The Asian tsunami ? the first days of the Australian response

Abstract

In the Indian Ocean in the early hours of the morning of 26 December 2004, an earthquake measuring 9 on the Richter Scale lifted a 1200km stretch of the earth?s plate up by 20m. This caused a massive movement of water which hit the Sumatran coast, 250kms away, in less than 1 hour. Sequentially, it swallowed islands and coastlines, overall affecting 13 countries, including Indonesia, India, Malaysia, the Maldives, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka and Thailand. Its destructive pathway reached as far as Somalia, Africa. By the evening of 27 December, the death toll was reported to be expected to be as high as 7,000. Two weeks later, the estimate was over 220,000 and approximately 2 million homeless. The response to this disaster required a rapid, international co-coordinated effort.