Anniversary of the tsunami disaster

Scientists are ready for the next wave 20 years after the tsunami

On December 26, 2004, the tsunami in the Indian Ocean killed about 230,000 people and revealed serious shortcomings in the safety systems. Since then, scientists have improved monitoring, forecasting systems and models and developed better evacuation plans, reports the New York Times.

Today, forecasters can predict the height of a tsunami "pretty well" half an hour before the wave hits, which was not possible before, says Laura Kong, director of the International Tsunami Information Center.

Is it not possible to calculate in advance where and when an earthquake of a similar magnitude will occur? TT wonders.

- It is still difficult. There are no algorithms or general methods for predicting earthquakes, Björn Lund, a seismologist at Uppsala University, tells the news agency.

That a similar wave will occur again is something that Mathilde Bøttger Sørensen at the University of Bergen expects.

– We know it’s coming, we just don’t know when, he tells VG.

Asia remembers the dead with tears and prayers: “Like yesterday”

Memorials are being held in several parts of the world to honor the victims of the tsunami from one of the world’s largest natural disasters twenty years ago, writes AFP.

In the Indonesian province of Aceh, more than 125,000 people died. On Thursday, a siren will sound at the Baiturrahman Grand Mosque to begin memorial ceremonies around the region. People will visit mass graves during the day.

Nilawati, a 60-year-old Indonesian housewife who lost her son and mother, tells the news agency that “it feels like it just happened yesterday.” She says that all the blood rushes out of her body as soon as she thinks about it.

In Ban Nam Khem, Thailand’s worst-hit village, relatives with tears in their eyes have laid flowers and wreaths at a curved wall in the shape of a tsunami wave. Napaporn Pakawan, 55, is one of those who is there and lost her older sister and niece in the tragedy.

“I come here every year. Time goes by quickly but time is slow in our minds,” she tells AFP.

Voices on the tsunami disaster
Editorial: The King put words to the grief after the tsunami

In connection with the 20th anniversary of the tsunami disaster, editorial writers Tobias Wikström and Jonna Sima write about Sweden’s crisis preparedness.

DI’s Wikström is critical of how unprepared the government and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs were for that type of crisis. Although the uncertain global situation is the driving force behind a new proposal for a so-called “situation room,” which can be activated in similar crises, it all started “with the worrying experiences from when the state functioned at its worst, Boxing Day 2004,” according to Wikström.

Aftonbladet’s Jonna Sima also writes about the Persson government’s lack of crisis preparedness for the disaster. But at the same time, it is equally important to “show consideration for those around you,” according to Sima, who highlights the unifying role that King Carl XVI Gustaf had on the occasion. Mainly in a speech where he spoke for the first time about his own experiences of losing a close relative.

DN's editorial team instead looks ahead to the poorest month of the year, January. In connection with 2024 becoming 2025, municipal taxes will be increased by four öre on average, which the editor is critical of. Among other things, because the tax rates differ so much between municipalities.

“It is not enough for the assistant nurse in Degerfors to continue paying a higher share of municipal taxes than the director in Österåker,” it says.