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The wall of water up to 10 meters (33 ft) high flattened houses, hurled fishing boats onto coastal roads, sent cars spinning through swirling waters into hotel lobbies and sucked sunbathers, babies and fishermen off beaches and out to sea.
Along with Sri Lanka, the worst affected areas were southern India, where officials reported up to 5,700 dead, northern Indonesia with 4,900 drowned and Thailand's southern tourist isles and beaches where as many as 839 lost their lives.
Some of the dead were foreign tourists. Seventy of those were in Sri Lanka and included at least nine Japanese who had been watching elephants in a park when the tsunami swept over them.
'This may be the worst natural disaster in recent history because it is affecting so many heavily populated coastal areas ... so many vulnerable communities,' U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator Jan Egeland told CNN.
International aid agencies rushed staff, equipment and money to the region, warning that bodies rotting in the water were already beginning to threaten the water supply for survivors.
FROM REUTERS
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In 1964, an Alaskan earthquake generated a tsunami with waves between 10 and 20 feet high along parts of the California, Oregon, and Washington coasts. This tsunami caused more than $84 million in damage in Alaska and a total of 123 fatalities.
Although tsunamis are rare along the Atlantic coastline, a severe earthquake on November 18, 1929, in the Grand Banks of Newfoundland generated a tsunami that caused considerable damage and loss of life at Placentia Bay, Newfoundland.
In 1946, a tsunami with waves of 20 to 32 feet crashed into Hilo, Hawaii, flooding the downtown area and killing 159 people.
The Tsunami Warning Centers in Honolulu, Hawaii, and Palmer, Alaska, monitor disturbances that trigger tsunamis. When a tsunami is recorded, it is tracked and a tsunami warning is issued to the threatened area.
Most deaths during a tsunami are a result of drowning. Associated risks include flooding, polluted water supplies, and damaged gas lines.
Since 1945, more people have been killed as a result of tsunamis than as a direct result of an earthquake’s ground-shaking.
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On July 17, 1998 a Mw = 7.0 earthquake struck the north central coast of Papua New Guinea. Following the earthquake a large tsunami also struck the region. Initial reports claimed that the wave was between 7 and 10 meters and that up to 3000 persons were killed or missing. This seemed to be an unusually damaging tsunami given the size of the earthquake. Members of the International Tsunami Survey Team decided that a field survey was necessary as soon as possible to try and determine the true value of the maximum runup and to accurately map the runup distribution along the coast.
Upon arrival at the disaster relief command post in Aitape, the team was granted full access to the sealed region around Sissano Lagoon and Sissano Village, the site of the most deaths and greatest destruction. The first surveys to the Sissano region confirmed the 7 - 10 m wave reports and even found a place where the waves were larger - up to 15 m. The severe damage and extreme wave heights were confined to a relatively short (40 km) stretch of coast between Aitape and Sissano Village.
The survey was conducted by a multinational team with representatives from Japan, the United States, Australia, and New Zealand.
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Dates and damages of greatest world Tsunamis from Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory.
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From National Geophysical Data Center (NGDC)
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
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This Tsunamis site is currently hosted by the Department of Earth and Space Sciences at the University of Washington.
Data are adapted from Lockridge, P. 'NGDC Monitors Frequency of Recent Destructive Tsunamis.' Earth System Monitor
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