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Candles, prayers and tears as Asia mourns tsunami dead 10 years on
by Staff Writers
Khao Lak, Thailand (AFP) Dec 26, 2014


Sri Lanka train guard mourns tsunami dead 10 years on
Peraliya, Sri Lanka (AFP) Dec 26, 2014 - Head guard Wanigaratne Karunatilleke was one of the few people to survive when a wall of water slammed into the Ocean Queen train on Sri Lanka's south coast a decade ago, killing around 1,000 people.

On Friday the 58-year-old, who is still haunted by memories of the passengers he could not save, flagged off the train for a special journey to commemorate the victims of the Asian tsunami, Sri Lanka's worst ever disaster.

"I am sad so many of my passengers died that day," he told AFP.

"But I am happy we are remembering the victims and holding religious services."

The Ocean Queen Express was rebuilt after the tsunami and has become a symbol of the disaster in Sri Lanka and was at the centre of sombre commemorations for the country's 31,000 victims on Friday.

Survivors and relatives of the dead boarded the train early Friday morning in Colombo and headed to Peraliya, the exact spot around 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of Colombo where it was ripped from the tracks.

Mourners laid flowers and lit incense at a memorial for some 1,270 people buried in mass graves on Peraliya beach.

Buddhist, Hindu, Christian and Muslim ceremonies were held in Peraliya to commemorate victims across the country.

Remembrance services were held around Sri Lanka on Friday, while President Mahinda Rajapakse observed his traditional two minutes' silence.

Damayanthi Abeywardene was on the train, which runs from Colombo to Matara, in 2004 with her two daughters, then aged 16 and 19.

She was there to give thanks for their survival and remember those who were less fortunate.

"No one should have to see what we saw. The struggle of people trying to stay alive... The hundreds of corpses," the retired school teacher said, breaking down in mid-speech.

Abeywardene recently published a book about her harrowing escape, but said she and her daughters had never discussed their ordeal in the past 10 years because it was too traumatic.

- 'I wish I had known' -

The tsunami first hit Sri Lanka's southeastern coast, travelling across the island at about 500 kilometres (300 miles) an hour and killing 31,000 people.

Sri Lanka had not been hit by a tsunami in living memory before 2004 and the tragedy became the country's worst natural disaster.

Karunatilleke blames the huge loss of life on a lack of knowledge about tsunamis.

He says a smaller wave that brought the train to an abrupt halt shortly before the tsunami hit could have acted as a warning to people to flee to higher ground.

He overruled the signalling system after the first wave and ordered the driver to move, but by then it was too late.

When the tsunami hit, he became trapped inside a compartment that was floating in the water, managing to escape through a window.

"We had about 15 minutes to move the passengers to safety. I could have done it. We had the time, but not the knowledge," Karunatilleke told AFP.

Disaster management minister Mahinda Amaraweera said early warning systems were now in place.

"We can't stop tsunamis, but we can make sure that we will not have the losses we suffered 10 years ago," he said.

Shanthi Gallage was also among the few who survived the train tragedy along with her eldest daughter, but her younger daughter, then 13, is still listed as missing.

"I think my husband died, but my daughter is still alive somewhere," the 55-year-old told AFP on board the Ocean Queen. "I will find her some day."

Every year on December 26, Karunatilleke stops at the exact same spot to pay his respects to his departed passengers.

He recalls rescuing a small girl and boy from the floodwaters and placing them inside a train compartment only to see it smashed minutes later.

Tearful mourners lit candles on Friday to remember the 220,000 people who died a decade ago when tsunami waves devastated coastal areas along the Indian Ocean, in one of the worst natural disasters in human history.

On December 26, 2004 a 9.3-magnitude earthquake off Indonesia's western tip generated a series of massive waves that pummelled the coastline of 14 countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia.

Among the victims were thousands of foreign tourists enjoying Christmas on the region's sun-kissed beaches, carrying the tragedy of an unprecedented natural disaster into homes around the globe.

In southern Thailand, where half of the 5,400 dead were holidaymakers, people recounted stories of horror and miraculous survival as the churning waters, laden with the debris of eviscerated bungalows, cars and boats, swept in without warning, obliterating resorts and villages.

A minute's silence in the resort of Khao Lak, much of which was washed away by the towering waves, was broken by a lone trumpeter, as mourners each lit a single white candle, some sobbing as they illuminated the darkness.

Among them was a Swiss national, Katia Paulo, who lost her boyfriend on a nearby beach.

"I had my back to the ocean. My boyfriend called me... the only thing I remember is his face. I knew I had to run away, then the wave caught me," the 45-year-old told AFP.

"I was pushed under water many times and thought it was the end," she said.

She called for help, only to realise the people nearby were already dead.

"I managed to hold onto a tree branch," she said. As the waves retreated, she was six metres (200 feet) off the ground.

Nearby, 40-year-old Somjai Somboon was grieving for her two sons, who were ripped from their house when the waves cut into their fishing village of Ban Nam Khem.

"I remember them every day," she said, with tears in her eyes.

"I will always miss my sons."

Hundreds of people also lit candles on Patong beach on Phuket island after observing a minute's silence. Afterwards, many placed the candles into a sand sculpture created by students as part of the memorial service.

Among the international commemorations, in Sweden, which lost 543 citizens, the royal family and relatives of the victims attended a memorial service in Uppsala Cathedral.

"Sweden is still traumatised," said Prime Minister Stefan Lofven, who paid tribute to all who died, saying their "lives were extinguished but the memory of their love shines in the night".

- 'Tears fell, we prayed' -

There was no warning of the impending tsunami, giving little time for evacuation, despite the hours-long gaps between the waves striking different continents.

In 2011 a pan-ocean tsunami warning system was established, made up of a network of sea gauges, buoys and seismic monitors, while individual countries have invested heavily in disaster preparedness.

But experts have cautioned against "disaster amnesia" creeping into communities vulnerable to natural disasters.

The scale of the devastation in 2004 saw nations initially struggle to mobilise a relief effort, leaving bloated bodies to pile up under the tropical sun or in makeshift morgues.

The world poured money and expertise into the relief and reconstruction, with more than $13.5 billion collected in the months after the disaster.

Almost $7 billion in aid went into rebuilding more than 140,000 houses across Indonesia's Aceh province, where most of the nation's 170,000 victims were claimed.

In the main city, Banda Aceh, several thousand mourners gathered in a park for the nation's official remembrance.

It was near the epicentre of the undersea quake and bore the brunt of waves towering up to 35-metres (115 feet) high.

"Thousands of corpses were sprawled in this field," Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla told the crowd, many among them weeping.

"There were feelings of confusion, shock, sorrow, fear and suffering. We prayed.

"And then we rose and received help in an extraordinary way," he said, hailing the outpouring of aid from local and foreign donors.

The disaster also ended a decades-long separatist conflict in Aceh, with a peace deal between rebels and Jakarta struck less than a year later.

Mosques held prayers across the province, while people visited mass graves -- the resting place of many of Indonesia's tsunami dead.

But a Red Cross display of hundreds of salvaged ID documents and bank cards served as a grim reminder that many victims simply vanished.

- Lives needlessly lost -

In Sri Lanka, where 31,000 people perished, survivors and relatives gathered to remember around 1,000 victims who died when waves derailed a passenger train.

The mourners boarded the restored Ocean Queen Express and headed to Peraliya -- the exact spot where it was ripped from the tracks, around 90 kilometres (56 miles) south of Colombo.

"We had about 15 minutes to move the passengers to safety. I could have done it. We had the time, but not the knowledge," the train's head guard Wanigaratne Karunatilleke, 58, told AFP.

The devastating 2004 tsunami
Jakarta (AFP) Dec 26, 2014 - On Sunday, December 26, 2004 at 7:58 am local time, a massive earthquake measuring 9.3 struck off Indonesia, unleashing a devastating tsunami which left more than 220,000 dead.

The strength of the quake -- the biggest in the world since 1964 -- was such that the Earth shifted -- unleashing a multi-metre wave which 30 minutes later devastated the Indonesian province of Aceh, to the north of Sumatra.

Aceh was the most affected region: dozens of villages were wiped from the map and the strength of the tsunami went so far as to shift the islands. An estimated 131,000 died on the west coast of Sumatra.

The wave also swept the whole of the Indian Ocean's shoreline, hitting the coasts of Sri Lanka, India -- especially the Andaman and Nicobar islands -- Thailand, Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives and Bangladesh.

Around six hours after the start of the disaster the coasts of East Africa -- Somalia, Tanzania, Kenya -- were reached by the tidal wave.

In the space of several hours at least 220,000 people died, of which nearly 170,000 were in Indonesia, 31,000 in Sri Lanka, 16,400 in India, and 5,400 in Thailand, according to an official count.

Two hundred people were killed in other Asian countries hit by the wave, while 300 perished in East Africa.

The entire international community was affected by the disaster. Out of the 5,400 casualties in Thailand, nearly half were foreigners representing 37 nationalities.

European countries, including Sweden (543 dead), Germany (537), Finland (180), Britain (150), Switzerland (110), France (95), Denmark (50) and Norway (80), lost 1,700 people, mainly tourists seeking Christmas sun.

The deadly waves particularly hit the young, but several thousand children found themselves orphans too, while tens of thousands suffered from psychological problems.

There was countless material damage and more than one million people were left homeless.

The tsunami ravaged the Indian Ocean coastline's ecosystem, including Aceh's mangroves and Thailand's coral reef, and unleashed chemical pollution.

Record amounts were collected in aid for the victims, with more than $13.5 billion (11 billion euros) donated, representing more than $7,100 for each person affected by the tsunami.


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SHAKE AND BLOW
Tsunami orphans recount journey to philanthropy
London (AFP) Dec 23, 2014
A decade after being orphaned by the Asian tsunami, British brothers Rob and Paul Forkan are successful entrepreneurs who are giving back to the Sri Lankans who helped them by building an orphanage. The brothers, their two younger siblings as well as their parents Kevin and Sandra were relaxing in their hotel complex on December 26, 2004, when the giant wave crashed through their bungalows. ... read more


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