This book covers the Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004 at both a macro and micro level, and succeeds in all respects. I was impressed with how much information the author was able to pack into a 127-page book meant for pre-teens, and still maintain a lucid and interesting narrative thread. "The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004" isn't just for kids. Adults may read it with interest for a succinct overview of the most devastating natural disaster of our new millennium.
The introduction, "Calm Before the Storm" goes into the many reasons people were on the beaches surrounding the Indian Ocean on the day after Christmas 2004. For vacationing Europeans, it was another day in the warmth and sun so lacking at home. Hindus were celebrating the holy day of Pournami by taking a ritual dip in the ocean. Coastal villages and cities were buzzing with inhabitants starting a new work day.
Then at 7:58 A.M. local time, the seabed about 100 miles west of Sumatra and 19 miles below the ocean surface was wrenched apart by a 9.2 Mw (moment magnitude) earthquake. The author goes into just enough geophysical detail on the cause and result of this massive quake, through the voices and experiences of Barry Hirshorn and Stuart Weinstein at Honolulu's Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (PTWC).
Unfortunately there was no tsunami warning system in the Indian Ocean, and thousands of lives were lost that might otherwise have been saved. The author describes the earthquake and the resulting `wall of water' through the voices of the victims he introduced in "Calm Before the Storm." They include the deputy mayor of Banda Aceh, a carpenter who was swept out to sea and was adrift for 15 days before being rescued, a vacationer who was visiting a butterfly farm in Malaysia, a passenger on a train in Sri Lanka, and many others whose lives were forever altered by the disaster. There are vignettes of remarkable escapes and horrible tragedies--for instance, at Cuddalore on the coast of India, 24 cricket players were washed from their playing field and drowned.
Diagrams, colored photographs (some rather ghastly), and interesting sidebars abound. One of my favorite sidebars was "Did the Animals Know?" which describes the behavior of elephants and dolphins before and during the tsunami.
The aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami takes up the next three chapters of this book, and the author pulls no punches when describing some of the mistakes that were made by various governments and relief agencies.
The last chapter, "The Next Tsunami" is an overview of where the next `Big One' might occur--the eastern seaboard of the United States and Canada!--and what steps are being taken to build a better world-wide tsunami warning system.
If "The Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004" piques your interest in this subject, I also highly recommend "
Wave of Destruction: The Stories of Four Families and History's Deadliest Tsunami
" (2005), in which author Eric Krauss focuses on the lives of four Thai families who experienced the horrific 2004 natural disaster and its aftermath.
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