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| Jenny Brand, from Sweden, center, who had friends that were victims of the Asian tsunami, releases a lantern which symbolizes the releasing of spirits, amidst hundreds of others during a commemoration service to mark the 10th anniversary of the day this natural disaster happened, Friday, Dec. 26, 2014 in Ban Nam Khem, 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. |
PERELIYA, Sri
Lanka (AP) -- 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.
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 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 2 kilometers 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 10 meters (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."
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 150 kilometers (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."
