Table of Contents Water Wall 4 Tsunami Central 10 Disasters in History 18 Tsunami Ahead 24 When the Waters Recede 32 Can We Stop Disaster 40 How You Can Help When Disaster Strikes 45 Glossary 46 Index 47 Show What You Know 47 Websites to Visit 47 About the Author 48
WATER WALL By 7 29 a m on December 26 2004 Jaloe had nudged his fishing boat out to sea The skies were clear in Sumatra Indonesia Suddenly Jaloe felt his boat shake The ocean looked like it was about to boil He thought the shaking and boiling were from a ghost in the water He didn't know it was an earthquake The quake measured 9.0 on the Richter scale and its epicenter was located just 50 miles 80 kilometers away The 2004 tsunami was so powerful it lifted fishing boats from the sea and dropped them on land In some areas the waves carried the wreckage almost four miles six kilometers inland YOU
Like a pebble plunking into a pond the earthquake set off a series of powerful waves called a tsunami The waves rushed toward land faster than jet plane speeds up to 500 miles 800 kilometers per hour As the waves neared shore they sounded like a jet plane too And they delivered disaster Bangladesh Burma India Thailand Malaysia Indonesia Somalia Sri Lanka Kenya Tanzania Affected areas from the 2004 Indonesia earthquake-created tsunami The tsunami’s waves traveled more than 4,000 miles 6,400 kilometers It damaged property and hurt people as far away as Africa 5
