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The Indian Ocean tsunami: a chronology BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (AFP) Dec 16, 2005 As the first anniversary of the Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami catastrophe approaches on December 26, here is a chronology of major events since the disaster:
0058 GMT: A powerful quake with a magnitude of 8.7 (later revised to 9.3) hits the Indian Ocean, 250 kilometres (150 miles) northwest of Indonesia's island of Sumatra, the world's biggest tremor in four decades. Thirty minutes later waves up to 15-meters (about 50-feet) high wipe dozens of villages off the map in Sumatra's troubled Aceh province. Tsunamis travel at speed across the Indian Ocean, striking Thailand, Sri Lanka, India -- notably the Andaman and Nicobar islands -- Myanmar, Malaysia, the Maldives, Bangladesh, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and the Seychelles.
The United Nations says the cost of damage from the disaster will run to billions of dollars and require the biggest humanitarian aid operation in the nearly 60-year history of the UN.
The confirmed death toll rises to 55,000, rescue services struggle to get organised. By the following day, the confirmed toll stands at 80,000.
The death toll passes the 125,000 mark, as Indonesia says it has given up trying to keep an exact count.
International aid pledges rise to two billion dollars, including 500 million dollars pledged by Japan. UN officials estimate the death toll at 150,000, but warn the true figure may never be known. UN officials say logistical bottlenecks and ruined roads and bridges are hampering the relief effort.
Australia announces a 764-million-dollar package to Indonesia on the eve of a major summit in Jakarta to discuss how nations can recover from the catastrophe. Germany becomes the biggest European donor, raising its aid to 500 million euros.
Attending an emergency Jakarta summit of leaders from 26 nations and international organisations, UN Secretary General Kofi Annan launches a flash appeal for almost one billion dollars in cash to tackle the immediate aftermath of the disaster. Asian leaders at the summit endorse a regional project to set up a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean.
UN emergency relief coordinator Jan Egeland tells an international conference in Geneva that donor nations must speed up delivery of aid pledges for the relief effort. The Indonesian military says restrictions on foreign aid workers in tsunami-hit Aceh are needed to curtail a growing threat from separatist rebels.
Public and private aid pledged to the stricken countries tops 10.8 billion dollars.
The death toll rises to 168,373 with another 5,000 deaths being reported by Indonesia.
Indonesia's death toll alone passes 166,000, more than 50,000 higher than the previous tally, taking the total number of dead in the region over 219,000.
An international disaster conference in Kobe, Japan, agrees to put the United Nations in charge of building a tsunami warning system for the Indian Ocean. The UN says the system should be up and running in between 12 and 18 months.
The number of people believed to have died in the tsunami jumps to more than 280,000, but subsequently falls to about 220,000.
Former US presidents Bill Clinton and George Bush senior tour some of the worst affected countries to raise awareness among potential donors to tsunami relief efforts. Many aftershocks continue to affect the region, fraying already fragile nerves.
Seismologist John McCloskey at Britain's University of Ulster tells AFP that there is a heightened risk that a major earthquake may soon strike the western coast of Sumatra as a result of the monster quake that generated the December 26 tsunami.
The UN food agency says that the starvation and malnutrition crisis feared after the tsunami struck has been averted in less than three months as emergency efforts are winding down.
Shortly before 11:15pm local time, an earthquake measured by the US Geological Survey at magnitude 8.7 strikes off the western coast of Sumatra. The quake kills almost 1,000 people on Nias island and warnings of a possible tsunami sparks panic and mass flight in coastal regions.
Scientists reassess the December 26 earthquake as having a magnitude of 9.3 -- the second biggest quake ever recorded.
An Australian aid helicopter crashes killing all nine military personnel on board while on an emergency relief mission on Nias islan.
A US navy hospital ship joins a huge international relief effort to treat scores of people needing medical after the Nias quake.
Two million more Asians joined the ranks of the poor following the December tsunami disaster, the Asian Development Bank says.
Indonesia drastically reduces its probable tsunami death toll from roughly 220,000 to less than 170,000.
A 6.7-magnitude temblor strikes off the west coast of Indonesia's Sumatra island, sparking panic among people fearing a repeat of the tsunami disaster.
Asian and African leaders agree in Jakarta to establish a tsunami warning network.
Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono appoints members to an agency tasked with overseeing the reconstruction of Aceh province. Some 46.1 trillion rupiah (4.78 billion dollars) is earmarked for the plan.
The UN says areas hit by the tsunami will take at least five to 10 years to recover even with the help of international aid.
Former US president Bill Clinton makes his second post-tsunami tour of the region, this time as a UN special envoy, to galvanise the delivery of aid to areas still struggling to recover.
A 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocks India's remote and already battered Andaman and Nicobar Islands, prompting tsunami warnings that cause panic in parts of the region.
Twenty-seven nations from around the Indian Ocean Rim agree in the Australian city of Perth to develop and launch dozens of high-tech buoys to provide advance warning of any approaching tsunami.
The Indonesian government and separatists from Aceh sign a peace deal, ending 29 years of bloodshed that cost 15,000 lives and enabling reconstruction efforts to be ramped up.
Tourist arrivals on the Thai island of Phuket plunged 42.0 percent year-on-year for the first half of the year, and 46.9 percent year-on-year in the Maldives, according to a study.
A Sri Lankan magistrate gives police permission to examine bank accounts amid allegations that Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse helped himself to foreign aid meant for tsunami survivors.
The UN food agency says recovery in Aceh has been slow and warns of a second crisis unless action is taken to speed up transition into the recovery phase.
Sri Lanka's auditor-general Sarath Mayadunne says corruption and inefficiency have plagued the island nation's tsunami aid effort.
Maldives President Maumoon Adbul Gayoom says the atoll nation is struggling to recover from last year's tsunami, with a drastic fall in tourism arrivals and income.
Sri Lanka eases restrictions imposed on building along the island's coastline, more than halving a 100-metre (110-yard) buffer zone that residents complained had prevented them rebuilding their homes.
Thailand says its tsunami early warning system is up and running.
Indonesia activates the initial phase of a tsunami early warning system off the coast of tsunami-hit Sumatra.
Thousands of tsunami survivors in rebel-held areas of northern Sri Lanka are evacuated to higher ground after lashing monsoon rains flood their camps.
More than 100 scientists, meteorologists and government officials attend a second UN meeting to check progress on a regional tsunami warning system planned for 2006. About 80 percent of the 1.8 million people around the region made homeless will remain without permanent homes by the first anniversary, aid organisation Oxfam says. The World Bank says mistakes in priorities meant 60,000 people still live in tents in Aceh rather than temporary housing.
On the Thai resort isle of Phuket, the forensics center where international experts worked to identify thousands of bodies closes and moves to Bangkok. All rights reserved. � 2005 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.
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