TSUNAMI ANGER IN MALDIVES – GROWTH AFTER TSUNAMI

Maldives is an independent island nation consisting of a chain of about 1,300 small coral islands and sandbanks (202 of which are inhabited), grouped in clusters, or atolls, in the Indian Ocean. The islands extend more than 510 miles (820 km) from north to south and 80 miles (130 km) from east to west. The northernmost atoll is about 370 miles (600 km) south-southwest of the Indian mainland, and the central area, including the capital island of Male, is about 400 miles (645 km) southwest of Sri Lanka. Area 115 square miles (298 sq Pop. (2000) 270,101; (2004 estimated) 289,000.

Year in Review 2004The Deadliest TsunamiOn Dec. 26, 2004, at 7:59 AM local time, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude of 9.0 struck off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. Over the next seven hours, a tsunami—a series of immense ocean waves— triggered by the quake reached out across the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal areas as far away as East Africa. Some locations reported that the waves had even reached a height of 9 m (30 ft) or more when they hit the shoreline. At least 225,000 people were killed across a dozen countries, with Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Maldives, and Thailand sustaining massive damage. Indonesian officials estimated that the death toll there could exceed 200,000, particularly in northern Sumatra's Aceh province. Tens of thousands were reported dead or missing in Sri Lanka and India, a large number of them from the Indian Andaman and Nicobar islands. The low-lying island nation of Maldives reported more than a hundred casualties and economic damage that could exceed the country's gross domestic product. Several thousand non-Asian tourists vacationing in the region also were reported dead or missing. The lack of food, clean water, and medical treatment—combined with the Herculean task faced by relief workers trying to get supplies into some remote areas where roads had been destroyed or civil war raged—increased the likelihood that the casualty list would continue to grow. Long-term environmental damage was almost as unimaginable as the loss of life, with tourist resorts, villages, farmland, and fishing grounds demolished or inundated with debris, bodies, and plant-killing salt water.

Now, in 2006, the country has crossed the hurdle posed by tsunami and it vibrant and colorful as it was a bad dream and country is once again filled with tourist and their laughter.