About

The most powerful earthquake in 40 years erupted under the Indian Ocean near Sumatra on Dec. 26, 2004. It caused giant, deadly waves to crash ashore in nearly a dozen countries, killing tens of thousands. A long stretch of Sri Lanka's coast was devastated by these killer waves, with more than 40,000 dead and staggering 2.5 million people displaced. Although 1,600km from the epicentre, the waves struck with huge force and swept inland as far as 5 kilometers. Waves as high as six meters had crashed into coastal villages, sweeping away people, cars and even a train with 1700 passengers. It was the worst human disaster in Sri Lanka history.

Three years and a half year later, have all the 2.5 million displaced people rebuilt their homes? Most of the southern coast of Sri Lanka has had seen restoration work done to their houses. However, there is still 150km of houses along the eastern coast of Sri Lanka that needs to be restored.

Many a times, when disasters struck a nation, many people from various nations will rush to help in terms of donating money, rations and lending their time and expertise to help. Often the media will be covering news of the disaster for the first month after the disaster has struck. Afterwhich, there will be other news that the media will focus on. Hence, people tend to forget that all the devasted homes of the Sri Lankan need more than one month to be totally restored. It will take years and years for all the houses to be restored.