Kusol Wetchakul offers prayers for the soul of his sister Wednesday, Dec. 29, 2004, at dawn along the beach near Khao Lak, Thailand. Wetchakul's sister was swept out to sea and believed drowned as she sold goods to tourists on the popular tourist beach just north of Phuket. (AP Photo/David Longstreath, File)
On Dec. 26, 2004, a 9.1 magnitude earthquake struck off the west coast of Sumatra, causing a massive wave that devastated Asian coastal communities across thousands of miles.
Some 230,000 people died as the tsunami leveled remote villages, ports and tourist resorts in Indonesia, Thailand, India and Sri Lanka, among other countries.
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Ahead of the 20th anniversary of a disaster that’s still vividly remembered in the region, here’s a look back at the aftermath. In these photos, a resident of a fishing village in India’s Tamil Nadu state contemplates the remains of her house as fires continue to burn in her village. In Thailand, dozens of bodies are lined up at a Buddhist temple, and a young Swedish boy carries a sign listing family members he hasn’t seen since they were swept out to sea from their beachfront hotel.
A boat passes by a damaged hotel, at Ton Sai Bay on Phi Phi Island, in Thailand, Dec. 28, 2004. (AP Photo/Suzanne Plunkett, File)Karl Nilsson of Lulo, Sweden, poses with a sign saying his parents and brothers are missing, in this Dec. 28, 2004, in Phuket, Thailand. The young boys parents were swept out to sea Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004, when the tsunami struck their beach hotel just north of Phuket, Thailand. (AP Photo/David Longstreath/FILE)Thais walk outside a Buddhist temple where more than 1,000 bodies have been gathered, near Takuapa, Thailand, Thursday, Dec. 30, 2004. (AP Photo/David Longstreath, File)A street is littered with damaged vehicles and debris after the area was hit by tidal waves at Patong beach in Phuket, Thailand, Sunday December 26, 2004. (AP Photo/Karim Khamzin, File)
In Sri Lanka, villagers search for the dead among derailed train cars, lighting fires to cremate those they find. And in Aceh, Indonesia, the worst-hit area nearest the quake’s epicenter, people search for survivors and food in towns that have been largely reduced to rubble.
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Today, many coastal communities have rebuilt, and new early warning systems are in place that could give people time to get to shelter. But the true toll of these events will never be known for certain.
The Rahmatullah Lampuuk Mosque stands intact after the 2004 tsunami hit the area in Lhoknga, near Banda Aceh, Indonesia, Jan. 30, 2005. (AP Photo/Greg Baker, File)An elephant which belongs to forest ministry removes debris Monday Jan. 10, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)Islets are formed of what used to be part of Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest of Indonesia, as seen from a commercial plane on Thursday Dec. 30, 2004 following Sunday’s earthquake-triggered tsunami. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko, File)People who lost family members to the deadly tsunami, try to identify them from photos taken before their mass burial and later posted on boards to help families identify their dead, at Vailankanni, near Nagapattinam, India, Saturday Jan. 8, 2005. (AP Photo/Gautam Singh, File)An Acehnese woman clings to floating debris while being swept by a tsunami Sunday, Dec. 26, 2004 in Banda Aceh, the capital of Aceh province in northwest Indonesia. A man tried to rescue her but both victims were swept by the current and died as witnessed by the photographer. (AP Photo/Frans Dellian, File)Paliyamma grieves on returning to her damaged house at a fishermen’s colony hit by tsunami, in Nagappattinam, in the southern Indian state of Tamil Nadu, Friday, Dec. 31, 2004. Paliyamma lost seven members of her family. (AP Photo/Gurinder Osan, File)
