Southeast Asia Tsunami Remembered
Posted on December 26, 2005
Last year on December 26, 2004 a devastating Tsunami struck Southeast Asia killing over 200,000 people. Life still has not returned to normal for many people in the areas hit hard by the Tsunami. The BBC has an article about how people are coping and how they are remembering the Tsunami.
Tens of thousands of survivors are still living in tents and it is estimated that at least 80,000 new houses need to be built.Because the area impacted by the Tsunami was a popular tourist destination many countries had citizens that died. Sweden lost over 500 nationals from the 2004 Tsunami and a Reuters article about Sweden's rememberance."I would like to ask the president for a house because right now it's in a bad condition," Marriatti, 39, told Reuters news agency. "I had to build a house by myself."
Sri Lanka has been paying tribute to more than 30,000 people who were killed on the island.
Around the island, small private ceremonies were held to mark the moment the waves struck.
Sweden, which lost 543 people, was the country outside Asia which suffered the most in the tsunami, closely followed by Germany. They were among the foreign tourists included in the 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean who died."The unthinkable happened and nothing can undo it," said Martin Jamtlid, leading a minute's silence in front of hundreds of relatives and others at a memorial ceremony in the Skansen park. King Carl XVI Gustaf and his family also attended.
"The year that has gone by has been the longest in my life, at the same time it all seems like yesterday," added Jamtlid, who lost nine family members, his voice shaking with grief.