Huge flood rocks the deep South as tsunami memorials held

People across Southeast Asia came together along the shores of the Indian Ocean this past few days to mark the 10th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, an incident that claimed the lives of more than 230,000 people across the region and displaced millions. 

There were moments of silence in various places and religious services held to commemorate the dead. 

But ten years later, it was still hard for many to come to terms with the loss of their love ones. The 2004 tsunami destroyed entire coastal communities and in some pockets, like Thailand’s southwest Andaman coast, the tourism industry came to a near complete halt. 

The disaster was triggered by an earthquake with a magnitude of 9.1 near Indonesia’s Sumatra, sending waves across the Indian Ocean to places as far away as East Africa. 

Indonesia’s already war-torn Aceh was hardest hit. The wave claimed more than 170,000 lives in Indonesia alone. 

More than 8,000 people were killed and lost in Thailand. A large number of the dead and injured were migrant workers from neighbouring Myanmar. 

Half of the dead in Thailand were tourists from 38 different countries. Many of their relatives came to the site this past week to pay respect to their love ones that died on that dreadful day ten years ago.

The post-tsunami recovery process brought the international community closer together as the world rally around the cause, raising money to help with disaster relief. 

For a brief moment in history, people put aside their differences and worked for a common cause. There was no one to blame because this catastrophe was not man-made.

As for Aceh, where separatist insurgency had been taking place for several decades, the 2004 tsunami helped speed up the negotiation process. 

We cannot prevent what Mother Nature will do but what really matters is how all of us handle the aftermath of such tragedy. 

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha led a commemorative ceremony at Khao Lak beach at a Thai Navy boat that was pushed two kilometres inland by waves on that day. The boat is still there and has become a permanent memorial to the 2004 disaster. Afterwards, he left for the southernmost provinces where a massive flood has ripped through much of the region.

Besides lowering their political guard a bit, the disaster also shows that, regardless of one’s religious beliefs, we all feel pain and sorrow. Leaders in European countries who lost their citizens to the tsunami also held religious ceremonies to commemorate the dead.

Today, with the massive flood hitting the far South – conflict-affected areas where more than 6,000 people have lost their lives since early 2004 to the ongoing insurgency – Mother Nature continues to remind us of her mighty wrath. 

The concept of mercy does not apply to her or else she wouldn’t have picked on an already wartorn area that also happens to be the least developed in the country. 

Perhaps she is sending us a reminder, to look back at the 2004 tsunami, and asking us to dig deep into our heart and human spirit and apply it to the deep South. 

As we go to press, local residents from all walks of live and political leanings are coming together to help one another to get through this flood.

On the outskirts of Yala, a Thai-Chinese Buddhist family turned their truck repair garage into a shelter so their Muslim neighbours could have a safer and drier place to sleep and cook their food.

The same generosity is displayed through out the traumatised region. Humans, curiously, can often show their best when it’s needed most. Let’s hope that this kind of mercy and generosity prevails when the flood recedes.