What was damaged in the 2004 tsunami

These surges of water may reach feet and cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore. They race across the sea at a speed up to miles per hour and cross the entire Pacific Ocean in less than one day. Their long wavelength means that they lose very little energy along the way.

Tsunami of December , caused by a 9. The rationale for writing this paper is to report the tsunami events in the eleven nations bordering the Indian Ocean, as they received less publicity than their Southeast Asian countries counterpart although the tsunami had real humanitarian, economic, and environmental impact in these regions more than 1, miles away from the epicenter [ 2 ]. Furthermore, these regions are at risk from the devastating effects of future tsunami due to the presence of a tectonic interactive plate [ 3 ], absence of a tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, and lack of established communication network providing timely information to that region.

These eleven countries bordering the Indian Ocean are Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion Island, and Seychelles, Comoros islands and by geographical extension include countries in southern borders of Africa such as Somalia, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa.

These individual countries suffered humanitarian loss with more than 3, people killed and left more than 10, homeless about 1, miles away from epicenter. In terms of economic toll, several million dollars were reported accompanied by environmental threat due to flooding.

Specifically included is a country by country report [ 4 ] with other south-Asian countries. Although there was no death published, a significant economic loss in millions of dollars was reported.

There was one death and more than 1, people homeless. No deaths were reported. Also, the island reported devastating economic loss in millions of dollars due to hotels, housing, public utilities, and fishing damages.

To prevent the devastating effects of future tsunami, these islands of Indian Ocean have set their priorities in achieving 3 goals [ 5 ]: i development of disaster tsunami program which include implementation of tsunami program at national level, regional, and international levels and coordination of all these programs, ii development of an Indian Ocean early warning system, iii development of tsunami research program.

The most studied plans are the Madagascar plan, the tsunami early warning and response system in Mauritius, and the creation of the Department of Risk and Disaster Management in Seychelles. It includes 5 objectives: a development of national evacuation plan on tsunami, b establishment of early warning system in conjunction with regional system, c increase public and community awareness through publication and training of media and local authorities, d conduct mock exercises on tsunami, e strengthen the operational capacity of national meteorological service to include national warning system.

Disaster management is a regional priority in the Indian Ocean due to permanent threat of cyclones, floods, and tsunamis. The stated two goals set by a series of regional meetings in and are [ 6 ] the following: i implementation of Indian Ocean tsunami warning and mitigation system IOTWS , which focused on defining disaster management and reduction prevention, mitigation, response and relief of disaster by all the participating countries, ii development of integrated regional information network IRIN with the goals of creation of an early warning system for the islands in the Indian Ocean and ensuring adequate equipment to manage natural disasters including tsunamis.

The important issues are the cost of establishing such warning system in the Indian Ocean, the transfer of existing technology versus improving, old one, global warming and extreme weather events in that region. The main challenge for all the islands of the Indian Ocean is to coordinate all the national efforts with existing regional and international endeavors to meet their stated priorities before the next tsunami events.

Emergency physicians are knowledgeable on the risks of tsunami and are trained in the field of disaster management, thus they are true expert. They should get involve as leaders in local, national, and international organizations as resources in disaster management as well as humanitarian institutions such as Red Cross.

This paper is the first peer-reviewed paper on the impact of the tsunami on the islands bordering the Indian Ocean and the lessons learned from this event from national, regional, and international organizations to prevent such events from occurring again in the future. Tsunami is an ever-present and real threat for the these islands of the Indian Ocean due to the presence of a tectonic interactive plate. Their disaster management priority is the development of an early tsunami warning system in order to effectively and timely communicate with all the people in that region.

Disaster management should involve national, regional, and international organizations at all levels in order to develop tsunami program, fund tsunami projects, and continue research program. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License , which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

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Journal overview. Special Issues. Massive reconstruction aid in Banda Aceh has since rebuilt a new city on top of the ruins.

Sri Lanka was the next worst-affected country with a death toll of about 40,, while in Thailand almost 5, people were killed including many foreign tourists. Related Coverage. In India, nearly 42, people, or close to 10, families, were rendered homeless by the waves that struck islands off the eastern coast.

More than 3, people were killed and nearly 9, died on the mainland, mostly in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Those killed in received no formal warning of the approaching waves and had almost no chance to get out of the way. Since then, millions of dollars have gone into a vast network of seismic and tsunami information centers, setting up sea and coastal instruments and erecting warning towers. But doubts linger about how ready countries on the Indian Ocean really are for another giant wave.

Some experts say complacency about the maintenance of the system is leaving millions vulnerable and governments still warn of the ever-present risks.