More than 228,000 dead, 14 countries affected and waves that reached 30 meters high are some of the overwhelming figures left behind by the 9.1 magnitude earthquake, the third most powerful earthquake ever recorded, which unleashed the Indian Ocean tsunami two decades ago.
The memories of devastation and fear experienced in the midst of the 2004 tsunami in the Indian Ocean – which left more than 228,000 dead in 14 countries – remain the most indelible mark of tragedyfrom which its survivors are trying to recover, some with more success than others, 20 years after being swept away by the waves.
Separated by thousands of kilometers of distance, men and women from three affected countries tell EFE their memories to the extent that the pain of reliving the disaster allows.
“I thought it was the end of the world”
That December 26, Syarifah Nargis was cooking something at his home in the village of Kajhu, in the Indonesian region of Aceh, when he thought he was dizzy due to her nine-month pregnancy, but the screams from all sides made her understand that her head was not moving, but that the earth was being shaken by a magnitude 9.1 earthquake, the third most powerful recorded in the world.
“I thought it was the end of the world,” says the woman who was 29 years old at the time and who A few minutes after the earthquake he resumed his chores and he served his family the food he had been preparing, as if life continued without further shocks a few kilometers from the city of Banda Aceh, ground zero of the disaster in Indonesia, the country in which 167,000 people died.
The screaming that came from outside her house was the last thing she heard before she was hit by the waves.which involved her in a spiral of hysteria in which death seemed imminent until she managed to climb to the roof with her husband and daughter, from where they saw that their town had disappeared under the sea torrent that was carrying away everything in its path.
Syarifah saw how this disaster blinded the lives of dozens of people, including her sister-in-law, her mother-in-law and two nephews under three years old. She had better luck and days later received medical help, until she gave birth to her daughter on January 14.
While in 2004 I had never heard the word tsunami, today defends the importance of communities receiving training in the prevention of these types of events and in the activation of early warning systems, since – he acknowledges – the minutes after an earthquake “are a golden window” to get to safety before an eventual onslaught from the sea.
The sea gathered
TO Maitree Jongkraijak, who was 31 years old at the time, his wife asked him to go see how the sea had collected on the coast of the Andaman Sea, in the south of Thailand, the country where 8,000 people, 2,000 of them foreigners, died in this incident. . especially tourists of Swedish and German nationality.
Once they went down to check that oddity They saw that on the horizon a huge wave was rising and heading impetuously towards them, They ran to their home, in the town of Ban Nam Khema, to look for their daughters and escape danger.
It all happened in a matter of seconds, or so the man remembers, whose mother and father died that day, both missing between waves. Maitree, a local politician from Phan Nga province, north of tourist Phuket, lost 46 family members in the tsunami.
Since then, it has dedicated its efforts to the creation of early warning systems and the construction, with the help of private entities, of a system to help locals and tourists in the event of a tsunami, so that they can take shelter in time and save their lives.
The day after tomorrow
Convinced that a “divine power” saved her, Wimala Kasthuriarachchi remember that his son -who guided her at all times during the fight to survive the waves in the coastal town of Telwatte in Sri Lanka- He took information from the apocalyptic movie ‘The Day After Tomorrow’‘ to avoid the dangers of the tsunami.
“I think that movie gave him strength,” says the woman, who had not seen the film – released that same year – in which Dennis Quaid plays a scientist who tries to save his family from a global catastrophe caused by the climate crisis. .
Regarding the largest natural disaster that his country has faced, where 35,000 people died, Wimala also remembers seeing dozens of corpses float on the watersas well as clinging to a Buddhist prayer with which she felt she was saying goodbye to life, hopeful thanks to her faith that she would be reborn in a better place.
“The tsunami taught us one thing, to do good for others,” summarizes the woman, who has attended almost all the annual ceremonies commemorating the victims in the coastal town of Telwatte, where she plans to return this January 26 with his family.
