Hundreds of thousands of people killed as tsunamis devastate large swathes of South and Southeast Asia, coming as far as South Africa

On the morning of 26 December 2004, a magnitude 9.3 earthquake struck off the Northwest coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. The earthquake deformed the ocean floor, pushing the overlying water up into a tsunami wave. The tsunami caused tremendous devastation in several countries and killed hundreds of thousands of people (sources vary between 200 000 and 300 000 casualties as a direct result of the Tsunami). Measured in lives lost, this is one of the ten worst earthquakes in recorded history, as well as the single worst tsunami in history. The Tsunami traveled at 500 miles per hour from its epicenter causing serious damage and deaths as far as the east coast of Africa, with the furthest recorded death due to the tsunami occurring at Rooi Els in South Africa, 8000 km away from the epicenter. In total, eight people in South Africa died due to abnormally high sea levels and waves. However, the hardest hit area was the Aceh Province of Sumatra, in northern Indonesia, which was the closest area to the quake. Sri Lanka, South India and Thailand were also hit very hard by the tsunami. States of emergency were declared in Sri Lanka, Indonesia, and the Maldives. The United Nations estimated at the outset that the relief operation would be the costliest in human history. UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan stated that reconstruction would probably take between five and ten years. Governments and non-governmental organisations feared the final death toll would double as a result of diseases. Besides the countries mentioned above, many other countries were affected by the tsunami some, like Australia and countries in Europe, had large numbers of citizens traveling in the region on holiday. Both Sweden and Germany lost over 500 citizens each in the disaster. Several South African tourists were also killed. The countries most affected by the tsunami are listed below (in alphabetical order): Bangladesh India Indonesia Kenya Malaysia Madagascar Maldives Myanmar Seychelles Somalia South Africa Sri Lanka Tanzania Thailand