ABSTRACT
On Boxing Day, 26 December 2004, a ‘monster’ tsunami slammed into coastal regions across the Indian Ocean bringing an almost unprecedented level of death and destruction. Triggered by an earthquake off the coast of Sumatra, the tsunami cut a wide swath impacting seventeen countries, most notably Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, India, Malaysia, Burma, the Maldives archipelago, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and the western coast of Africa. Even today, the final, official death toll is under constant revision, with recent estimates putting it in the order of 176,000 deaths. The highest loss of life was in the Indonesian district of Aceh on the northern tip of Sumatra. Meulaboh, the town nearest to the quake epicentre, was totally devastated – 80 per cent of its buildings were destroyed.
