Thailand remembers the 16th anniversary of the Indian Ocean Tsunami

It was Boxing Day, now 16 years distant, when the Andaman Coast of Thailand, and coastlines around the Indian Ocean, suffered one of nature’s most disastrous events of our generation.

The tsunami reached Phuket and provinces nearby around 10am on Boxing Day, December 26, 2004, and caused uncountable losses. Official Thai government statistics estimate 4,812 souls were lost to the waves on December 26, 2004, with another 8,457 injured and 4,499missing, presumed dead, all lost to the 3 large waves that swept inland along parts of the Andaman Coast.

While confirmed deaths in Phuket officially numbered only 259, another 700 remained listed as missing.

Up to 270,000 souls from 45 countries around the world were lost with millions affected. The coastal Thai community of Khao Lak, north of Phuket, was particularly badly affected by the waves. Poom Jensen, the grandson of the late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and a nephew of the current Thai King, was killed whilst his family was holidaying at Khao Lak.

At the time the popular tourist communities were able to clean up and re-open some of their hotels within weeks. A year later much of the damage had been cleaned up and repaired. NGOs rushed to Thailand to assist in the clean up and identification process of the dead.

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami occurred precisely at 7:59am local time on 26 December, with an epicentre off the west coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia. It was an undersea ‘megathrust’ earthquake that registered a magnitude of 9.1–9.3. The tsunami and its aftermath were responsible for immense destruction and loss on the rim of the Indian Ocean. Some locations reported that the waves had reached a height of 9 metres, or more, when they hit the shoreline. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, and Thailand sustaining massive damage.

Last year there were memorial events at key locations around the island of Phuket and in Khao Lak. This year’s Light Up Phuket tsunami memorial event at Loma Park in Patong was cancelled due to concerns over Covid-19.

Last year’s religious ceremonies included Buddhist, Muslim and Christian rituals.

16 years after the Indian Ocean tsunami swept ashore, a container at the Takua Pa police station in Phang Nga, southern Thailand, still contains personal items from the hundreds of victims whose remains are unlikely to ever be given a name.

Wallets, documents, keys, electronic items, all labeled and catalogued as evidence, await positive identification. Nearby a graveyard contains 340 bodies buried in unmarked graves but police hope that, if people came forward to identify some of the items, there is still hope that some of the bodies could rest in peace with a name attached.

Here’s a story about the maintenance of the Tsunami Warning bouys.

And another with graphic footage of the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami as it swept ashore in Thailand.