1 00:00:02,073 --> 00:00:04,009 On Boxing Day, 2004... 2 00:00:05,464 --> 00:00:07,369 ...at 7.58am, 3 00:00:07,394 --> 00:00:10,649 an earthquake of 9.1 magnitude 4 00:00:10,674 --> 00:00:12,649 struck beneath the Indian Ocean... 5 00:00:13,904 --> 00:00:15,409 Greg, Greg! 6 00:00:15,434 --> 00:00:19,619 ...triggering one of the biggest tsunamis in recorded history. 7 00:00:19,644 --> 00:00:22,928 That wave is a good 15-20 feet tall. 8 00:00:22,953 --> 00:00:27,928 Waves flattened coastal towns across Southeast Asia. 9 00:00:27,953 --> 00:00:31,129 Within 24 hours, the tsunami had claimed 10 00:00:31,154 --> 00:00:34,798 over a quarter of a million lives, 11 00:00:34,823 --> 00:00:38,369 including those of 149 Brits. 12 00:00:40,434 --> 00:00:42,609 I'm Dr Xand van Tulleken. 13 00:00:42,634 --> 00:00:46,649 And, as a medic, I've witnessed many disasters first-hand. 14 00:00:46,674 --> 00:00:50,409 To make sense of what happened in this one, I'm following 15 00:00:50,434 --> 00:00:54,289 the progress of the devastating wave minute-by-minute. 16 00:00:54,314 --> 00:00:56,609 I'll be meeting those who were there 17 00:00:56,634 --> 00:00:59,649 to piece together exactly what happened. 18 00:00:59,674 --> 00:01:04,209 As the water came, it was basically consuming everything in its path. 19 00:01:08,514 --> 00:01:10,798 I'm Raksha Dave, and I'll be investigating 20 00:01:10,823 --> 00:01:14,359 why the earthquake and tsunami were so destructive. 21 00:01:14,384 --> 00:01:15,569 Whoa! 22 00:01:17,464 --> 00:01:21,769 Masses of material, there's, like, cars and bits of wood. 23 00:01:21,794 --> 00:01:24,928 I'm not sure how people would survive in this. 24 00:01:24,953 --> 00:01:29,649 That Hollywood image of the huge wall of water crashing down... 25 00:01:29,674 --> 00:01:31,159 ...often not the reality. 26 00:01:32,953 --> 00:01:37,769 This time, we reveal what happened as the tsunami neared the end 27 00:01:37,794 --> 00:01:41,798 of its 500 mile-an-hourjourney around the world 28 00:01:41,823 --> 00:01:44,099 over 24 hours after it began. 29 00:01:46,714 --> 00:01:51,439 We discover how advanced technology was used to get help to people. 30 00:01:53,664 --> 00:01:58,718 Find out how fishing boats at sea survived when the tsunami hit. 31 00:02:07,844 --> 00:02:11,299 And Luke Simon continues the search for his brother. 32 00:02:11,324 --> 00:02:14,279 I didn't really want to look to see if Piers might be in there, 33 00:02:14,304 --> 00:02:16,689 but I thought, you know, he could be in all of that. 34 00:02:18,914 --> 00:02:22,569 This is the tragic story of the Boxing Day Tsunami. 35 00:02:40,024 --> 00:02:44,329 It was now eight hours since a giant earthquake under the Indian Ocean 36 00:02:44,354 --> 00:02:46,609 had triggered a massive tsunami. 37 00:02:48,193 --> 00:02:51,279 And the enormous wave was still on the move. 38 00:02:56,844 --> 00:03:00,048 First, it battered the town of Banda Aceh. 39 00:03:00,073 --> 00:03:03,559 Now, that's here at the northern tip of the Indonesian island of Sumatra. 40 00:03:03,584 --> 00:03:06,048 And that's not far from the epicentre of the earthquake, 41 00:03:06,073 --> 00:03:07,048 around here. 42 00:03:08,484 --> 00:03:10,999 Then it heads north and hits Thailand, 43 00:03:11,024 --> 00:03:12,639 and then, Sri Lanka. 44 00:03:13,943 --> 00:03:18,359 Now, the ripples of the tsunami are spreading out at this point, 45 00:03:18,384 --> 00:03:20,769 and, although they've lost some of their power, 46 00:03:20,794 --> 00:03:24,409 they're still capable of inflicting serious damage 47 00:03:24,434 --> 00:03:29,329 when they reach as far as the east coast of Africa, 4,000 miles away. 48 00:03:30,834 --> 00:03:33,689 The original earthquake which caused the tsunami 49 00:03:33,714 --> 00:03:36,118 measured 9.1 magnitude. 50 00:03:38,143 --> 00:03:43,168 So enormous, that it set 30 trillion litres of water in motion. 51 00:03:45,354 --> 00:03:47,918 Even this long after the earthquake, 52 00:03:47,943 --> 00:03:51,689 the wave was still travelling at high speed. 53 00:03:51,714 --> 00:03:54,809 But every mile it covered decreased its power. 54 00:03:57,304 --> 00:04:00,129 Now, as it approached the coast of Africa, 55 00:04:00,154 --> 00:04:02,689 it hit undersea rocks and coral reefs, 56 00:04:02,714 --> 00:04:04,968 which slowed it down even more. 57 00:04:04,993 --> 00:04:08,199 That meant the waves were far smaller than those that had 58 00:04:08,224 --> 00:04:10,449 hit Thailand six-and-a-half hours earlier. 59 00:04:17,274 --> 00:04:20,279 By the time they reached the coast of Somalia, 60 00:04:20,304 --> 00:04:24,449 the waves had shrunk in size from 50 feet to 16 feet. 61 00:04:26,113 --> 00:04:30,579 But they were still powerful enough to make 50,000 people homeless 62 00:04:30,604 --> 00:04:32,709 and kill nearly 300. 63 00:04:42,863 --> 00:04:45,729 By now, in Britain and around the world, 64 00:04:45,754 --> 00:04:48,609 the tsunami was leading the news bulletins. 65 00:04:48,634 --> 00:04:50,088 NEWSREADER: Paradise lost, 66 00:04:50,113 --> 00:04:53,729 the tropical coastline smashed by nature's awesome power. 67 00:04:53,754 --> 00:04:55,809 But details were still sketchy. 68 00:04:55,834 --> 00:05:00,039 What all the news organisations desperately needed was to 69 00:05:00,064 --> 00:05:01,749 get journalists on the ground. 70 00:05:03,434 --> 00:05:06,656 They began scrambling reporters onto planes to get them out 71 00:05:06,681 --> 00:05:08,037 to Southeast Asia. 72 00:05:09,783 --> 00:05:12,957 But in Sri Lanka, in the resort of Thangool, 73 00:05:12,982 --> 00:05:17,398 one journalist was already there, caught up in the event herself. 74 00:05:19,383 --> 00:05:22,648 Katie Razzall was on her honeymoon with her husband, Oz, 75 00:05:22,673 --> 00:05:24,998 when the tsunami struck. 76 00:05:25,023 --> 00:05:27,077 What happens on Boxing Day morning? 77 00:05:27,102 --> 00:05:31,518 I went out, and the sea had come up and was, sort of, lapping. 78 00:05:31,543 --> 00:05:33,518 It just was like a mini flood. 79 00:05:33,543 --> 00:05:38,548 And then, I got knocked over by water and people shouting, 80 00:05:38,573 --> 00:05:40,678 "Get out, get out, you've got to get out!" 81 00:05:41,982 --> 00:05:45,598 And we jumped out the back, and we, sort of, ran up there. 82 00:05:45,623 --> 00:05:47,398 But there wasn't a wave following me. 83 00:05:49,182 --> 00:05:51,358 Katie and Oz were lucky. 84 00:05:51,383 --> 00:05:55,037 Their hotel was protected from the direct impact of the tsunami 85 00:05:55,062 --> 00:05:56,598 by a jutting headland. 86 00:05:57,903 --> 00:06:01,318 So, the waves they experienced were much less powerful. 87 00:06:09,102 --> 00:06:11,287 Once Katie and Oz knew they were safe, 88 00:06:11,312 --> 00:06:14,307 Katie's reporter instincts took over, and she went to 89 00:06:14,332 --> 00:06:16,208 investigate what was going on. 90 00:06:17,683 --> 00:06:22,518 So I kicked into thinking, "l've got to find out what's happening." 91 00:06:22,543 --> 00:06:26,077 We went into the town, and that was, you know, 92 00:06:26,102 --> 00:06:27,806 really horrific, really sobering. 93 00:06:27,831 --> 00:06:30,057 There was so much destruction. 94 00:06:30,082 --> 00:06:33,338 As signs that everything had been lifted up, 95 00:06:33,363 --> 00:06:37,007 a lot of it left where it was, and then, destroyed homes. 96 00:06:39,643 --> 00:06:44,957 Photographs everywhere, and just people's lives destroyed. 97 00:06:47,193 --> 00:06:50,088 And then, she noticed something else. 98 00:06:50,113 --> 00:06:52,778 When we got to the fishing port, 99 00:06:52,803 --> 00:06:55,137 there were destroyed boats there... 100 00:06:55,162 --> 00:06:57,057 But when she glanced up to see, 101 00:06:57,082 --> 00:07:00,007 the fishing boats out there seemed to be OK. 102 00:07:00,032 --> 00:07:04,057 Looking out to sea and seeing a perfectly fine fishing boat 103 00:07:04,082 --> 00:07:07,548 arriving, coming back into port with fishermen standing on it, 104 00:07:07,573 --> 00:07:10,448 that, you know, looking horrified, almost gesticulating to Heaven. 105 00:07:10,473 --> 00:07:13,698 You know, "What has happened here?" Looking at their town and just 106 00:07:13,723 --> 00:07:16,858 seeing this sea of devastation that they clearly had had no idea 107 00:07:16,883 --> 00:07:18,937 that this was happening. 108 00:07:18,962 --> 00:07:22,858 The fishermen had gone out on their daily trips earlier that morning, 109 00:07:22,883 --> 00:07:25,288 but they were returning to shocking scenes. 110 00:07:26,643 --> 00:07:30,288 Remarkably, by being out at sea, they had somehow survived 111 00:07:30,313 --> 00:07:34,057 the tsunami without even being aware it had happened. 112 00:07:35,363 --> 00:07:36,728 But how is that possible? 113 00:07:38,523 --> 00:07:41,828 What Katie witnessed happened across the Indian Ocean. 114 00:07:41,853 --> 00:07:45,368 Some fishermen who were at sea when the tsunami struck 115 00:07:45,393 --> 00:07:48,088 barely noticed the tsunami wave. 116 00:07:48,113 --> 00:07:51,778 But when they returned to shore hours later, they found their ports, 117 00:07:51,803 --> 00:07:53,538 their villages destroyed. 118 00:07:55,523 --> 00:07:59,088 That's because out at sea, the Boxing Day tsunami wave measured 119 00:07:59,113 --> 00:08:02,057 less than three feet in height. 120 00:08:02,082 --> 00:08:06,538 So, the fishing boat Katie saw was able to ride the top of the wave 121 00:08:06,563 --> 00:08:09,057 without really noticing it. 122 00:08:09,082 --> 00:08:11,257 But, as the wave got close to shore, 123 00:08:11,282 --> 00:08:14,368 the friction of the seabed slowed it down, 124 00:08:14,393 --> 00:08:18,618 allowing the water behind it to catch up and building it into 125 00:08:18,643 --> 00:08:21,418 a tower of water more than 30 feet in height. 126 00:08:23,883 --> 00:08:27,177 This phenomenon is why it's called the tsunami. 127 00:08:28,493 --> 00:08:32,057 In Japanese, the word translates as "harbour wave". 128 00:08:39,003 --> 00:08:42,338 In Thailand, which was closer to the epicentre of the quake, 129 00:08:42,363 --> 00:08:46,007 the waves were even bigger, up to 50 feet in height. 130 00:08:47,923 --> 00:08:51,208 Two of them had hit just five minutes apart, 131 00:08:51,233 --> 00:08:53,288 and then, over the next 12 hours, 132 00:08:53,313 --> 00:08:55,618 there were a series of smaller waves. 133 00:09:02,583 --> 00:09:05,277 Even this long after the initial tsunami, 134 00:09:05,302 --> 00:09:08,778 survivors still feared there might be more on the way. 135 00:09:11,643 --> 00:09:15,057 I've been following the story of Luke and his brother, Piers, 136 00:09:15,082 --> 00:09:19,098 who were in a cafe on Koh Phi Phi when the tsunami struck, 137 00:09:19,123 --> 00:09:21,208 and they were separated by the wave. 138 00:09:23,003 --> 00:09:26,368 Luke had managed to scramble to safety on a hill, 139 00:09:26,393 --> 00:09:28,618 but his brother, Piers, was still missing. 140 00:09:30,423 --> 00:09:32,398 So that night, you slept on top of a hill? 141 00:09:32,423 --> 00:09:34,988 We slept on a hill, yeah. Just in the bush? Yeah, yeah. 142 00:09:37,533 --> 00:09:39,658 So, we drifted in and out of consciousness 143 00:09:39,683 --> 00:09:41,147 throughout the night... 144 00:09:42,683 --> 00:09:45,548 ...until someone would scream a couple of hundred metres up 145 00:09:45,573 --> 00:09:47,348 on the spine of the hill. 146 00:09:47,373 --> 00:09:48,748 Even though at that point, 147 00:09:48,773 --> 00:09:51,298 I'd worked out how high we were above the sea, 148 00:09:51,323 --> 00:09:53,498 when people wake up screaming, 149 00:09:53,523 --> 00:09:55,628 your instinct is to get off the ground. 150 00:09:57,042 --> 00:09:59,748 So, that was what would happen - you'd wake out this consciousness, 151 00:09:59,773 --> 00:10:02,348 and immediately, you'd find yourself shooting up a palm tree. 152 00:10:02,373 --> 00:10:06,908 Really? Yeah, because the surface of the earth that you had been on, 153 00:10:06,933 --> 00:10:08,858 you know, 12 hours earlier, 154 00:10:08,883 --> 00:10:12,137 had suddenly turned into a very different place 155 00:10:12,162 --> 00:10:14,267 with water and debris. 156 00:10:16,493 --> 00:10:20,348 That experience was actually worse than the real tsunami, 157 00:10:20,373 --> 00:10:23,548 cos when the real tsunami struck, we didn't know what was going on. 158 00:10:23,573 --> 00:10:28,238 But up in that hill, we felt like it was almost a bit of a waiting game, 159 00:10:28,263 --> 00:10:32,648 and you had the knowledge of, you know, what might be coming. 160 00:10:32,673 --> 00:10:34,318 And so, that's what made it scary. 161 00:10:44,182 --> 00:10:47,518 Back home in the UK, more details about the disaster 162 00:10:47,543 --> 00:10:49,128 were beginning to come through. 163 00:10:50,623 --> 00:10:52,407 Good afternoon. Thousands are dead. 164 00:10:52,432 --> 00:10:55,157 Millions more have lost everything in a massive earthquake 165 00:10:55,182 --> 00:10:56,798 in Southeast Asia. 166 00:10:56,823 --> 00:10:58,698 At their home in Somerset, 167 00:10:58,723 --> 00:11:02,048 Luke's parents had no idea what had happened to their sons. 168 00:11:03,513 --> 00:11:07,048 But they were about to get a call from the other side of the world. 169 00:11:16,342 --> 00:11:20,088 It was now 13 hours since the tsunami began, 170 00:11:20,113 --> 00:11:22,648 and it was still speeding around the world. 171 00:11:28,553 --> 00:11:32,367 The energy released by the undersea earthquake, 172 00:11:32,392 --> 00:11:36,237 equivalent to 23,000 atomic bombs, 173 00:11:36,262 --> 00:11:39,928 was raising sea levels as far afield as South Africa, 174 00:11:39,953 --> 00:11:42,848 5,000 miles away. 175 00:11:42,873 --> 00:11:47,088 Waves struck Cape Town and towns and villages along the coast. 176 00:11:47,113 --> 00:11:49,641 Although they weren't big enough to cause much damage, 177 00:11:49,666 --> 00:11:52,034 the sea level rose by two feet, 178 00:11:52,059 --> 00:11:55,313 and eight swimmers were killed in the turbulent waters. 179 00:11:59,949 --> 00:12:04,004 At home in Somerset, Celia and Henry Simon had no idea 180 00:12:04,029 --> 00:12:06,363 what had happened to their sons, Luke and Piers, 181 00:12:06,388 --> 00:12:07,874 who were in Thailand. 182 00:12:16,779 --> 00:12:20,674 Luke, captured here in news footage from the time, had not been able 183 00:12:20,699 --> 00:12:22,483 to get through to his parents. 184 00:12:24,508 --> 00:12:29,804 At this stage, most people in the UK didn't have any idea of 185 00:12:29,829 --> 00:12:32,674 the whereabouts of their loved ones. 186 00:12:32,699 --> 00:12:36,563 I can only imagine the stress and anxiety, and helplessness 187 00:12:36,588 --> 00:12:38,363 that Luke's parents were feeling. 188 00:12:38,388 --> 00:12:40,844 I mean, at least Luke knew that he was alive, 189 00:12:40,869 --> 00:12:42,394 and that his brother was missing - 190 00:12:42,419 --> 00:12:44,924 but his parents didn't know what was going on at all. 191 00:12:47,588 --> 00:12:51,394 Hello, Xand, nice to see you. Come on in. Thank you, Celia. 192 00:12:51,419 --> 00:12:54,924 I had the radio on in the bedroom, and they just said about 193 00:12:54,949 --> 00:12:58,514 this tsunami, which was going across Asia, and I thought, 194 00:12:58,539 --> 00:13:00,124 "Oh, my goodness." 195 00:13:00,149 --> 00:13:03,724 And then, they happened to say that it had devastated Phi Phi, 196 00:13:03,749 --> 00:13:06,394 and of course, I was like this, "Oh, my gosh!" 197 00:13:06,419 --> 00:13:09,514 And I screamed to Henry, and I said, you know, "Come in, quick." 198 00:13:09,539 --> 00:13:11,313 And that was it, really, wasn't it? 199 00:13:11,338 --> 00:13:15,204 We put on the television and just waited, and waited and waited. 200 00:13:15,229 --> 00:13:20,233 And did you know what a tsunami was at that point? No, no. 201 00:13:20,258 --> 00:13:24,284 And you were trying to get hold of Piers, trying to get hold of Luke, 202 00:13:24,309 --> 00:13:26,644 weren't you? And we couldn't get though. 203 00:13:26,669 --> 00:13:30,124 And we tried to register with the official missing persons line, 204 00:13:30,149 --> 00:13:31,684 and didn't get through. 205 00:13:39,588 --> 00:13:43,794 Having better luck getting news home was Shenth Ravindra. 206 00:13:43,819 --> 00:13:48,284 When the tsunami derailed the train he was travelling on in Sri Lanka, 207 00:13:48,309 --> 00:13:51,794 he was one of only a handful of survivors 208 00:13:51,819 --> 00:13:54,563 from the 1,700 people on board. 209 00:13:56,069 --> 00:13:58,124 In the hours since the disaster, 210 00:13:58,149 --> 00:14:01,233 he had managed to walk inland away from the water, 211 00:14:01,258 --> 00:14:02,724 and by mid-afternoon, 212 00:14:02,749 --> 00:14:05,764 he'd reached the safety of a farm five miles away. 213 00:14:07,749 --> 00:14:10,794 What happened when you arrived at the farm? Did you feel relieved? 214 00:14:10,819 --> 00:14:12,724 Did you feel safe? Yeah. 215 00:14:12,749 --> 00:14:14,583 So, the farm was dry. 216 00:14:14,608 --> 00:14:16,784 The water hadn't reached it, which told me 217 00:14:16,809 --> 00:14:19,724 that if this happened again, we were probably in a safe place. 218 00:14:19,749 --> 00:14:23,514 The water travelled two-and-a-half miles inland, 219 00:14:23,539 --> 00:14:26,874 taking down phone lines and all forms of communication 220 00:14:26,899 --> 00:14:28,433 from the disaster zone. 221 00:14:28,458 --> 00:14:31,074 But here at the farm, beyond the waterline, 222 00:14:31,099 --> 00:14:33,683 the phone and the TV were still working. 223 00:14:33,708 --> 00:14:39,154 They had CNN on the TV, and there was reports of a tsunami 224 00:14:39,179 --> 00:14:42,233 in Banda Aceh, in Indonesia. 225 00:14:45,179 --> 00:14:47,764 And I remember looking at that, thinking, 226 00:14:47,789 --> 00:14:50,844 "Could that be what I just experienced?" 227 00:14:50,869 --> 00:14:54,874 And then, I think it was later that day I actually saw 228 00:14:54,899 --> 00:14:56,204 the train on the news. 229 00:14:57,508 --> 00:15:00,563 And I thought to myself, "Hang on a minute, I was on that train." 230 00:15:04,539 --> 00:15:08,563 Terrified that his family would see the news and worry about him, 231 00:15:08,588 --> 00:15:13,324 Shenth was desperate to get a message back home to the UK. 232 00:15:13,349 --> 00:15:16,644 He used the phone at the farm to call the British Embassy in Colombo. 233 00:15:18,179 --> 00:15:22,124 Got through to somebody there, and said that I was on this train. 234 00:15:22,149 --> 00:15:25,074 "Can you get a message to my mum who's in London?" 235 00:15:25,099 --> 00:15:26,764 She didn't know about the tsunami, 236 00:15:26,789 --> 00:15:29,924 and she had a message waiting for her saying that "your son's fine", 237 00:15:29,949 --> 00:15:32,644 so there was no worry factor from her perspective. Wow. 238 00:15:45,739 --> 00:15:49,603 By now, the power of the tsunami was fading. 239 00:15:49,628 --> 00:15:52,074 It had made it all the way to Australia, 240 00:15:52,099 --> 00:15:55,324 where boats were pulled from their moorings. 241 00:15:55,349 --> 00:15:58,874 But it was no longer the terrifying force it had once been. 242 00:16:02,349 --> 00:16:06,563 This was now one of the most devastating tsunamis ever. 243 00:16:06,588 --> 00:16:09,964 But parts of Southeast Asia have a long history of tsunamis, 244 00:16:09,989 --> 00:16:13,324 and Raksha has gone to find out about one of the most famous. 245 00:16:16,429 --> 00:16:20,433 I'm meeting volcanologist Amber Madden-Nadeau to find out 246 00:16:20,458 --> 00:16:25,324 about the last big tsunami that hit this area of Southeast Asia. 247 00:16:25,349 --> 00:16:27,794 It happened nearly 150 years ago 248 00:16:27,819 --> 00:16:30,563 along the same geological fault line. 249 00:16:31,989 --> 00:16:34,654 The Boxing Day Tsunami isn't the first time there's been 250 00:16:34,679 --> 00:16:36,424 a tsunami in this region, is there? 251 00:16:36,449 --> 00:16:40,714 No, one of the most famous instances of a tsunami was generated by 252 00:16:40,739 --> 00:16:43,244 the 1883 eruption of Krakatoa. 253 00:16:43,269 --> 00:16:48,924 The main phase of this eruption occurred on 26 and 27 August, 1883. 254 00:16:48,949 --> 00:16:51,884 Unlike the 2004 tsunami, which was triggered 255 00:16:51,909 --> 00:16:53,433 by an undersea earthquake, 256 00:16:53,458 --> 00:16:57,404 the wave in 1883 was caused by something very different... 257 00:16:59,588 --> 00:17:01,453 ...a volcanic eruption. 258 00:17:05,009 --> 00:17:10,154 When the volcano erupted, it threw millions of tonnes of debris, ash, 259 00:17:10,179 --> 00:17:12,794 rock and lava into the ocean, 260 00:17:12,819 --> 00:17:14,964 displacing the sea water, 261 00:17:14,989 --> 00:17:16,844 causing a tsunami. 262 00:17:19,269 --> 00:17:23,524 About 1,000 of the death toll was generated by the eruption itself, 263 00:17:23,549 --> 00:17:27,563 but the majority of deaths - $035,000 - 264 00:17:27,588 --> 00:17:30,204 was from the subsequent tsunamis. 265 00:17:30,229 --> 00:17:32,204 And it wasn't just one big tsunami. 266 00:17:32,229 --> 00:17:34,603 There were around 18 waves in total. 267 00:17:35,989 --> 00:17:39,964 This death toll was only a fraction of the quarter of a million people 268 00:17:39,989 --> 00:17:42,524 killed by the Boxing Day Tsunami. 269 00:17:42,549 --> 00:17:45,164 But just like the 2004 disaster, 270 00:17:45,189 --> 00:17:48,553 this one also hit the international headlines. 271 00:17:48,578 --> 00:17:51,964 Krakatoa was one of the first international news stories - 272 00:17:51,989 --> 00:17:55,274 thanks to recently-laid undersea telegraph cables 273 00:17:55,299 --> 00:17:57,844 connecting Southeast Asia to Europe, 274 00:17:57,869 --> 00:18:00,764 bulletins now took hours, rather than weeks, 275 00:18:00,789 --> 00:18:02,634 to travel across the world. 276 00:18:02,659 --> 00:18:06,433 You could read about this eruption in London the next day. 277 00:18:06,458 --> 00:18:09,964 So, see, an example of one of the first global news events. 278 00:18:09,989 --> 00:18:12,324 And it's actually why we call it "Krakatoa", as well. 279 00:18:12,349 --> 00:18:15,353 The name of the volcano is actually "Krakatau". 280 00:18:15,378 --> 00:18:16,994 Oh, hang on! 281 00:18:17,019 --> 00:18:20,623 I've been saying it wrong for all this time?! Yes. 282 00:18:20,648 --> 00:18:23,764 One of the first Telegraph reports had a typo in it. 283 00:18:23,789 --> 00:18:27,353 And that's why it's persisted, in the West, that the volcano 284 00:18:27,378 --> 00:18:28,634 is called "Krakatoa", 285 00:18:28,659 --> 00:18:30,433 but it's actually "Krakatau". 286 00:18:39,628 --> 00:18:43,603 Almost a day after the earthquake caused the tsunami, 287 00:18:43,628 --> 00:18:46,464 the energy in the wave was much reduced - 288 00:18:46,489 --> 00:18:51,044 but it was still capable of raising tides and causing freak 289 00:18:51,069 --> 00:18:55,274 waves as far afield as Brazil, 9,000 miles away. 290 00:18:55,299 --> 00:19:00,164 As dawn broke across the ocean on the morning of 27 December, 291 00:19:00,189 --> 00:19:04,194 the tsunami itself was over - but the disaster wasn't. 292 00:19:04,219 --> 00:19:08,524 This was just the beginning of a hugely traumatic process, 293 00:19:08,549 --> 00:19:11,834 the recovery operation, the search for survivors 294 00:19:11,859 --> 00:19:14,194 and the identification of bodies. 295 00:19:19,789 --> 00:19:23,524 On Koh Phi Phi in Thailand, Luke Simon and other survivors 296 00:19:23,549 --> 00:19:25,764 had spent the night on a hilltop 297 00:19:25,789 --> 00:19:28,834 away from the worst of the devastation. 298 00:19:28,859 --> 00:19:30,884 We stayed there until first light, 299 00:19:30,909 --> 00:19:33,164 and then, I wanted to get down 300 00:19:33,189 --> 00:19:35,444 because I wanted to carry on looking for Piers. 301 00:19:35,469 --> 00:19:38,194 And so, I said to the others, "Come on, I want to get down." 302 00:19:40,628 --> 00:19:44,573 We went back to the cafe we were in because I had this daft idea that 303 00:19:44,598 --> 00:19:47,553 our bags might still be in the corner. 304 00:19:47,578 --> 00:19:50,553 What was absolutely staggering in that cafe is that there was 305 00:19:50,578 --> 00:19:51,723 no paint on the walls. 306 00:19:51,748 --> 00:19:54,114 I mean, the water had just stripped everything. 307 00:19:54,139 --> 00:19:55,603 It was just a shell. 308 00:19:55,628 --> 00:19:59,603 I didn't really want to look to see if Piers might be in there, 309 00:19:59,628 --> 00:20:02,353 but I thought, you know, he could be in all of that. 310 00:20:03,859 --> 00:20:06,754 And at that point, I still had my mobile phone in my pocket, 311 00:20:06,779 --> 00:20:08,164 and very little coverage. 312 00:20:08,189 --> 00:20:11,104 Of course, all of the networks were down. 313 00:20:11,129 --> 00:20:13,683 I tried to get hold of Mum and Dad. I couldn't get through. 314 00:20:13,708 --> 00:20:16,444 I sent them a text, and it wasn't terribly clear. 315 00:20:16,469 --> 00:20:20,683 I think it just said, "Five of us OK, we've lost P." 316 00:20:20,708 --> 00:20:22,444 And that's all I could get through, 317 00:20:22,469 --> 00:20:24,803 so that would have been an awful text to receive. 318 00:20:32,269 --> 00:20:36,964 In the UK, Celia and Henry received the garbled message from Luke, 319 00:20:36,989 --> 00:20:40,553 but they still didn't have a clear idea if the boys were OK. 320 00:20:41,828 --> 00:20:44,084 We were on tenterhooks the whole time. 321 00:20:44,109 --> 00:20:47,274 I remember doing Boxing Day lunch for my mum and my sister, 322 00:20:47,299 --> 00:20:52,084 and her partner, and my mum looked really worried. 323 00:20:52,109 --> 00:20:55,244 And, when we sat down to lunch, I said, "Let's just all pray, 324 00:20:55,269 --> 00:20:58,553 "hold hands and pray, and pray that they're going to be all right." 325 00:20:58,578 --> 00:21:03,644 When you went to bed on Boxing Day, you didn't actually go to bed. 326 00:21:03,669 --> 00:21:04,884 We didn't go to bed. 327 00:21:04,909 --> 00:21:07,723 We just sat up all night watching the television. 328 00:21:07,748 --> 00:21:10,634 Unable to get another message through to his parents, 329 00:21:10,659 --> 00:21:13,034 Luke tried a different tack. 330 00:21:13,059 --> 00:21:16,004 I was able to get a phone call through to my work colleague 331 00:21:16,029 --> 00:21:18,553 who had gone home to Australia, and I explained the situation. 332 00:21:18,578 --> 00:21:20,324 I said, "l can't get through to Mum and Dad, 333 00:21:20,349 --> 00:21:23,084 "please can you ring them up - this is their phone number - 334 00:21:23,109 --> 00:21:25,324 "and relay this information back to them." 335 00:21:32,299 --> 00:21:34,854 And how were you feeling at that point? 336 00:21:34,879 --> 00:21:36,264 Like anybody, I suppose. 337 00:21:36,289 --> 00:21:40,084 Absolutely frantic, because we just wanted to know, you know, 338 00:21:40,109 --> 00:21:42,364 what was happening out there. You felt helpless. 339 00:21:42,389 --> 00:21:45,524 We felt helpless here, absolutely, 340 00:21:45,549 --> 00:21:47,914 because we just couldn't seem to get any answers. 341 00:21:49,909 --> 00:21:54,084 In Thailand, Luke was now one of thousands hunting for 342 00:21:54,109 --> 00:21:55,644 friends and relatives, 343 00:21:55,669 --> 00:21:58,524 but even the survivors weren't out of danger. 344 00:21:58,549 --> 00:22:02,964 They urgently needed food, clean drinking water, and medicines. 345 00:22:02,989 --> 00:22:06,314 It was now a race against time to get supplies into 346 00:22:06,339 --> 00:22:08,364 the devastated areas, 347 00:22:08,389 --> 00:22:11,004 and to find out where help was most needed, 348 00:22:11,029 --> 00:22:13,803 rescuers turned to something unexpected. 349 00:22:22,979 --> 00:22:27,234 24 hours after the earthquake and tsunami, the sea had calmed, 350 00:22:27,259 --> 00:22:30,284 but the devastation it had left behind was horrifying. 351 00:22:38,559 --> 00:22:41,943 Now, I've worked in major disasters, and, of course, injured people 352 00:22:41,968 --> 00:22:44,894 immediately need first aid - but as well as that, 353 00:22:44,919 --> 00:22:48,144 if your village or town has been completely destroyed, 354 00:22:48,169 --> 00:22:50,943 just about everything needs replacing immediately. 355 00:22:50,968 --> 00:22:55,584 But one of the biggest problems early on, was for rescue parties 356 00:22:55,609 --> 00:22:59,974 to try and figure out how to get aid in to the worst-affected areas. 357 00:23:02,758 --> 00:23:07,584 In 2004, the problem was finding out where the help was most needed. 358 00:23:09,249 --> 00:23:13,704 And to do this, the rescuers turned to an unexpected place for help - 359 00:23:13,729 --> 00:23:16,733 the worldwide space agencies. 360 00:23:16,758 --> 00:23:19,504 It's not just on this coastline here, because it impacts on 361 00:23:19,529 --> 00:23:21,304 the smaller islands, as well. 362 00:23:21,329 --> 00:23:25,613 I'm meeting Emily Gravestock from the UK Space Agency to find out how 363 00:23:25,638 --> 00:23:29,863 satellite technology helped emergency services on the ground. 364 00:23:29,888 --> 00:23:32,894 We relied on very high-resolution imagery to people on the ground, 365 00:23:32,919 --> 00:23:36,584 to those rescuers, to allow them to identify which roads were blocked, 366 00:23:36,609 --> 00:23:38,334 which bridges had been washed away, 367 00:23:38,359 --> 00:23:40,943 to allow the local authorities to have the information. 368 00:23:40,968 --> 00:23:43,304 If you can get to this hospital from this point, 369 00:23:43,329 --> 00:23:44,584 you can't get to others. 370 00:23:44,609 --> 00:23:47,254 Because one of the great things we can provide is that comparison. 371 00:23:47,279 --> 00:23:49,863 What was it like yesterday, and what's it like today? 372 00:23:49,888 --> 00:23:53,943 In 2004, using satellite technology to help in disaster zones 373 00:23:53,968 --> 00:23:57,504 was relatively new - and the Boxing Day tsunami 374 00:23:57,529 --> 00:24:01,224 was the biggest test yet of its capabilities. 375 00:24:01,249 --> 00:24:05,454 Space organisations from around the world responded by providing 376 00:24:05,479 --> 00:24:10,584 their satellites to capture images of affected areas. 377 00:24:10,609 --> 00:24:12,983 What we do when we get those calls is we look at what imagery 378 00:24:13,008 --> 00:24:14,304 is already available, 379 00:24:14,329 --> 00:24:17,504 and we look at what satellites can be twisted slightly to provide 380 00:24:17,529 --> 00:24:20,224 different images that will be helpful in this recovery. 381 00:24:20,249 --> 00:24:23,144 This image is of Banda Aceh, in Indonesia - 382 00:24:23,169 --> 00:24:25,784 the first place the tsunami had hit. 383 00:24:25,809 --> 00:24:29,014 Here's one of the images that was pulled up that was actually taken 384 00:24:29,039 --> 00:24:30,733 in June, before the disaster struck. 385 00:24:30,758 --> 00:24:34,174 And you can see the individual properties, the trees, the roads. 386 00:24:34,199 --> 00:24:37,254 You can see the different aspects of that individual town. 387 00:24:37,279 --> 00:24:40,624 It just looks like a normal city town, doesn't it, 388 00:24:40,649 --> 00:24:42,454 from an aerial? Absolutely. 389 00:24:42,479 --> 00:24:45,504 And then, you come to this one, which was taken on 28 December, 390 00:24:45,529 --> 00:24:48,454 and some of the things that you can identify, that's really helpful 391 00:24:48,479 --> 00:24:51,454 for rescuers, there's a large building there. 392 00:24:51,479 --> 00:24:54,863 If you flick back to the original, that's still standing. 393 00:24:54,888 --> 00:24:58,624 But the road network that's around it has all been knocked out. 394 00:24:58,649 --> 00:25:00,894 You can see different flooded areas. 395 00:25:00,919 --> 00:25:03,294 You can see that there are piles of debris. 396 00:25:03,319 --> 00:25:06,584 As somebody who's on the ground looking to do recovery, 397 00:25:06,609 --> 00:25:10,813 to help people, understanding what the situation was and what it is now 398 00:25:10,838 --> 00:25:13,254 and where you might find people and things - 399 00:25:13,279 --> 00:25:15,224 things like that are absolutely vital. 400 00:25:15,249 --> 00:25:18,784 That is quite incredible, isn't it, when you look at the after image? 401 00:25:18,809 --> 00:25:22,504 Another image of Banda Aceh shows how the extent of the flooding 402 00:25:22,529 --> 00:25:25,014 had wiped out entire areas of the city. 403 00:25:26,319 --> 00:25:28,504 So this is the 2003 image, 404 00:25:28,529 --> 00:25:30,704 and you can see the bridge is completely intact. 405 00:25:30,729 --> 00:25:35,144 And then, 29 December, 2004, the bridge is no longer intact. 406 00:25:35,169 --> 00:25:37,894 The contrast is so stark on that image, 407 00:25:37,919 --> 00:25:40,374 it's absolutely terrifying to look at. 408 00:25:40,399 --> 00:25:43,863 You can also see some of the water courses that existed in the original 409 00:25:43,888 --> 00:25:46,424 image have suddenly enlarged because they flooded, 410 00:25:46,449 --> 00:25:48,094 and the flooding's not gone away. 411 00:25:51,479 --> 00:25:54,813 While rescuers were using the satellite images to work out 412 00:25:54,838 --> 00:25:56,344 how to get help in, 413 00:25:56,369 --> 00:25:59,833 news organisations were also struggling to get reporters 414 00:25:59,858 --> 00:26:01,374 to the devastated areas. 415 00:26:09,529 --> 00:26:12,454 Journalist Katie Razzall had been on her honeymoon 416 00:26:12,479 --> 00:26:14,654 in Sri Lanka when the tsunami hit. 417 00:26:14,679 --> 00:26:18,733 Now, three clays on, her holiday turned into a news assignment. 418 00:26:18,758 --> 00:26:22,063 I got a call from the foreign editor at Channel 4 News. 419 00:26:22,088 --> 00:26:24,784 She said, "We're going to be reporting from Sri Lanka. 420 00:26:24,809 --> 00:26:27,624 "And if you want to do it, that's your choice." 421 00:26:27,649 --> 00:26:29,294 And I said, "Yes, I would like to." 422 00:26:29,319 --> 00:26:31,504 And they flew a cameraman out. 423 00:26:31,529 --> 00:26:36,374 Katie needed transport to cover the story, so she called a driver 424 00:26:36,399 --> 00:26:38,574 she'd hired a few clays earlier. 425 00:26:39,758 --> 00:26:43,344 We later found out that the driver... 426 00:26:43,369 --> 00:26:45,533 ...his grandmother had died in the tsunami. 427 00:26:45,558 --> 00:26:48,533 His house had been destroyed in the tsunami, and he had still 428 00:26:48,558 --> 00:26:50,692 turned up to pick us up. 429 00:26:51,967 --> 00:26:55,303 Katie and the crew managed to get to a town on the coast 430 00:26:55,328 --> 00:26:56,583 to film a report. 431 00:26:58,198 --> 00:27:01,413 What's left of beachfront Hambantota, 432 00:27:01,438 --> 00:27:04,503 1,000 bodies recovered so far. 433 00:27:04,528 --> 00:27:06,692 I think it was just being a journalist, I thought, 434 00:27:06,717 --> 00:27:08,613 "l need to find out what's happening." 435 00:27:08,638 --> 00:27:11,702 This is how I understand the world, is through reporting it, usually, 436 00:27:11,727 --> 00:27:14,343 and I think I just went into that default mode. 437 00:27:14,368 --> 00:27:19,103 You can see how high the ocean rose up, sweeping tiles off that house, 438 00:27:19,128 --> 00:27:22,343 throwing this boat up onto the roof of this house. 439 00:27:22,368 --> 00:27:24,793 There was a Sunday market going on just over there. 440 00:27:24,818 --> 00:27:27,393 Thousands of people in this area, the sea coming in, 441 00:27:27,418 --> 00:27:30,032 destroying everything as far as the eye can see. 442 00:27:30,057 --> 00:27:33,463 Within minutes, lives and businesses washed away. 443 00:27:35,438 --> 00:27:39,233 There's just lots of things that I hope I'll never see again. 444 00:27:39,258 --> 00:27:43,233 Reports by Katie and other news teams brought the horror of the 445 00:27:43,258 --> 00:27:46,343 tsunami into homes across the world. 446 00:27:46,368 --> 00:27:50,902 And soon, questions were being asked about how tsunami-prone areas 447 00:27:50,927 --> 00:27:53,313 could be made safer. 448 00:27:53,338 --> 00:27:55,433 Raksha has gone to find out. 449 00:27:56,618 --> 00:27:59,822 I've come to Europe's largest tsunami simulator in Wallingford, 450 00:27:59,847 --> 00:28:03,543 Oxfordshire, to meet Professor Tiziana Rossetto, 451 00:28:03,568 --> 00:28:06,103 an expert on coastal defences. 452 00:28:06,128 --> 00:28:10,183 Why can't we just build defences or sea walls to stop these huge 453 00:28:10,208 --> 00:28:13,743 tsunamis from hitting into these coastal areas? 454 00:28:13,768 --> 00:28:16,873 So, we can, but they have to be massive. 455 00:28:16,898 --> 00:28:21,313 A normal sea wall is designed for storm waves, and they happen much 456 00:28:21,338 --> 00:28:22,983 more frequently than a tsunami, 457 00:28:23,008 --> 00:28:25,543 which might happen every 200 years or so. 458 00:28:25,568 --> 00:28:29,983 This 150-foot long tank is used by scientists to test out different 459 00:28:30,008 --> 00:28:33,253 ways of protecting coastal towns from the sea. 460 00:28:33,278 --> 00:28:36,233 It can create all types of waves in miniature. 461 00:28:36,258 --> 00:28:40,543 Tiziana has set up an experiment to show me how sea walls cope 462 00:28:40,568 --> 00:28:42,743 against tsunami waves. 463 00:28:42,768 --> 00:28:47,183 This miniature version would be almost ten feet high in real life. 464 00:28:47,208 --> 00:28:50,463 It would be very visible if you went to the seaside and saw it, 465 00:28:50,488 --> 00:28:55,183 even though it doesn't look very impressive in the scale model. 466 00:28:55,208 --> 00:28:57,793 What we're going to see is a tsunami with a wave height 467 00:28:57,818 --> 00:28:59,842 of around five metres coming in, 468 00:28:59,867 --> 00:29:02,172 so let's see how it fares. 469 00:29:02,197 --> 00:29:06,313 And bear in mind, our tsunami was over 30 feet high. 470 00:29:07,458 --> 00:29:09,793 So that's the sea wall, and as you can see, 471 00:29:09,818 --> 00:29:11,993 the water's starting to overtop it. 472 00:29:12,018 --> 00:29:14,263 It's not stopping the water anymore. 473 00:29:16,688 --> 00:29:19,873 And the tsunami wave keeps coming and coming, and coming. 474 00:29:19,898 --> 00:29:21,543 It's like a very, very long flow. 475 00:29:21,568 --> 00:29:25,263 It's like as though it's not even there. Exactly. 476 00:29:25,288 --> 00:29:26,983 The wave doesn't see it. 477 00:29:28,128 --> 00:29:31,353 And now, it's completely engulfed all of those houses, hasn't it? 478 00:29:31,378 --> 00:29:33,183 Absolutely. 479 00:29:33,208 --> 00:29:36,383 Even high sea walls can't protect against tsunamis. 480 00:29:36,408 --> 00:29:39,152 And sometimes, they can add to the problem. 481 00:29:39,177 --> 00:29:43,623 If anything, sometimes when a sea wall breaks, it can be worse 482 00:29:43,648 --> 00:29:46,233 because the water will have accumulated at the front, 483 00:29:46,258 --> 00:29:49,902 and then, is released as a big bore onto the houses behind. 484 00:29:49,927 --> 00:29:51,543 And this is actually worse. 485 00:29:51,568 --> 00:29:54,463 It's a stronger force and can be more devastating. 486 00:29:55,927 --> 00:29:59,233 Even if sea walls had been in place in 2004, 487 00:29:59,258 --> 00:30:03,463 they wouldn't have protected people from the force of the tsunami. 488 00:30:03,488 --> 00:30:07,663 The only effective escape route is to head to higher ground. 489 00:30:07,688 --> 00:30:10,022 But to give people time to do this, 490 00:30:10,047 --> 00:30:13,072 early warning systems are needed. 491 00:30:13,097 --> 00:30:17,272 In 2004, before widespread mobile communications, 492 00:30:17,297 --> 00:30:20,152 those systems just weren't in place, 493 00:30:20,177 --> 00:30:25,633 which allowed the tsunami to claim hundreds of thousands of lives. 494 00:30:28,018 --> 00:30:30,593 In the UK, reports about the tsunami 495 00:30:30,618 --> 00:30:35,183 were watched by millions who were glued to the 24-hour rolling news. 496 00:30:42,378 --> 00:30:45,893 Celia and Henry had now been waiting for news of their missing son, 497 00:30:45,918 --> 00:30:47,543 Piers, for four days. 498 00:30:47,568 --> 00:30:49,942 His brother, Luke, was still searching for him. 499 00:30:49,967 --> 00:30:52,743 You've got lots of people coming around, Piers' friends, as well. 500 00:30:52,768 --> 00:30:54,233 What happens from there? 501 00:30:54,258 --> 00:30:57,822 Yes. 502 00:30:57,847 --> 00:31:00,072 Who do you mean? The media. 503 00:31:00,097 --> 00:31:03,383 Once the news broke out that he was missing, 504 00:31:03,408 --> 00:31:06,353 it was just constant, wasn't it? 505 00:31:10,608 --> 00:31:13,873 Trying to keep on top of all the information that they needed, 506 00:31:13,898 --> 00:31:17,633 Henry started writing everything down in notebooks. 507 00:31:34,888 --> 00:31:40,203 Yeah. 508 00:32:16,967 --> 00:32:19,553 Yeah. 509 00:32:21,488 --> 00:32:23,942 Well, you know, it's out there. 510 00:32:23,967 --> 00:32:27,822 And during this time, Luke got in touch with us and said, 511 00:32:27,847 --> 00:32:31,142 "Oh, they'd been to the hospital in the morgue, 512 00:32:31,167 --> 00:32:34,223 "and they wanted dental records." 513 00:32:34,248 --> 00:32:36,863 This is getting close to any parent's nightmare - 514 00:32:36,888 --> 00:32:40,503 going to your dentist to get dental records 515 00:32:40,528 --> 00:32:42,633 to start identifying bodies. Yeah. 516 00:32:44,408 --> 00:32:48,713 As his parents hunted for Piers' dental records, in Thailand, 517 00:32:48,738 --> 00:32:52,223 Luke was still desperately hoping he'd find his brother. 518 00:33:12,008 --> 00:33:15,953 By New Year's Eve, five clays had passed since the tsunami, 519 00:33:15,978 --> 00:33:18,983 and the world's biggest-ever rescue operation was under way 520 00:33:19,008 --> 00:33:20,783 across Southeast Asia. 521 00:33:22,448 --> 00:33:25,312 In Koh Phi Phi and other affected areas, 522 00:33:25,337 --> 00:33:28,923 emergency relief efforts were largely successful, 523 00:33:28,948 --> 00:33:32,392 unlike previous disasters of this magnitude. 524 00:33:32,417 --> 00:33:35,392 Almost nobody died of outbreaks of disease, 525 00:33:35,417 --> 00:33:37,863 lack of clean water, or starvation. 526 00:33:37,888 --> 00:33:42,473 And that was true even on remote islands off India and Indonesia, 527 00:33:42,498 --> 00:33:45,423 thanks in part to satellite technology. 528 00:33:47,448 --> 00:33:49,673 But as the clean-up continued, 529 00:33:49,698 --> 00:33:52,833 the death toll rose as bodies were being recovered, 530 00:33:52,858 --> 00:33:56,033 and the grisly process of identification began. 531 00:34:03,568 --> 00:34:07,473 Luke Simon had now spent five desperate clays hunting for 532 00:34:07,498 --> 00:34:08,903 his brother, Piers. 533 00:34:08,928 --> 00:34:13,423 NEWSREADER: Maybe, just maybe, someone will recognise Piers' face. 534 00:34:13,448 --> 00:34:17,392 On New Year's Eve, his search led him to a temple that had been turned 535 00:34:17,417 --> 00:34:19,033 into a makeshift morgue. 536 00:34:19,058 --> 00:34:23,233 The bodies were laid out on a marble floor in 35-degree heat 537 00:34:23,258 --> 00:34:24,903 with plastic sheeting over them. 538 00:34:24,928 --> 00:34:27,623 So, the smell...was just horrendous. 539 00:34:27,648 --> 00:34:31,262 And then, we sat down to watch a slide show of dead bodies. 540 00:34:31,287 --> 00:34:33,142 But you didn't have to look at everybody. 541 00:34:33,167 --> 00:34:35,635 If a body had a green T-shirt on, I didn't look at it, 542 00:34:35,660 --> 00:34:37,155 cos Piers had a red T-shirt on. 543 00:34:37,180 --> 00:34:39,596 And so I'd glance, "no, not that one," you'd wait, 544 00:34:39,621 --> 00:34:42,476 4-5 images, you'd look at the next one. "No, that's not..." 545 00:34:42,501 --> 00:34:45,396 And we got to body 348, and it was a red Oakley T-shirt 546 00:34:45,421 --> 00:34:48,206 that Piers had had on, and I said, "That's Piers." 547 00:34:50,180 --> 00:34:52,586 And then, there were 4-5 photographs. 548 00:34:52,611 --> 00:34:56,776 There was one of his watch, one of his phone, one of his passport. 549 00:34:59,441 --> 00:35:01,385 So, I said, "l want to go and see Piers," 550 00:35:01,410 --> 00:35:04,816 and this forensic lady, she said, "l won't let you. 551 00:35:04,841 --> 00:35:07,866 "This doesn't need to be the last memory you have of your brother." 552 00:35:07,891 --> 00:35:11,226 How did you feel in that moment? 553 00:35:11,251 --> 00:35:12,536 I think I... 554 00:35:12,561 --> 00:35:15,055 My approach to all of it was that it was a job. 555 00:35:15,080 --> 00:35:17,776 It was a task that I had to do. 556 00:35:17,801 --> 00:35:21,586 And the task wasn't over when we found Piers. 557 00:35:21,611 --> 00:35:24,055 The task, to some extent, was only just beginning. 558 00:35:26,971 --> 00:35:30,255 Luke then had to break the news to his parents. 559 00:35:31,410 --> 00:35:36,255 I answered the phone, and he said, "Mum," he said, "We found him." 560 00:35:36,280 --> 00:35:38,586 And I said, "Right, OK..." 561 00:35:40,160 --> 00:35:44,456 And we looked at one another and we said, "He searched for his brother. 562 00:35:44,481 --> 00:35:46,776 "It's up to him what happens." 563 00:35:46,801 --> 00:35:50,416 But deep down, I really wanted him to come home. 564 00:35:50,441 --> 00:35:54,385 And...so he said, "l want to bring him home." 565 00:35:55,801 --> 00:35:57,896 And we said, "That's fantastic." 566 00:35:59,361 --> 00:36:01,336 "That's really lovely." 567 00:36:03,361 --> 00:36:07,896 I mean, that's a very difficult phone call for him and for you. 568 00:36:07,921 --> 00:36:11,946 I think, in a way, that was a relief that we'd actually found him, 569 00:36:11,971 --> 00:36:17,586 because going forward, we had gone out to Thailand 2-3 times, 570 00:36:17,611 --> 00:36:22,816 and we still met people still looking, after about ten months, 571 00:36:22,841 --> 00:36:24,616 still looking for their relatives. 572 00:36:37,361 --> 00:36:40,375 Journalist Katie Razzall had been reporting on the tsunami 573 00:36:40,400 --> 00:36:43,896 in Sri Lanka - but as her assignment came to an end, 574 00:36:43,921 --> 00:36:45,255 she faced a dilemma. 575 00:36:46,561 --> 00:36:50,896 She and husband, Oz, had originally come to Sri Lanka on honeymoon, 576 00:36:50,921 --> 00:36:53,866 but now they were contemplating whether they should leave. 577 00:36:55,450 --> 00:36:58,066 Once we'd done this report, we both picked up from the 578 00:36:58,091 --> 00:37:00,425 Sri Lankans we met that they didn't want us to leave, 579 00:37:00,450 --> 00:37:02,425 they needed tourist money more than anything, 580 00:37:02,450 --> 00:37:04,055 and all the tourists were leaving, 581 00:37:04,080 --> 00:37:06,425 and were probably going to leave for a long time. 582 00:37:06,450 --> 00:37:09,586 And everywhere we went, we'd met people who'd experienced something, 583 00:37:09,611 --> 00:37:12,425 obviously, of the tsunami, and that was really helpful. 584 00:37:12,450 --> 00:37:15,976 By the time you'd left, all the information about the tsunami, 585 00:37:16,001 --> 00:37:18,616 the immediate consequence of the event, 586 00:37:18,641 --> 00:37:20,616 you'd sort of processed in-country. 587 00:37:20,641 --> 00:37:23,175 You'd been there with people who'd been in some way affected 588 00:37:23,200 --> 00:37:24,896 or knew people who were. Yeah. 589 00:37:24,921 --> 00:37:27,456 It felt like it was the right thing to do at the time. 590 00:37:27,481 --> 00:37:31,016 And for us, not only did we feel like we'd in some way helped 591 00:37:31,041 --> 00:37:34,456 by doing a report, but then, also had time afterwards to speak 592 00:37:34,481 --> 00:37:37,536 to people, learn their stories, tell them our stories, 593 00:37:37,561 --> 00:37:41,425 share the feeling of what it had been like. 594 00:37:41,450 --> 00:37:44,536 It just meant that by the time we got back... 595 00:37:44,561 --> 00:37:48,375 ...we weren't as traumatised as we might've been if we'd just 596 00:37:48,400 --> 00:37:49,976 flown out straight away. 597 00:37:53,450 --> 00:37:57,736 Unlike Katie, who stayed in Sri Lanka to process the experience, 598 00:37:57,761 --> 00:38:00,656 Shenth decided to head straight home to London. 599 00:38:00,681 --> 00:38:03,616 I'm not the best of flyers at the best of times. 600 00:38:03,641 --> 00:38:09,956 So...it was a bit of a tense flight because every bit of turbulence, 601 00:38:09,981 --> 00:38:12,976 I kind ofjust panicked a little bit, 602 00:38:13,001 --> 00:38:16,346 just wanted to get home in one piece. 603 00:38:16,371 --> 00:38:21,706 He was one of only a handful of survivors from the 1,700 passengers 604 00:38:21,731 --> 00:38:23,326 on the train in Sri Lanka. 605 00:38:24,761 --> 00:38:27,936 This wasn't my first brush with death, as such. 606 00:38:27,961 --> 00:38:30,456 I had a car accident when I was 18. 607 00:38:30,481 --> 00:38:31,976 I'm very lucky. 608 00:38:32,001 --> 00:38:33,816 Dodged the bullet twice. 609 00:38:33,841 --> 00:38:37,425 I do think, being one of the small amount of people that survived 610 00:38:37,450 --> 00:38:41,066 the tsunami due to, you know, good decision-making on my part, 611 00:38:41,091 --> 00:38:45,706 but also some fortunate, individual, episodic events 612 00:38:45,731 --> 00:38:49,096 makes me think that I'm very lucky to be on the planet, and blessed. 613 00:38:54,121 --> 00:38:56,295 After the death of Piers, 614 00:38:56,320 --> 00:39:00,616 Luke, Celia, and Henry knew their lives would never be the same again. 615 00:39:00,641 --> 00:39:03,816 They were determined to do something in his memory. 616 00:39:03,841 --> 00:39:06,445 In the memorial speech that Luke did, he just said, 617 00:39:06,470 --> 00:39:09,816 "We'd love to help the people of Phi Phi, what, you know, 618 00:39:09,841 --> 00:39:14,786 they're going through," and we had ten...? 619 00:39:14,811 --> 00:39:17,896 £10,000 that day. Really? 620 00:39:17,921 --> 00:39:22,786 And then, we started getting cheques coming in, and people then started 621 00:39:22,811 --> 00:39:26,425 to know that we were going to help the people of Phi Phi. 622 00:39:26,450 --> 00:39:30,736 The money raised by Luke, Celia, and Henry in Piers' memory helped 623 00:39:30,761 --> 00:39:32,846 fund the clean-up of Koh Phi Phi 624 00:39:32,871 --> 00:39:36,466 and support countries affected by disasters. 625 00:39:36,491 --> 00:39:39,796 Then, they set up a charity, School In A Bag, 626 00:39:39,821 --> 00:39:43,796 to provide school bags with educational resources, hygiene items 627 00:39:43,821 --> 00:39:48,076 and eating utensils to disadvantaged children around the world. 628 00:39:50,021 --> 00:39:52,635 It's amazing talking to Luke and Henry, and Celia. 629 00:39:52,660 --> 00:39:55,106 I think, to be honest, I was expecting it to be 630 00:39:55,131 --> 00:39:58,026 quite a gloomy conversation. 631 00:39:58,051 --> 00:40:00,226 I mean, we're talking about 632 00:40:00,251 --> 00:40:03,385 the death of a very-loved son and brother. 633 00:40:03,410 --> 00:40:05,435 And in fact, it was a happy conversation. 634 00:40:05,460 --> 00:40:10,996 And I think they have recovered from this personal disaster for them 635 00:40:11,021 --> 00:40:14,946 in the way that I think communities recover from big disasters 636 00:40:14,971 --> 00:40:19,185 for a whole area - that they have taken this event 637 00:40:19,210 --> 00:40:24,586 and turned it into something positive and joyful, and meaningful, 638 00:40:24,611 --> 00:40:26,356 and incredibly valuable. 639 00:40:32,410 --> 00:40:37,385 16 years on, many survivors have rebuilt their lives, 640 00:40:37,410 --> 00:40:40,546 but the loss of life devastated communities. 641 00:40:42,051 --> 00:40:44,866 The Indian Ocean earthquake and the tsunami that it caused 642 00:40:44,891 --> 00:40:49,866 killed almost a quarter of a million people across 14 countries. 643 00:40:49,891 --> 00:40:53,746 That makes it the deadliest natural disaster on record. 644 00:40:55,851 --> 00:40:59,936 It flattened thousands of miles of coastal towns and villages, 645 00:40:59,961 --> 00:41:04,666 causing £6.4 billion worth of physical damage. 646 00:41:04,691 --> 00:41:09,226 Worst affected was the one it hit first on that Boxing Day morning - 647 00:41:09,251 --> 00:41:15,786 the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, where 167,000 people died. 648 00:41:19,530 --> 00:41:23,505 Banda Aceh received some of the £5 billion donated 649 00:41:23,530 --> 00:41:28,425 by countries across the world, and has been largely rebuilt. 650 00:41:28,450 --> 00:41:31,826 Dendy Montgomery witnessed both the destruction 651 00:41:31,851 --> 00:41:34,385 and the reconstruction. 652 00:41:34,410 --> 00:41:37,385 Do you feel like this many years on, 653 00:41:37,410 --> 00:41:39,746 you have recovered, and the people around you 654 00:41:39,771 --> 00:41:42,385 have recovered in some ways? 655 00:41:42,410 --> 00:41:44,106 Banda Aceh is getting normal now. 656 00:41:44,131 --> 00:41:45,816 The economy is back. 657 00:41:45,841 --> 00:41:47,196 The coffee shop activity, 658 00:41:47,221 --> 00:41:49,786 that's the main thing what happened in Banda Aceh. 659 00:41:49,811 --> 00:41:53,026 Because despite the thousands of mosque, 660 00:41:53,051 --> 00:41:57,385 it's the thousands of coffee shop from the past and now. 661 00:41:57,410 --> 00:42:02,866 So, when we can see the mosque is again chanting Arabic 662 00:42:02,891 --> 00:42:05,586 and the coffee shop is open, 663 00:42:05,611 --> 00:42:08,106 that's life in Banda Aceh. 664 00:42:08,131 --> 00:42:09,385 And beach! 665 00:42:13,381 --> 00:42:17,106 Today, the places hit by the tsunami have recovered. 666 00:42:17,131 --> 00:42:20,836 The homes, hotels, and schools have been rebuilt, 667 00:42:20,861 --> 00:42:23,276 and the tourists have returned. 668 00:42:23,301 --> 00:42:25,836 But some things have changed. 669 00:42:25,861 --> 00:42:28,786 The Boxing Day tsunami was a wake-up call. 670 00:42:28,811 --> 00:42:33,916 And in 2006, a warning system was set up to look for earthquakes and 671 00:42:33,941 --> 00:42:36,836 sea level rises in the Indian Ocean. 672 00:42:36,861 --> 00:42:41,635 If a threat is detected, then alerts are sent via text message, 673 00:42:41,660 --> 00:42:44,305 via radio news flashes and television alerts... 674 00:42:44,330 --> 00:42:47,476 RADIO ALERT 675 00:42:47,501 --> 00:42:50,666 ...even broadcasts from mosque loudspeakers. 676 00:42:50,691 --> 00:42:54,635 And those give people in immediate danger a bit of time to 677 00:42:54,660 --> 00:42:57,946 get to higher ground before a tsunami strikes. 678 00:42:57,971 --> 00:43:02,946 It means, in theory, at least, that if this were to happen again, 679 00:43:02,971 --> 00:43:05,736 there wouldn't be such a devastating loss of life. 680 00:43:13,811 --> 00:43:17,666 Although today there's very little evidence of the horrifying 681 00:43:17,691 --> 00:43:21,026 physical destruction these places suffered in 2004, 682 00:43:21,051 --> 00:43:23,836 the psychological scars remain. 683 00:43:23,861 --> 00:43:26,786 But, in speaking to survivors, what's really struck me 684 00:43:26,811 --> 00:43:29,635 is their astonishing resilience, 685 00:43:29,660 --> 00:43:31,836 their ability to cope with loss, 686 00:43:31,861 --> 00:43:35,026 and their capacity to process and describe 687 00:43:35,051 --> 00:43:38,216 the shocking things they witnessed. 688 00:43:38,241 --> 00:43:41,916 But more than anything, what I feel like I've seen is 689 00:43:41,941 --> 00:43:46,555 people's determination to look forwards with positivity and 690 00:43:46,580 --> 00:43:49,026 optimism, and rebuild their lives. 691 00:44:38,171 --> 00:44:41,346 Subtitles by Red Bee Media