10 years since Indian Ocean tsunami(Dec 26,2004 - Dec 26,2014)

 

The devastating Dec. 26, 2004 Tsunami struck a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean rim. It eradicated entire coastal communities, decimated families and crashed over tourist-filled beaches the morning after Christmas. Survivors waded through a horror show of corpse-filled waters

The disaster was triggered by a 9.1-magnitude earthquake, the region's most powerful in 40 years, that tore open the seabed bed off of 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.
Indonesia's Aceh province was hit first and hardest. The sea rose as high as 10 meters (33 feet) and surged inland for kilometers (miles) with seemingly unstoppable force, carrying along trees, houses, train cars — and thousands of people — in a churning rush

In Indonesia more than 160,000 people died, more than half of the total 230,000 people killed across the region.
In Thailand, more than 5,000 people were killed, about half of whom were tourists celebrating the day after Christmas on the country's renowned white-sand beaches.
In Sri Lanka, the water swept a passenger train from its tracks, killing nearly 2,000 people in a single blow. 

Beachside memorials and religious services were held across Asia on Friday Dec 26,2014 to mark the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left more than a quarter million people dead in one of modern history's worst natural disasters

As part of Friday's solemn commemorations, survivors, government officials, diplomats and families of victims gathered in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India and elsewhere.

A woman offers prayers on a tiled memorial wall displaying names of victims from the Asian tsunami, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 in Phang Nga, Ban Namn Khem province, Thailand.