In horrific proportions, told through first hand accounts and oceans of tears, the Indonesian tsunami ruthlessly reminded the world how fleeting life on earth can be. In only minutes, the world lost unofficially 283,100 lives on Sunday, December 26, 2004. The first wave lashed Sri Lanka's eastern shore at approximately 9:00 a.m., nearly two hours and 2000 miles from a 9.0 earthquake that struck Indonesia at 7:58 a.m. local time. Its epicenter was 255 miles southeast of Banda Aceh, Sumatra, at a depth of 18.6 miles, or 30 kilometers (USGS).
Today, over 10,000 are still recorded as missing.
From Thailand to Indonesia, Bangladesh to Sri Lanka, the Maldives to Myanmar and Somalia, the quake had tipped the Indian ocean setting forth a ripple characterized as biblical as not just villages, but islands were forever swept from view. --SS
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