In addition to the countries bearing the brunt of the earthquake (India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Maldives, Myanmar, Somalia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand, which are covered in the main article), a number of other countries were either directly or indirectly affected by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Some officials expect that several thousand tourists, most European, were killed by tsunamis. Below is a list of countries directly affected by the earthquake or the resulting tsunamis and a list of countries whose citizens were lost in the disaster. The natural disaster has prompted a large humanitarian response from around the world and a call for charitable donations to relief and humanitarian organizations.
Tremors felt along the north-western coast, some minor flooding. Seas off Western Australia reportedly surged between Geraldton, 425 km north of Perth, where several boats were ripped from their moorings, and Busselton, 325 km south of Perth, where a father and son in a boat were washed out to sea, but were later rescued. No direct casualties have been reported within Australia. Despite early worries about Cocos (Keeling) Islands, no casualties were reported. People swimming at Christmas Island were sucked 150m out to sea, but were safely carried back to shore after a pause.
Flooding in low-lying coastal districts. No reported casualties. A 1.6 metre wave swept through a village near Manakara canto — up to 1,200 reported homeless.
Tsunami energy that passed into the Pacific Ocean caused wave fluctuations of 2.6 meters at Manzanillo, Colima, due to focusing of tsunami energy from the Pacific plate rise and local terrain.
Tsunami energy that passed into the Pacific Ocean caused wave fluctuations of 18 cm at Port Vila.
Countries that lost citizens who were traveling abroad
Below is a list of countries, mostly from outside the Indian Ocean region, who have reported dead or missing nationals as result of the disaster.
Those trying to find family members or friends can use websites set up for this purpose. One of the largest is the Red CrossFamilyLinks site. The hospital at Phuket, Thailand is posting the names of casualties on its website. The Sri Lanka Tourism board has set up a website here with the names of found foreigners in the country. The Lonely Planet travel website has created a message board so people can locate missing persons. A Yahoo! Group has been created to help. News organizations such as the BBC and CNN have also set up message boards. Most countries' Ministry of Foreign Affairs or State Department have set up emergency contact numbers that can be found on their respective websites.
You can also go to this site at BCZ.com Classifieds to post information to search for your lost ones.
The Department of Foreign Affairs believes that there are upwards of 9,000 Australians in the affected countries. About 1,250 are still unaccounted for. Ten Australians are confirmed as having been killed, including a six-month old girl, a 16-year old male with Down syndrome and five others in Thailand, and three in Sri Lanka. Twelve are missing, feared dead: including nine in Thailand, two in Indonesia and one in Nicobar Islands. Thirty remain in hospital (25 in Thailand, 3 in Sri Lanka, and one each in Maldives and India). The Department of Foreign Affairs said on 30 December that grave fears were held for 41 Australians still unaccounted for, and Foreign MinisterAlexander Downer warned that the death toll among Australian tourists will rise. Australian media speculate that several hundred Australians may have died. A well-known footballer, Troy Broadbridge of the Melbourne Football Club, is among those missing.
Five Austrians killed in Thailand and Sri Lanka. Foreign MinisterUrsula Plassnik has warned that the death toll will rise to "50 or 60" casualties. More than two hundred injured Austrian tourists have already been transferred back to Austria. At least 16 Austrian tourists are still reported missing, out of an estimated 1,500 in the region.
Three Belgian tourists were reported killed in Phuket, and three in Khao Lak (both in Thailand). More than 200 backpackers who were in the affected countries, have not been localized yet and authorities have warned that the final number of Belgian victims could be several tens of people.
Three Canadians have been confirmed dead, one in Sri Lanka and two in Phuket. Another dozen have been confirmed injured. Another two Canadians have been reported missing in Phuket. In Maldives there are 11 Canadians that could not be contacted; also in the Maldives, 45 Canadian pilots are safe and sound.
Fifty-six people were originally reported missing; out of those only one still remains missing: Francisca Cooper who was vacationing in Phi Phi, Thailand. A web site set up by her family can be visited at [2]. Update: Nine additional people have been reported missing by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. These are Chileans that now have different nationalities, and have foreign passports.
Eight injured in Thailand, and forty missing. Action movie star Jet Li, on holiday with his family in the Maldives, suffered a minor foot injury while guiding his daughter to safety.
An eighteen month-old baby was reported dead in Thailand; her two parents and brother have been confirmed injured, according to the Consul of Colombia in Jakarta.
One confirmed death (young woman in Thailand); it's expected that 6 people could die. Five were confirmed injured in Thailand, including the supermodel Petra Nemcova, another 90 of over 1,000 Czechs in the region remain out of reach. Nemcova's British boyfriend is also missing.
194 people are currently reported to be missing. Given that no centralized statistics of independent travellers and Finns living in the area exist, estimating the number of victims is hard. The final number of casualties is likely to be around 200, and it is almost surely 150-300. Survivors include the former finance minister Sauli Niinistö, while musician Aki Sirkesalo with his family are missing.
Approximately 10,000 German tourists were in the region. On 29 December German Chancellor [[Gerhard Schr%F6der]] reported that 26 citizens were confirmed dead and about 1,000 German tourists are missed. Several hundred tourists are likely to be dead. Former German Chancellor Helmut Kohl, on vacation in Sri Lanka, was rescued from the roof of his flooded hotel by military helicopter.
One person lightly injured in Phuket, Thailand, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Approximately 300 Greek tourists are estimated to be in Phuket.
Two citizens were confirmed dead in Thailand. Officials said 174 locatable citizens with detailed information are missing with 113 reportedly in Thailand, 3 reportedly in Malaysia, 12 reportedly in Sri Lanka, 3 reportedly in Maldives, 15 reportedly in Indonesia and 28 in other locations. The Immigration Department is still processing 843 remaining reports of missing citizens with incomplete information. According to major local media RTHK, TVB, SCMP, some 400 are still missing.
At least 14 killed, of which eleven in Thailand (six at Phuket, three in Phi Phi) and two in Sri Lanka. About 600 people missing ([5]). About 5000 italian tourists and 3500 italian residents were in the region according to the Italian FM.
At least fifteen confirmed bodies of Japanese and up to 700 missing. Amongst the missing are Sadayuki Yoshino, the First Secretary at the Japanese Embassy in Bangkok, and his son who were vacationing together at Phuket, Thailand.
According to the Dutch goverment there are six confirmed dead. However, other sources report ten confirmed dead: 9 in Thailand and 1 in Sri Lanka.
Fifty people are missing, most from Phuket or Koh Phi Phi. The status of an additional 500 people is still unknown (source: Prime Minister on Dutch national TV).
The Foreign Affairs Ministry confirmed one New Zealand woman died in Phuket, Thailand, and 2 others are believed dead. Eleven New Zealanders are reported to still be in hospital in Thailand, and one in Chennai, India. Of 834 New Zealanders known to be in Thailand, 230 are not yet accounted for. Of those known to have been in the Thai beach resorts, 64 are missing. Approximately four are missing in Sri Lanka, four in India and one in the Andaman Islands. [6].
21 people reported dead, 2 in Sri Lanka and 19 in Thailand. The Ministry of Foreign Affiars is currently operating with 462 missing Norwegian nationals, while they are seeking to get in touch with 980 persons traveling in South East Asia who may have been in the area. For more information about Norwegian relief efforts and personal stories, see Effects of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake in Norway.
According to Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs four Polish tourists are believed dead and at least 43 people are missing (28 in Thailand, 15 in Sri Lanka). Three people are hospitalised in Phuket and Krabi. The number of Polish tourists in the affected areas is estimated to be around 2,000.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, at least 22 citizens are unaccounted for since it had made contact with just 208 out of the total 230 Portuguese thought to be in the region, but only 8 Portuguese were listed as missing. 3 nationals remain hospitalized in Thailand.
Two Romanian tourists were earlier reported missing in Phuket, Thailand, but they have been found safe. Over 20 Romanian tourists are estimated to be in the affected region, but according to Cristian Gaginschi, representative of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, there are no indications that any Romanian has been affected by the earthquake.
At least two are dead at Phuket, Thailand, and as many as 50 may be missing, according to the Russian Embassy. About 1000 Russian tourists were at Phuket alone. Around 250 Russian tourists were in Sri Lanka, of which all are safe.
At least seven are dead: One in Sri Lanka, One in India, Five in Phuket, Thailand. Eighteen others are still missing: Sixteen in Phuket, two in Aceh, Indonesia. 183 remain uncontactable. [7].
The Department of Foreign Affairs reported that 2,034 South Africans were in South East Asia at the time of the disaster. Four persons are now confirmed to have died in Thailand, with at least 16 others still missing - 14 in Thailand and two in India[8][9].
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as of December 30 11 tourists are missing, in the island of Javelock, Andaman Islands and in Phuket resort. No deaths reported to the moment.
According to the Ministry of foreign affairs, 3559 nationals of about 20,000 present in Thailand at the time of the disaster are missing. In addition 50 are missing in Sri Lanka, four on the Indian Andaman Islands, eight in mainland India (Kerala and Tamil Nadu), and two in Malaysia. This will probably turn out to be the greatest national tragedy in Swedish history, with the final casualty figure likely exceeding 1,000 and thus eclipsing the Estonia disaster of 1994.
The foreign ministry confirmed twelve casualties. More than 2,200 Swiss nationals are expected to have been in the affected area at the time of disaster—850 could not be contacted yet.
At least two dead, several missing and many injured. Thirty-five fishing boats from Taiwan in Phuket, Thailand, were damaged; sailors suffered minor injuries.
According to Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, there's 1 dead in Thailand, fourty-four Turks are missing in the hit areas; 27 in Thailand, 3 in India, 1 in Malaysia, 3 in Sri Lanka, 1 in Myanmar, 2 in Maldives, 7 in Indonesia. A plane, which was sent to Maldives by Turkish government to gather all the Turks in the region, returns with only 13 survivors and AKUT, a well-known Turkish search and rescue organisation that was taken there by the plane. Turkish GSM operator Turkcell announced that signals from 2,500 of its subscribers were received in the area, meaning at least 2,500 Turks were present when the disaster occurred. [10]
Over 10,000 British holidaymakers are estimated to have been in the region. 34 have been confirmed as dead by the Foreign & Commonwealth Office - of them 28 in Thailand, three in Sri Lanka and three in the Maldives; the Thai government reports 43 British deaths [11]. Richard Attenborough's 14-year-old granddaughter Lucy Holland is among the dead; her sister Alice (17) is being treated in a hospital; two other family members are missing. Fashion photographer Simon Atlee is missing; he was on holiday with his girlfriend Czech supermodel Petra Nemcova, who survived.
The U.S. Department of State reports fourteen dead (including a well-known fashion photographer, Fernando Bengoechea); out of them, seven died in Sri Lanka and seven in Thailand. Hundreds remain unaccounted for. It is understood that the key U.S./U.K. military installation at the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia was unaffected by the disaster.[12]
