Which indonesian region was devastated by the tsunami of 2004

A high-tide warning also remains in effect and people have been advised to stay clear of low-lying areas. Local branches and volunteers from the Indonesian Red Cross are helping people evacuate away from the coastline to higher ground. The International Charter is a worldwide collaboration among space agencies through which useful satellite-data is made available to support disaster response efforts. Since its first activation in November , the Charter has released data on hundreds of occasions, helping with the relief effort for floods, hurricanes, tsunamis and earthquakes.

Just three months ago, in late September, more than 2, people were killed when a powerful earthquake struck just off the central Indonesian island of Sulawesi, setting off a tsunami that engulfed the coastal city of Palu.

In one of the worst disasters in modern history, the region was also hit by a devastating tsunami in December , that claimed over , lives in 14 countries along the Indian Ocean, mostly in Indonesia. This is a developing story, please visit the ReliefWeb portal for humanitarian updates on the disaster. A powerful earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, Indonesia, on December 26, sets off a tsunami that wreaks death and devastation across the Indian Ocean coastline. The quake was the second strongest ever recorded and the estimated , dead made this disaster one of the 10 worst of all time.

It was a. Not only did it register at approximately a 9. The movement of the earth—there is evidence that huge boulders weighing thousands of tons were pushed several miles along the ocean floor—caused a massive displacement of water. It is estimated that the resulting tsunami had two times the energy of all the bombs used during World War II.

Within 15 minutes, tsunami waves were crashing the coast of Sumatra. At the north end of the island was a heavily populated region known as Aceh. There, waves reached 80 feet high over large stretches of the coast and up to feet in some places.

Entire communities were simply swept away by the water in a matter of minutes. The death toll in Indonesia is estimated at between , and , people, with an additional , people left homeless. About a third of the victims were children. The huge waves missed the coast of Indonesia on the north side and went on to Thailand, where between 5, and 8, people died. The tsunami also moved east across the Indian Ocean. In Sri Lanka, the tsunami came ashore about 90 minutes after the earthquake.

Although the waves were not as high as in Aceh, they still brought disaster. Approximately 35, people lost their lives and half a million others lost their homes. In addition, about 15, people died in India. The killer waves even reached 5, miles away in South Africa, where two people perished.

Banda Aceh, Sumatra, Indonesia. Teunom, Aceh Jaya district, Indonesia. Ko Phi Phi, Thailand. Image source, Getty Images. How the wave spread: 26 December Related Topics. Indonesia Earthquakes. Published 22 December Published 25 December