Sri Lanka will mark the National Safety Day today (26) and will remember the thousands of people who lost their lives to the deadly Indian Ocean tsunami that swept the island in 2004 killing over 35,000 people.
The country will also mark the occasion with a nationwide two minute silence from 9:25 am to 9:27 am. In commemoration of all the local and foreign people who died in the tsunami, the Disaster Management Centre has organized multi-religious programmes at the national level as well as at the district level.
In conjunction with National Safety Day, the national programme to commemorate and offer merit to the dead and missing people of the tsunami will be held in front of Thelwatta Peraliya Tsunami Memorial with the participation of State Defence Minister Pramitha Bandara Tennekoon, Military and Police leaders, state officials and the public.
The tsunami triggered by the Indian Ocean earthquake in Indonesia struck 13 out of 14 coastal districts in Sri Lanka on December 26, 2004. The eastern and the southern shores were the most destroyed by the tsunami, which according to statistics, killed 35,322 people and rendered over 500,000 homeless. Another 5,000 went missing.
The major disaster occurred when the southbound Queen of the Sea (Samudra Devi) train plying along the coastal rail line with around 1,500 passengers onboard got washed away by the killer waves near Peraliya area in Hikkaduwa killing all but a few passengers.
The tsunami affected 502,456 people from 235,145 families in 34 Divisional Secretariat Divisions. The social, economic, cultural and environmental damage caused is enormous.
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