Antología

THE TRAGEDY OF SOUTHEAST ASIA
by Johan Kevin Villanueva Arellanes

On December 26, 2004, an earthquake at four thousand meters deep in the Indian Ocean, about 260kilometers west of the coast of Aceh (Indonesia), who would nine degrees on the Richter scale. This earthquake would produce a string of tsunamis that literally erasedfrom the map islands, beaches and villages that were submerged in a thick layer of mud, water and some 300,000 dead.

The blast wave hit Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka,India, Bangladesh, Burma, Malaysia, Maldives, Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania and Seychelles. The waves, some of which reached 5 feet high and capable of traveling over 700 km / h,took two hours to reach the shores of India, and six to Somalia and Kenya. After the devastating action of the sea, presented a bleak and, as the death toll grew, theinternational community was becoming aware of the tragedy.

Thus, international aid arrived quickly to affected areas in order to search for the dead and bury them, butabove all to caring for those who remained alive and locate where the sea has not yet returned.

Finally, on January 6, 2005 held an international conference in Jakarta todiscuss the aid to be sent to the affected countries, and five days later a donor meeting in Geneva to agree to provide funds for emergency assistance and reconstruction.On July 17, 2006 another tsunami struck southwestern Indonesian island of Java killed at least 596 dead, seventy missing and 110,000 displaced. The giant wave wascaused by an earthquake of 7.7 magnitude at its epicenter about 200 kilometers from the Javanese coast and 48.6 kilometers deep and was followed by several aftershocks.