Tsunami 2004 Svenskar
Karlyn Hemmerling
Around 20,000 Swedes were on holiday in Thailand when the Indian Ocean tsunami struck on Dec. 26, 2004. With over 1,000 feared casualties, Sweden may be the European country worst hit by the disaster.
On Sunday, Swedish State Secretary Hans Dahlgren revised downwards the figure from an initial total of 3,686 Swedes missing in the region affected by the tsunami, to 2,915. Ongoing double-checks of reports about Swedes believed missing had enabled authorities to shorten the list by over 20 percent, Dahlgren said.
"It's a catastrophe of enormous dimensions, the worst in our times. The number of injured and dead will rise dramatically," Persson warned. "We must rally together and support each other. This will affect our lives for a long time to come."
Meanwhile, hundreds of stunned and skimpily-clad Swedish holidaymakers have been arriving daily in airports around Sweden. Most of them are still in shock and traumatized as they try to come to grips with the disaster that many only narrowly survived.
"I woke up just as my hotel room filled with water," Haag said. "I was under water for almost a minute before I came up again. I managed to catch on to the trunk of a car that was floating in the debris and heave myself up," he said. "And then I ran for my life."
Elephants have also joined the search for bodies in the popular Khao Lak tourist paradise in Thailand, heading into debris-strewn forests with rescue teams to retrieve corpses where heavy earth-moving equipment cannot go.
Even as Sweden reels from the disaster, Prime Minister Persson and his center-left Social Democrats face scathing criticism for what many regard as failure to take prompt action following the tragedy.
Foreign Minister Laila Freivalds and Foreign Aid Minister Carin Jamtin have admitted that the government waited too long -- four full days after the disaster took place -- to send planes outfitted with doctors and medical supplies to the aid of citizens stranded in Thailand.
Many have also drawn parallels to Sweden's last big tragedy 10 years ago, when 551 Swedes died as the "Estonia" ferry sank off the Baltic coast. At the time a committee investigating Swedish rescue efforts after the sinking of the Estonia recommended setting up a national disaster management system.
But, that still hasn't happened. "I would have hoped that one would have drawn lessons from the Estonia tragedy," said Kent Hrstedt, a Social Democratic parliamentarian. "Actually, there should have been a commissioner for such catastrophes and an authority that coordinates everything."
"We decided against a big authority for disaster management because it would only work in times of crisis and have nothing to do in normal times," Lars Danielsson, a member of Persson's cabinet said.
En av de mest frdande naturkatastroferna i modern historia gde rum p annandag jul fr 15 r sedan. Minst 230 000 mnniskor ddades nr en tsunami svepte ver kusten i flera lnder kring Indiska oceanen. I Thailand omkom ocks stora mngder utlndska turister.
Myndigheterna frsker ocks se till att invnarna vet vad de ska gra ifall det uppstr en ny tsunami. Vid alla vgar och grnder finns det skyltar som visar i vilken riktning byborna ska fly och var de ska samla sig nr det varnas fr strtvgor.
Det samma gller fr samtliga orter vid vstkusten. Efter att mer n 5 000 mnniskor ddades i katastrofen i Thailand var beslutsfattarna tvungna att g in fr att undvika att en ny tsunami skrdar lika mnga offer som den frra.
Ingen vet exakt hur mnga stadsbor som ddades, men det uppskattas ha varit frgan om lngt fler n 100 000. Sammanlagt omkom minst 170 000 mnniskor i Indonesien, de flesta av dem i landskapet Aceh p den norra ndan av den vldiga n Sumatra.
Sammanlagt skrdade tsunamin minst 230 000 offer i 14 lnder. I vst fick frdelsen i Thailand mycket uppmrksamhet som en fljd av att mer n 2 000 utlndska turister omkom p semestern Phuket och p den populra badorten Khao Lak.
Khao Lak r ocks den enda platsen dr det har uppfrts ett museum som r gnat t tsunamin och dess offer. P museet kan man dessutom se videor dr turister som mirakulst verlevde katastrofen skildrar sina dramatiska upplevelser.
Under ren efter tsunamin minskade antalet turister kraftigt, men i dag kryllar det igen av folk p sandstrnderna i Khao Lac och Phuket. Minnet av katastrofen bleknar, men risken fr en ny tsunami minskar inte.
The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami occurred on Sunday, December 26, 2004. The earthquake itself, with a moment magnitude of around 9.1-9.3, devastated Aceh Province, Indonesia, while the tsunami affected countries all around the Indian Ocean. Nations which were affected are listed below in alphabetical order. For detailed information about each country affected by the earthquake and tsunami, see their individual articles. Countries with a smaller number of casualties, as well as those that lost citizens who were travelling abroad, are listed further on in the article.
Effect on India16,269 casualties were reported on 24 November, 2014,[1] most of them in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. There were 5,640 people missing, nearly all of them on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. In the meantime, the death toll was decreased[clarify] by 1,458, and the number of missing by 2,927 on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
Effect on MalaysiaDespite its proximity to the incident, Malaysia escaped the kind of damage that struck countries thousands of miles further away (most of its western coast is shielded by Sumatra). The estimated number of deaths is 75 with five others missing.[2]
Effect on Sri LankaSri Lankan authorities report 31,229 confirmed deaths, and 4,093 people missing. Other authorities are speaking from 38,940 combined dead and missing people. The south and east coasts were worst hit. Nearly 2,000 of the dead were on the Queen of the Sea holiday train destroyed by the tsunami. One and a half million people were displaced from their homes, and many orphaned or separated from their families.
Effect on ThailandThe Thai government reports 5,395 confirmed deaths, 8,457 injuries and 2,817 missing on 20 June 2005. Damage was confined to the six southern provinces facing the Andaman Sea. The Thai government was keen to point out that the rest of the country was operating normally, and that even some resorts in the south had re-opened.
Large concrete blocks were uprooted in East London harbor, where boats also broke from their moorings. Boats and cars were submerged at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth harbor. Durban harbor, Africa's busiest general cargo port and home to the largest and busiest container terminal in the Southern Hemisphere, was closed for some time on 27 December because of unusually strong surges across the entrance channel.
Despite initial worries about Cocos (Keeling) Islands, no casualties were reported. People swimming at Christmas Island were sucked 150m out to sea, but were safely carried back to shore soon thereafter. At roughly 2 pm that day, a single wave surged (between 5 and 10 m beyond the normal high-water point) on Mullaloo Beach, Perth, briefly startling and engulfing several people. No injuries were reported.
Jordbvningen i Indiska oceanen 2004 var den jordbvning som gde rum under Indiska oceanen vster om n Sumatra i Indonesien. Detta skalv efterfljdes av flera enorma tsunamier som skljde ver arna i Bengaliska viken och kustomrden i Indonesien (speciellt Aceh), Malaysia, Thailand, Indien, Sri Lanka och Maldiverna[4] den 26 december 2004. Den frsta och kraftigaste uppmttes till 9,3 p momentmagnitudskalan[5], vilket gr den till det 3:e kraftigaste uppmtta jordskalvet ngonsin. Skalvet orsakade flera enorma flodvgor, en tsunami, som delade stora omrden lngs den sydostasiatiska kusten. De lnder som drabbades vrst var Indonesien, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indien, Malaysia och Maldiverna. Cirka 226 000 mnniskor miste livet[5], och ver 5 miljoner berknas ha blivit helt hemlsa eller tvingats fly.
Katastrofen var unik stillvida att den slog oerhrt hrt ven mot lnder utanfr de egentliga katastrofomrdena. Bland fler n 220 000 ddsoffer fanns ven tusentals vsterlndska turister. Sverige var med 543[6] ddsoffer och cirka 1 500 skadade[7] ett av de hrdast drabbade lnderna utanfr Asien[klla behvs]. ven bland finlndare, tyskar, engelsmn, danskar med flera krvde katastrofen hundratals offer. Jordbvningskatastrofen r en av de svraste naturkatastroferna som drabbat vrlden det senaste seklet.
Underskningar av havsbottnen runt skalvets epicentrum och hela frkastningszonen har visat att havsbottnen hjdes upp till 12 meter och drmed ven havet ovanfr. Det var det som var den primra orsaken till att tsunamin bildades. Hade rrelserna p havsbottnen istllet varit horisontella hade tsunamin inte alls blivit s stor, om det ens hade bildats ngon. Det var ocks orsaken till att det inte bildades ngon stor tsunami i samband med det vldiga efterskalvet tv mnader senare. Rrelsen var dr nstan enbart horisontell.[klla behvs]
Medan det i Stilla havet sedan lnge finns ett varningscenter fr tsunamivgor som r baserat p Hawaii saknades ett motsvarande center i Indiska oceanen. Personalen p Pacific Tsunami Warning Center p Hawaii skickade emellertid omgende ut en tsunamivarning fr Indiska Oceanen men av olika anledningar utfrdades inga varningar frn respektive lnder. Avsaknaden av ett varningssystem i en region som tillhr de mest jordbvningstta i vrlden fick i efterhand stark kritik. Hade ett fungerande varningssystem funnits hade troligen mnga tusen liv rddats i tminstone Thailand, Sri Lanka och Indien. I Indonesien hade ett varningssystem knappast begrnsat den oerhrda frlusten i mnniskoliv. Det tog bara ca 15 minuter fr flodvgorna att n Sumatras vstkust.[10]
Tsunamin (flodvgorna) drabbade bland annat de thailndska turistorterna Phuket, Koh Phi Phi Don och inte minst Khao Lak dr mnga utlndska turister var p semester, dribland flera tusen svenskar. De flesta av de omkomna svenska turisterna befann sig i Khao Lak. Tv timmar efter skalvet, klockan 10 lokal tid, drog sig vattnet tillbaka frn Khao Laks strnder och cirka 25 minuter senare slog den frsta vgen in med frdande kraft.
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