20 years after a devastating tsunami, a survivor celebrates what the disaster has given him

The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami began with a 9.3-magnitude earthquake. A series of waves devastated coastal communities in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand.

KHAO LAK, Thailand — Watana Sittirachot was raised at an orphanage in Thailand for children affected by the 2004 Asian tsunami. Now, 20 years after the disaster changed the course of his life, he’s running the place himself.

The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami began with a powerful 9.3-magnitude earthquake off the coast of Aceh in northern Indonesia. Within hours, a series of waves that in some cases reached more than 100 feet tall had devastated coastal communities around the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated 230,000 people in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and other countries.

It is considered the deadliest natural disaster this century and one of the deadliest in recorded history.

Sittirachot was 12 years old when the tsunami hit, living in the village of Ban Nam Khem, where his parents had left him to be raised by an aunt and uncle.

He said there was “not a single house left” in his village after the tsunami, which killed a quarter of the population of about 4,000.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/20-year-annivesary-tsunami-survivor-thailand-indonesia-rcna184473

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