Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Malaysia

Malaysia was affected by the Indian Ocean earthquake

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred at 00:58:53 UTC on Sunday, December 26, 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. The quake itself is known by the scientific community as the Sumatra-Andaman earthquake...

on 26 December 2004. Despite its proximity to the epicentre of the earthquake, Malaysia escaped the kind of damage that struck countries thousands of miles further away. Since the epicentre was on the western coast of Sumatra, the island largely shielded the country from the worst of the tsunami

Tsunami

A tsunami is a series of water waves caused by the displacement of a large volume of a body of water, typically an ocean or a large lake...

. The country's worst affected areas were the northern coastal areas and outlying islands like Penang

Penang

Penang is a state in Malaysia and the name of its constituent island, located on the northwest coast of Peninsular Malaysia by the Strait of Malacca. It is bordered by Kedah in the north and east, and Perak in the south. Penang is the second smallest Malaysian state in area after Perlis, and the...

and Langkawi

Langkawi

Langkawi, officially known as Langkawi, the Jewel of Kedah is an archipelago of 104 islands in the Andaman Sea, some 30 km off the mainland coast of northwestern Malaysia. The islands are a part of the state of Kedah, which is adjacent to the Thai border...

. The simple red flag warning system used by lifeguards on beaches in some resort areas in Penang was credited to reducing the number of fatalities.

The number of deaths currently stands at 68 with 52 in Penang, 12 in Kedah

Kedah

Kedah is a state of Malaysia, located in the northwestern part of Peninsular Malaysia. The state covers a total area of over 9,000 km², and it consists of the mainland and Langkawi. The mainland has a relatively flat terrain, which is used to grow rice...

, 3 in Perak

Perak

Perak , one of the 13 states of Malaysia, is the second largest state in the Peninsular Malaysia bordering Kedah and Yala Province of Thailand to the north, Penang to the northwest, Kelantan and Pahang to the east, Selangor the Strait of Malacca to the south and west.Perak means silver in Malay...

and 1 in Selangor

Selangor

Selangor also known by its Arabic honorific, Darul Ehsan, or "Abode of Sincerity") is one of the 13 states of Malaysia. It is on the west coast of Peninsular Malaysia and is bordered by Perak to the north, Pahang to the east, Negeri Sembilan to the south and the Strait of Malacca to the west...

http://www.sunnetwork.org/news/world/world.asp?id=14625. The deaths at Penang were reported to include many picnickers and children who were playing on open public beaches. No deaths were reported among foreign tourists. Houses in fishing villages along coastal areas were damaged in Batu Maung and Bayan Lepas in Penang. Coastal areas in Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia

Peninsular Malaysia , also known as West Malaysia , is the part of Malaysia which lies on the Malay Peninsula. Its area is . It shares a land border with Thailand in the north. To the south is the island of Singapore. Across the Strait of Malacca to the west lies the island of Sumatra...

e.g. 13 villages in Kuala Muda, Kedah and Kuala Triang in Langkawi island were also affected. About a quarter of holiday vessels anchored in Rebak and Telaga harbour in Langkawi were also damaged. The waves sent parked motorcycles crashing and cars washed with mud at stretches along Gurney Drive in Penang. The biggest loss from a single family was when five of Zulkifli Mohamad Noor's seven children were killed when the tsunami struck at Pasir Panjang beach. Sinkhole

Sinkhole

A sinkhole, also known as a sink, shake hole, swallow hole, swallet, doline or cenote, is a natural depression or hole in the Earth's surface caused by karst processes — the chemical dissolution of carbonate rocks or suffosion processes for example in sandstone...

s which were reported in Kampar

Kampar, Perak

Kampar Kampar Kampar (Chinese:金宝） is a town in the state of Perak, Malaysia. Founded in 1887, the town lies within the Kinta Valley and located in the newly-created Kampar District, an area rich with tin reserves. It was a tin mining town which boomed during the height of the tin mining industry....

and Ipoh

Ipoh

Ipoh is the capital city of Perak state, Malaysia. It is approximately 200 km north of Kuala Lumpur on the North-South Expressway....

for three days running have been investigated and determined not to be earthquake related.

Aftermath

The then Malaysian Prime Minister Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi

Tun Abdullah bin Haji Ahmad Badawi is a Malaysian politician who served as Prime Minister from 2003 to 2009. He was also the President of the United Malays National Organisation , the largest political party in Malaysia, and led the governing Barisan Nasional parliamentary coalition...

cut short his holiday in Spain after five days of diplomatic trip in India and returned to Malaysia. He instructed the government to cancel all New Year celebrations and urged all parties, including the private sector, to hold prayers and remembrance services instead. The government had also postponing the deportation of illegal immigrants and extending an amnesty so that they may exit the country by 31 January 2005 instead of 31 December 2004. The Malaysian government too announced that MYR

Malaysian ringgit

The Malaysian ringgit is the currency of Malaysia. It is divided into 100 sen...

1,000 (USD

United States dollar

The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....

260) would be given to the families of victims while MYR 200 (USD 50) would be paid to those who had sustained injuries from the tsunami. Displaced residents would be given MYR 200 to alleviate their hardship, MYR 2,000 for every house damaged, MYR 5,000 would for every destroyed house while fishermen whose boats were lost will be given MYR 1,000 for smaller boats and MYR 3,000 for larger boats. http://www.bernama.com/bernama/v3/news.php?id=112783

External links

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