World marks the way tsunami took 230,000

10 years on, dead missing, terror alive

Relatives of victims of the Asian tsunami stand in the sea, some comforting each other, some reflecting quietly, while others release white roses during a commemoration and religious ceremony for German, Austrian and Swiss victims of the Asian tsunami, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 in Khao Lak, Thailand. Dec. 26 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the deadliest natural disasters in world history: a tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast, that left more than 230,000 people dead in 14 countries and caused about $10 billion in damage.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)
Relatives of victims of the Asian tsunami stand in the sea, some comforting each other, some reflecting quietly, while others release white roses during a commemoration and religious ceremony for German, Austrian and Swiss victims of the Asian tsunami, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 in Khao Lak, Thailand. Dec. 26 marks the 10th anniversary of one of the deadliest natural disasters in world history: a tsunami, triggered by a massive earthquake off the Indonesian coast, that left more than 230,000 people dead in 14 countries and caused about $10 billion in damage.(AP Photo/Wong Maye-E)

PERELIYA, Sri Lanka -- A packed train in Sri Lanka that was swept off the tracks by waves as big as elephants. A boat patrolling off Thailand's shore hurled more than a mile inland. Streets in Indonesia turned into roaring rivers that carried people to their deaths.

Vivid and terrifying memories such as these were recalled Friday at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left nearly a quarter-million people dead in one of modern history's worst natural disasters. About 230,000 died, according to The Associated Press.

The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami was triggered by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake -- the region's most powerful in 40 years -- that tore open the seabed off Indonesia's Sumatran coast, displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa.

Weeping survivors and others took part in beachside memorials and religious services across Asia while some European countries also marked the anniversary, remembering the thousands of Christmastime tourists who died in the disaster.

Pain and hope alike were harvested from the tragedy.

"There is no need for anyone to remind us -- the sorrow will be there until I stop breathing," said Kapila Migelratne, a 50-year-old businessman who lost his 14-year-old son and his brother when the train they were riding was derailed along Sri Lanka's shoreline. More than 35,000 people in Sri Lanka died in the tsunami, including as many as 2,000 in what is regarded as the world's worst train accident.

In the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, where more than 6,000 people died, Liguvariyal Daveed -- a tsunami survivor who lost her son, mother and two grandchildren in the disaster -- said the fear from that day remains with her.

"Whenever we see the ocean, we get reminded of how this same ocean took away all these people," she said at a memorial ceremony in the town of Kanyakumari. "You can't even imagine how much we fear the sea now. We didn't even want to stay close to it, so we moved ... away from the sea, in a small house allotted to me by the government."

In Sri Lanka, survivors and other mourners took a memorial journey to honor those lost in the train accident.

The Queen of the Sea was chugging down Sri Lanka's palm-fringed southwestern coast, headed from Colombo, the capital, to the town of Matara, about 90 miles away, when the tsunami struck. Waves described by survivors as being as big as elephants enveloped the train, lifting its cars off the track into a thick marsh in Pereliya village.

The dead included more than 400 villagers who tried to escape the waves by climbing on top of the eight-coach train. Only a few dozen passengers are believed to have survived.

The memorial ride on Friday included the train's original Engine 591 and five restored coaches. They were decorated with Buddhist flags for the occasion, and Buddhist chants were played throughout the journey, which replicated the train's ill-fated route.

At a memorial in Pereliya, Buddhist, Christian and Hindu rituals were performed and tearful relatives lit candles and offered flowers.

Shanthi Gallage, along with her husband and two daughters, was riding home on the train after a Christmas visit to relatives when the waves struck.

She saw her husband alive, trapped under a log, when she set out to find her daughters. But later she was told that her husband had died and been buried in a mass grave. She found one daughter, but never found the other, who was 13.

"I believe that she is alive and someone keeping her will return her to me today," said Gallage, who carries portraits of her husband and missing daughter. "There are people who tell me to forget about it, but I don't talk to them anymore. When I try to give it up, something prompts me not to, and I pray and search for her."

In Europe, Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven delivered a speech at a ceremony at Uppsala Cathedral, just north of Stockholm, to remember the 543 Swedes who died. President Joachim Gauck of Germany, which lost more than 500 people, said: "Locals and tourists found themselves in a situation in which they had a shared destiny, a bond which can still be felt today."

Those at a memorial service in southern Thailand included European tsunami survivors, who were serenaded by a small orchestra and took part in a minute of silence and a candlelight ceremony. About half of Thailand's 8,212 dead were foreign tourists, mostly Europeans escaping the winter cold.

The ceremony was held in the resort area of Khao Lak, next to a police boat that was out at sea when the tsunami struck and was carried 1.2 miles inland by the waves. The boat has become a permanent memorial to the power of the tsunami.

Many at the memorial ceremonies celebrated how people -- locals and the international community alike -- pulled together in the wake of the tragedy, saving strangers and launching a process to build back better.

Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova was vacationing in Khao Lak with her fiance, Simon Atlee, when the waves struck. He drowned, and she barely survived with serious injuries, including a broken pelvis. After recovering, she founded the Happy Hearts Fund to rebuild schools devastated by natural disasters.

"Ten years ago, everyone who is present here today got connected in a very profound way, and through our experience, which we have shared, our lives have been connected ever since," Nemcova told the crowd at Friday's ceremony. "The 2004 tsunami didn't connect just those of us here, but the whole world, as individuals, families and countries have been asking, 'How can we help?'"

Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha noted that the tragedy "allowed us see the kindness and help that came from around the world that helped us pass through the difficult time."

Indonesia's Aceh province, which was closest to the quake's epicenter, was hit first and hardest. Initially, the quake toppled homes and buildings and sent communities rushing into the streets in panic.

About 20 minutes later, a wall of water up to 33 feet high surged inland for miles with seemingly unstoppable force, carrying along trees, houses, train cars -- and thousands of people -- in a churning rush.

More than 170,000 people died in Indonesia alone, about three-quarters of the overall death toll.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla led a prayer ceremony in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province. He and other officials placed flowers at a mass grave where thousands of unknown tsunami victims were buried.

"Here in this field 10 years ago ... we tearfully saw thousands of corpses lying," Kalla said. "No words can describe our human feelings at that time -- confused, shocked, sad, scared -- in seeing the suffering of the people in Aceh. But we could not remain in sadness. Aceh had to rise again, and all Indonesians in this archipelago helped, and people all over the world offered their assistance."

The Indonesian government estimates that in the first few years after the tsunami, about 700 domestic and international organizations worked to deliver more than $7 billion of aid, with tens of thousands of staff members on the ground. Across the tsunami zone about $14 billion in aid was received.

In Aceh province, for many in coastal cities such as Banda Aceh, the influx of aid brought better living conditions, greater access to health clinics, and cleaner water and sanitation.

"Those who survived ended up with much better infrastructure and basic services," said Tom Alcedo, the American Red Cross representative in Indonesia.

Today, however, most of the humanitarian operations in Aceh have shuttered, leaving only a few dozen minimally staffed nongovernmental organizations. Save the Children, which helped reunite about 1,300 children separated from their parents, has gone from 1,000 workers in Aceh early in the recovery to a single staff member, who focuses on microfinancing.

Every household whose home was lost or damaged was entitled to a replacement dwelling. But most survivors had no proof of land ownership and the government's land administration office in Aceh was destroyed, with 30 percent of its staff killed or missing. Then there were construction challenges: The sudden huge demand for wood, cement and steel caused sharp price spikes and led to smuggling of materials and other illegal dealings.

M. Kafrawi manages the operation at Forum Bangun Aceh, an Indonesian nongovernmental organization that focuses on education and microfinancing. He thinks one of Aceh's major problems is that people have become dependent on aid money. He cited community reaction to his training programs in the past couple of years.

"When we told them that we were offering skills, not money, they were not happy," Kafrawi said. "Because there was a lot of funding from the outside, many people were expecting or asking for their share of the money."

Moreover, most of the outside aid was directed at Aceh's coastal cities. There was little that went into the province's inland areas. The upshot is that much of rural Aceh has fallen further behind the more entrepreneurial and dynamic urban centers such as Banda Aceh.

Information for this article was contributed by Krishan Francis, Fakhrurradzie Gade, Jerry Harmer, Jocelyn Gecker, Grant Peck and Geir Moulson of The Associated Press and by Don Lee of Tribune News Service.

A Section on 12/27/2014

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