NAGAPATTINAM, India, December 23, 2024 (AP) — He was a young boy playing cricket with friends on a beach around 9:30 in the morning when a 9.1 magnitude earthquake violently shook the earth, and a tsunami struck from Indonesia to India two decades ago.
Life changed for Yusuf Ansari, now a 32-year-old motor rickshaw driver.
“Out of nowhere, we saw a boat tossed by the waves, followed by a massive rush of dark water and a big wave of water. It all happened so fast. Everyone around panicked. They didn’t even think about their boats or homes,” Ansari said, adding that everyone just ran to higher ground as quickly as possible.
The massive Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake off Sumatra island. The giant wall of water killed about 230,000 people in a dozen countries as far away as East Africa.
Next Thursday, organizations of fishermen plan to observe a minute’s silence, pour milk in the sea and offer flowers and prayers at the graves of the dead and the worst-hit spots along the coast to commemorate the tsunami anniversary.
Jaya, 44, recalls how her life turned upside down for her family. Her husband, Varadarajan, was out fishing in the deep sea, leaving her at home with three children.
The southern Tamil Nadu state government undertook repair, restoration, and rehabilitation activities with help from the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank. Newly constructed dwellings provide amenities such as street lights, electricity home connections, water supply, sanitation, and infrastructure facilities like roads and construction of buildings.
In Velankanni town of Nagapattinam district, a tsunami memorial tower was built to commemorate the dead. Nagapattinam is nearly 320 kilometers (200 miles) south of Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state.
According to official estimates, 10,749 people in India were killed by the tsunami, and thousands of people became homeless. Of them, nearly 7,000 people were killed in Tamil Nadu state.
After the disaster struck, the Tamil Nadu state government built sand embankments with stones to protect the coastline. “The stones don’t hold up any more, and the sand keeps washing away,” said Kuppi Ratnam, a fisherman. “We’ve asked the government to fix it, but the problem remains.
“While many families were provided government-built houses, it wasn’t a solution for everyone. Some couldn’t afford to rebuild, while others couldn’t bear the thought of returning to the place that had taken so much from them,” he said.
Two decades later, the scars of the tsunami and the devastation caused by the 9.1 magnitude earthquake continue to haunt Indians.
