GREAT SUMATRA EARTHQUAKE-INDIAN OCEAN TSUNAMI DECEMBER 26, 2004 FACTS ABOUT THE TSUNAMI RELIEF AND REBUILDING EFFORT DECEMBER 26, 2005

FACTS  This disaster was the most generously and most immediately funded international emergency relief effort ever.  $13.6 billion was pledged by donors around the world to rebuild 13 Indian Ocean countries after the 26 December 2004 earthquake and tsunami.

13 AFFECTED COUNTRIES  Indonesia  Sri Lanka  India  Thailand  Madagascar  Maldives  Malaysia  Myanmar  Seychelles  Somalia  Tanzania  Kenya  Bangladesh

FACTS ABOUT THE TSUNAMI RELIEF AND REBUILDING EFFORT  Total damage: $10.73 billion.  Rebuilding costs: $ billion.  Number of people displaced: 2,089,883.  Number of people who lost their livelihoods: 1.5 million.  Number of people killed: at least 230,000.  Ratio of women and children killed to men: 3:1

FACTS  Number of houses reduced to rubble: 392,544.  Number needed: 308,000.  Number built or under construction: 46,000.

FACTS  A $53 million interim warning system using tidal gauges and undersea sensors is nearing completion in the Indian Ocean with help from the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission.

FACTS  Tsunami national warning centers are being planned for 27 countries around the Indian Ocean rim.  Three of them will be regional centers.

FACTS  Thailand and Indonesia are installing warning towers on vulnerable beaches.  Sri Lanka has established model "Tsunami Protection Villages."  India is spending $27 million to establish a regional warning center by 2007.

UNANSWERED QUESTIONS UNTIL THE NEXT TSUNAMI  When the inevitable tsunami strikes the Indian Ocean rim again, will the Warning Centers’ urgent messages reach the remote villages?  Will the Warning Centers be staffed 24 hours, seven days a week?  Will authorities be able to put evacuation plans into effect when they receive a tsunami warning?