Countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami


This article lists the countries affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and the resulting tsunami in alphabetical order – for detailed information about each country affected by the earthquake and tsunami, see their individual articles. Countries with a smaller number of casualties, as well as those that lost citizens who were travelling abroad, are listed further on in the article.

Countries suffering major casualties and damageImpact Assessment and Monitoring System (TRIAMS) Workshop, Bangkok, 2009">

; Effect on India
10,749 casualties were confirmed on 27 January 2008, most of them in the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. There were 5,640 people missing, nearly all of them on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. by 1,458, and the number of missing by 2,927 on the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.
; Effect on Indonesia
Indonesia's Ministry of Health confirmed 131,028 deaths on June 18, 2005, mainly in the northern province Aceh of the island Sumatra. Some 37,000 people are missing.
; Effect on Malaysia
Despite its proximity to the incident, Malaysia escaped the kind of damage that struck countries thousands of miles further away. The number of deaths currently stands at 68 with 5 people missing.
; Effect on the Maldives
In the Maldives, 82 were killed and 26 reported missing and presumed dead.
; Effect on Myanmar
Independent media reports 90 people killed in Myanmar due to the tsunami. The official death toll is 61. Witnesses in Myanmar estimate up to 600 deaths.
; Effect on Somalia
Villages and coastal communities in Somalia, as far as from the epicenter of the earthquake, were swept away and destroyed by the huge waves. 176 people were confirmed dead, 136 were missing and more than 50,000 were displaced.
; Effect on Sri Lanka
Sri Lankan authorities report 31,229 confirmed deaths, and 4,093 people missing. Other authorities are speaking from 38,940 combined dead and missing people. The south and east coasts were worst hit. Nearly 2,000 of the dead were on the Queen of the Sea holiday train destroyed by the tsunami. One and a half million people were displaced from their homes, and many orphaned or separated from their families.
; Effect on Thailand
The Thai government reports 5,395 confirmed deaths, 8,457 injuries and 2,817 missing on 20 June 2005. Damage was confined to the six southern provinces facing the Andaman Sea. The Thai government was keen to point out that the rest of the country was operating normally, and that even some resorts in the south had re-opened.

Countries suffering some casualties and damage

Waves struck Kenya causing some minor damage. One person was reported to have drowned at Watamu, near Mombasa.
Three killed, six people missing. A major bridge in Victoria was destroyed.
One boy died after swimming in the Quinera River at Gonubie, close to East London; an adult dead at Blue Horizon Bay near Port Elizabeth, the furthest point from the epicenter of the earthquake where a tsunami-related death was reported. General observations: Ocean level variance two to three meters outside normal reported in KwaZulu-Natal and Eastern Cape, and a surge of 1.5 m was observed as far as Struisbaai in the Western Cape, 8500 km from the epicentre of the earthquake. Some steps were taken in South Africa to warn ports and disaster management centers, although full details are not public.
Large concrete blocks were uprooted in East London harbor, where boats also broke from their moorings. Boats and cars were submerged at the Algoa Bay Yacht Club in Port Elizabeth harbor. Durban harbor, Africa's busiest general cargo port and home to the largest and busiest container terminal in the Southern Hemisphere, was closed for some time on 27 December because of unusually strong surges across the entrance channel.
10 killed, an unknown number of people missing. An oil tanker temporarily ran aground in Dar es Salaam harbor, damaging an oil pipeline.
One child killed, 40 fishing boats wrecked on Socotra Island.

Countries suffering damage only

Countries/Territory that lost citizens while abroad

A – J

K – R

S – Z

Detection of the tsunami outside the Indian Ocean region

American SamoaWave fluctuations of 13 cm from crest to trough at Pago Pago.
AntarcticaWave fluctuations of 73 cm due to the tsunami were detected at Showa Station, from the epicenter.
BrazilWave fluctuations of 30 cm at Rio de Janeiro; 60 cm at Niterói.
ChileWave fluctuations of 19 cm from crest to trough at Iquique.
FijiWave fluctuations of 11 cm at Suva.
RussiaWave fluctuations of 29 cm at Pacific Ocean coast of Russia Far East.
MexicoWave fluctuations of 89 cm at Manzanillo, Colima, due to focusing of tsunami energy from the Pacific plate rise and local terrain.
New ZealandWave fluctuations of 65 cm at Jackson Bay and 50 cm at Waitangi on Chatham Island.
PeruWave fluctuations of 50 cm from crest to trough at Callao.
United StatesWave fluctuations of 22 cm at San Diego, California, and 6 cm at Hilo, Hawaii.
VanuatuWave fluctuations of 18 cm at Port Vila.