Hindawi Publishing Corporation

Emergency Medicine International

Volume 2011, Article ID 920813, 3 pages
doi:10.1155/2011/920813

Research Article
Impact of 2004 Tsunami in the Islands of Indian Ocean:
Lessons Learned

Georges Ramalanjaona1, 2
1
Department of Emergency Medicine, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, 327 Beach 19th Street, Far Rockaway, New York, NY 11691, USA
2 Department of Emergency Medicine, St. John’s Episcopal Hospital, 3264 Wolfson Dive, Baldwin, New York, NY 11510, USA

Correspondence should be addressed to Georges Ramalanjaona, gramalan@optonline.net

Received 13 December 2010; Revised 8 March 2011; Accepted 22 March 2011

Academic Editor: Christian K. Lackner

Copyright © 2011 Georges Ramalanjaona. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution
License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly
cited.

Tsunami of 2004, caused by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, is the most devastating tsunami in modern times, affecting 18 countries in
Southeast Asia and Southern Africa, killing more than 250,000 people in a single day, and leaving more than 1.7 million homeless.
However, less reported, albeit real, is its impact in the islands of the Indian Ocean more than 1,000 miles away from its epicenter.
This is the first peer-reviewed paper on the 2004 tsunami events specifically in the eleven nations bordering the Indian Ocean, as
they constitute a region at risk, due to the presence of tectonic interactive plate, absence of a tsunami warning system in the Indian
Ocean, and lack established communication network providing timely information to that region. Our paper has a dual objective:
the first objective is to report the 2004 tsunami event in relation to the 11 nations bordering the Indian Ocean. The second one is
to elaborate on lessons learned from it from national, regional, and international disaster management programs to prevent such
devastating consequences of tsunami from occurring again in the future.

1. Introduction (iii) environmental and medical threats including water

pollution and flooding and endemic diseases.
Tsunami is a series of ocean waves typically caused by large
undersea earthquakes or volcano eruptions at tectonic plate The rationale for writing this paper is to report the tsunami
boundaries. These surges of water may reach 100 feet and events in the eleven nations bordering the Indian Ocean,
cause widespread destruction when they crash ashore. They as they received less publicity than their Southeast Asian
race across the sea at a speed up to 500 miles per hour and countries counterpart although the 2004 tsunami had real
cross the entire Pacific Ocean in less than one day. Their long humanitarian, economic, and environmental impact in these
wavelength means that they lose very little energy along the regions more than 1,000 miles away from the epicenter
way. [2].
Tsunami of December 2004, caused by a 9.0 magnitude Furthermore, these regions are at risk from the devastat-
earthquake, is the most infamous tsunami of modern times ing effects of future tsunami due to the presence of a tectonic
with disastrous consequences in many areas [1] interactive plate [3], absence of a tsunami warning system
in the Indian Ocean, and lack of established communication
(i) humanitarian toll: it affected more than 18 countries network providing timely information to that region.
from Southeast Asia to Southern Africa, killing more
than 250,000 people in a single day and leaving more 2. Methodology
than one million homeless,
This paper is a review of documents collected by WHO
(ii) economic toll: it left several million of dollars of and other organizations/authors involved in disaster man-
economic loss affecting fishing and tourist industries, agement during the 2004 tsunami.
2 Emergency Medicine International

3. Results and Discussion (xii) Maldives. 82 deaths and 26 missing.

3.1. Impact of Tsunami in the Islands of the Indian Ocean.
(xiii) Malaysia. 68 deaths reported.
These eleven countries bordering the Indian Ocean are
Mauritius, Madagascar, Reunion Island, and Seychelles,
Comoros islands and by geographical extension include (xiv) Myanmar. 59 killed.
countries in southern borders of Africa such as Somalia,
Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa. (xv) Bangladesh. 2 killed.
These individual countries suffered humanitarian loss
with more than 3,000 people killed and left more than (xvi) Burma. 90 killed.
10,000 homeless about 1,000 miles away from epicenter. In
terms of economic toll, several million dollars were reported 3.2. Lessons Learned from 2004 Tsunami. To prevent the dev-
accompanied by environmental threat due to flooding. astating effects of future tsunami, these islands of Indian
Specifically included is a country by country report [4] Ocean have set their priorities in achieving 3 goals [5]:
with other south-Asian countries.
(i) development of disaster tsunami program which
include implementation of tsunami program at
(i) Mauritius. Large waves completely submerged one village national level, regional, and international levels and
in north of the island. Although there was no death pub- coordination of all these programs,
lished, a significant economic loss in millions of dollars was
reported. (ii) development of an Indian Ocean early warning
system,
(ii) Madagascar. Waves up to 10 meters were seen in south- (iii) development of tsunami research program.
eastern region of the island. There was one death and
more than 1,000 people homeless. Furthermore, there 3.2.1. National Level. The most studied plans are the Mada-
were considerable economic damages inflicted in touristic gascar plan, the tsunami early warning and response system
and fishing industries and infrastructure disruptions due in Mauritius, and the creation of the Department of Risk and
to flooding and beach erosion (http://savannah.gatech.edu/ Disaster Management in Seychelles.
cee/groups/tsunami/madagascar.html).
(i) Madagascar Plan. It was developed in 2006 and is the
(iii) Reunion Island. It suffered mostly economic damages most exhaustive of all the other national plans and should
over one million dollars involving fishing industries with serve as a model for other islands. It includes 5 objectives:
more than 200 boats sunk. No deaths were reported. (a) development of national evacuation plan on tsunami,
(b) establishment of early warning system in conjunction
(iv) Seychelles. Ten people were reported killed, and flooding with regional system,
destroyed a major bridge between the capital Port Victoria
(c) increase public and community awareness through
and main airport. Also, the island reported devastating
publication and training of media and local author-
economic loss in millions of dollars due to hotels, housing,
ities,
public utilities, and fishing damages.
(d) conduct mock exercises on tsunami,
(v) Somalia. More than 300 deaths were reported and 5,000 (e) strengthen the operational capacity of national mete-
displaced. orological service to include national warning system.

(vi) Tanzania. Tsunami killed ten people with unknown 3.2.2. Regional Level. Disaster management is a regional
number missing along with significant economic damages. priority in the Indian Ocean due to permanent threat of
cyclones, floods, and tsunamis. The stated two goals set by
a series of regional meetings in 2005 and 2006 are [6] the
(vii) Kenya. Two deaths and two injured people were report- following:
ed.
(i) implementation of Indian Ocean tsunami warning
(viii) South Africa. 8 people were killed about 8,000 km away and mitigation system (IOTWS), which focused on
from the epicenter. defining disaster management and reduction (pre-
vention, mitigation, response and relief) of disaster
by all the participating countries,
(ix) Indonesia. 122,232 deaths and 113,937 missing.
(ii) development of integrated regional information net-
work (IRIN) with the goals of creation of an early
(x) Shri Lanka. 30,974 killed and 4,698 missing. warning system for the islands in the Indian Ocean
and ensuring adequate equipment to manage natural
(xi) Thailand. 5,395 killed and 2,993 missing. disasters including tsunamis.
Emergency Medicine International 3

The important issues are the cost of establishing such warn- References
ing system in the Indian Ocean, the transfer of existing
technology versus improving, old one, global warming and [1] “WHO- Situation report on tsunami,” http://www.who.int/hac/
crises/international/asia tsunami/en/.
extreme weather events in that region.
[2] “The world wide web virtual library-2004 tsunami disaster –
www.vl,” scholarly and factual analyses, March 2005.
3.2.3. International Level. A series of international meetings [3] D. E. James, “Imaging crust and upper mantle beneath southern
have been convened to discuss the role international organi- Africa: the southern Africa broadband seismic experiment,”
zations [7]: Leading Edge, vol. 22, no. 3, pp. 238–249, 2003.
[4] “Indian Ocean tsunami disaster December 26,2004 and
(i) international coordination meeting sponsored by reconstruction-Coordinates,” Online Journal of Map and Geo-
UNESCO intergovernmental oceanographic com- graphic Round Table, American Library Association February
mission in Mauritius in 2005 with a dual goal: 2011, http://www.stonybrook.edu/libmap/coordinates.htm.
[5] E. A. Okal et al., “Field survey of the 2004 Indonesian Tsunami
(a) development of tsunami warning and mitiga- in Madagascar,” Earthquake Spectra, vol. 22, no. S3, pp. S263–
tion system, S283, 2006.
(b) coordination of national tsunami warning cen- [6] M. P. Escaleras and C. A. Register, “Mitigating natural disasters
ter with regional centers, through collective action: the effectiveness of Tsunami early
warnings,” Southern Economic Journal, vol. 74, no. 4, pp. 1017–
(ii) international strategy for disaster reduction (UN/ 1034, 2008.
[7] K. Suter, “After the tsunami: the politics of international relief,”
ISDR) attended by representatives from the Indian
Contemporary Review, vol. 286, March 2005.
Ocean countries and international experts on early
warning system in 2006 with two objectives:

(a) funding of projects and rehabilitation of roads

and bridges
(b) increase public awareness and training of key
staff in tsunami preparedness and warning at all
levels.

3.3. Future and Challenges. The main challenge for all the
islands of the Indian Ocean is to coordinate all the national
efforts with existing regional and international endeavors to
meet their stated priorities before the next tsunami events.
The role of one special group of physicians should be
mentioned at all these levels.
Emergency physicians are knowledgeable on the risks of
tsunami and are trained in the field of disaster management,
thus they are true expert. They should get involve as
leaders in local, national, and international organizations as
resources in disaster management as well as humanitarian
institutions such as Red Cross.

4. Conclusion
This paper is the first peer-reviewed paper on the impact
of the 2004 tsunami on the islands bordering the Indian
Ocean and the lessons learned from this event from national,
regional, and international organizations to prevent such
events from occurring again in the future.
Tsunami is an ever-present and real threat for the these
islands of the Indian Ocean due to the presence of a tectonic
interactive plate.
Their disaster management priority is the development
of an early tsunami warning system in order to effectively and
timely communicate with all the people in that region.
Disaster management should involve national, regional,
and international organizations at all levels in order to
develop tsunami program, fund tsunami projects, and
continue research program.
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