The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami devastated thousands of communities in countries bordering the Indian Ocean. Both urban and rural areas were destroyed along thousands of miles of coastline. But, in the tsunami’s aftermath, a massive reconstruction and recovery effort was mounted, which has been a spectacular success in many ways.
Communities that the waves had reduced to rubble feel normal today. The rhythms of daily life have been re-established through hard work and perseverance of individuals, families, and communities. This was helped by more than $7 billion in aid that was committed by the provincial governments, national governments, NGOs, and international donors to help not just rebuild communities that had been destroyed but to “build back better.”
Why some places recover after a huge natural disaster, such as the Boxing Day tsunami, and others do not is not fully understood since detailed data on populations before an unexpected disaster seldom exist and only a handful of population-based studies have successfully followed people affected by a disaster over the longer term. To address this gap, we led an international team that established the Study of the Tsunami Aftermath and Recovery (STAR) to better understand the immediate and longer-term impacts of what happened.
