Sri Lanka to watch two-minutes silence to recollect tsunami victims

Colombo, Dec 26 (AdaDerana) – A two minutes’ silence might be noticed islandwide tomorrow (Dec. 26) on National Safety Day from 9.25 a.m. to 9.27 a.m. in reminiscence of all who misplaced their lives within the 2004 tsunami and different pure disasters in Sri Lanka, the Disaster Management Centre introduced.

Tomorrow marks the 18th anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day Tsunami, one of many world’s deadliest and most harmful pure disasters, which impacted over 10 international locations within the Indian Ocean.

A strong undersea megathrust earthquake, which registered a magnitude of 9.1, struck off the coast of Sumatra Island, Indonesia on a Sunday morning, twenty sixth of December 2004.

About 20 minutes after the shock, Indonesia’s capital Banda Aceh, which was closest to the epicentre of the earthquake, was devastated by huge 100-foot waves, claiming the lives of greater than 100,000.

A sequence of turbulent waves then ravaged the coasts of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand, Maldives, Myanmar and Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

In all, deaths from the catastrophe mounted over 230,000 in a matter of hours.

Sri Lanka was one of many hardest-hit international locations with over 40,000 fatalities and property harm price a number of million rupees. Thousands had been left homeless as waves pushed particles a number of kilometres inland, pounding buildings into rubble.

Since 2005, the twenty sixth of December has been declared as “National Safety Day” and on that day commemoration occasions are held as a steady nationwide occasion annually, with the participation of the political management in remembrance of all those that misplaced their lives within the nation as a result of varied pure disasters together with the tsunami catastrophe.

This 12 months too, National Safety Day commemorations have been organized throughout the island at district degree, whereas the primary commemorative occasion is slated to be held in entrance of the ” Peraliya Tsunami Memorial” in Galle, with the participation of political representatives together with the State Minister of Defense, authorities officers, the armed forces and the police in addition to most people.