, and the tsunami disaster was drawn into the election campaign. Due to proximity of the Andaman coasts of Thailand situated just about 500 km east of the earthquake epicentre, the tsunami took just 2 hours to reach and strike the western coastline of the country. “This was the most extreme tsunami event since 1960,” says Borrero, referring to the 8.6-magnitude Chilean earthquake and tsunami that punished the Pacific, including the leveling of Hilo, Hawaii, 15 hours after the quake. Apart from deaths, thousands of people had been injured and more than one million displaced. Tuk-tuk drivers were quick to offer assistance, driving victims to hospitals, higher grounds and away from the surging waters. Khao Lak also has an extensive area of flatland only a few meters above the sea level, on which most bungalows were situated. [1] The epicenter of the 9.0 magnitude quake was located in the Indian Ocean near the west coast of Sumatra. The number of "foreign injured" has been reduced by evacuations of foreign nationals. The "total deaths" and "total injured" categories include dead and injured persons whose nationality is not given or has not been established. Relatives of people killed in the 2004 tsunami embrace at a commemoration ceremony on Dec 26, 2014 in Phangnga’s Takua Pa district to mark the 10th anniversary of the deadly disaster. HISTORY reviews and updates its content regularly to ensure it is complete and accurate. Many people were the victim of one of the most powerful aspects of nature, the Tsunami. That’s 300 miles (480 km) per hour, leaving more than 1.7 million homeless affecting 18 countries. The Deadliest Natural Disasters in U.S. History. Thailand Tsunami 2004 Today, Boxing day 2004 Thailand suffered one of the most horrific disasters in the history of mankind. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra accused the former Democratic Party of Thailand government of Chuan Leekpai of ignoring warnings in 1998 of the possible risk of a tsunami affecting Thailand. Tsunami 2004 Slideshare uses cookies to improve functionality and performance, and to provide you with relevant advertising. Buildings folded like houses of cards, trees and cars were swept up in the oil-black rapids and virtually no one caught in the deluge survived. Map showing the provinces of Thailand affected, "Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Thailand", Learn how and when to remove this template message, Photos before the destruction of Koh Phi Phi Island, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Effect_of_the_2004_Indian_Ocean_earthquake_on_Thailand&oldid=994672420, Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami by country, Articles needing additional references from June 2014, All articles needing additional references, Cleanup tagged articles with a reason field from June 2014, Wikipedia pages needing cleanup from June 2014, Articles with unsourced statements from April 2010, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 16 December 2020, at 22:53. Hundreds of holiday tourists on the Phi Phi Islands were washed out to sea. Both Borrero and Titov took part in U.S. Geological Survey expeditions in early 2005 to measure the full extent of the tsunami that struck Sumatra. 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