2004 tsunami victims commemorated

International commemorations are being held to honor the 220,000 people who perished when a giant tsunami decimated coastal areas of the Indian Ocean a decade ago.

In Indonesia, crowds of mourners gathered at mass graves and mosques on Friday to remember the 170,000 people who died in the country after earthquake-triggered waves pummeled the coastline of 14 countries as far apart as Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia on December 26, 2004.

Indonesian Vice President Jusuf Kalla addressed a crowd of several thousand at a memorial event in Banda Aceh, the main city of the province closest to the epicenter of the 9.3-magnitude earthquake that witnessed waves towering up to 35 meters (115 feet) high.

“Thousands of corpses were sprawled in this field… Tears that fell at that time… there were feelings of confusion, shock, sorrow, fear and suffering. We prayed,” he added.

In southern Thailand, crowds gathered to memorialize the 5,300 people who died – half of them foreigners – in the disaster.

Services were also held in Sri Lanka, where 31,000 people perished as a result of the natural disaster.

The Swedish royal family and relatives of those who died are planning to attend a memorial service in Uppsala Cathedral Friday afternoon, to memorialize the country’s 543 vacationers lost to the waves.

Following the 2004 disaster, governments poured money and expertise into relief and reconstruction efforts, with more than USD 13.5 billion collected in subsequent months.

In 2011, a pan-ocean tsunami warning system was established, while individual countries have invested heavily in disaster preparedness.