Damage and casualties

Chennai’s Marina beach after the Tsunami

The U.S. Geological Survey initially recorded the toll as 283,100 killed, 14,100 missing, and 1,126,900 people displaced. However, more recent analysis compiled by the United Nations lists a total of 229,866 people lost, including 186,983 dead and 42,883 missing. The figure excludes 400 to 600 people who are believed to have perished in Myanmar,

which is more than that government’s official figure of only 61 dead. If the higher Myanmar figures are reliable, the death toll would include at least 230,000 people. Measured in lives lost, this is one of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded history, as well as the single worst tsunami in history.

Relief agencies report that one-third of the dead appear to be children. This is a result of the high proportion of children in the populations of many of the affected regions and because children were the least able to resist being overcome by the surging waters. Oxfam went on to report that as many as four times more women than men were killed in some regions because they were waiting on the beach for the fishermen to return and looking after their children in the houses.

In addition to the large number of local residents, up to 9,000 foreign tourists (mostly Europeans) enjoying the peak holiday travel season were among the dead or missing, especially people from the Nordic countries. The European nation hardest hit may have been Sweden, whose death toll was 543.

States of emergency were declared in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Maldives. The United Nations estimated at the outset that the relief operation (which is presently still underway) would be the costliest in human history. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan has stated that reconstruction would probably take between five and ten years. Governments and non-governmental organizations fear the final death toll may double as a result of diseases, prompting a massive humanitarian response.

Дата добавления: 2014-12-27