PERELIYA, Sri Lanka — A packed train in Sri Lanka that was swept off the tracks by waves as big as elephants. A boat patrolling off Thailand’s shore hurled more than a mile inland. Streets in Indonesia turned into roaring rivers that carried people to their deaths.
Vivid and terrifying memories such as these were recalled Friday at ceremonies marking the 10th anniversary of the Indian Ocean tsunami that left nearly a quarter-million people dead in one of modern history’s worst natural disasters.
The Dec. 26, 2004, tsunami was triggered by a magnitude-9.1 earthquake — the region’s most powerful in 40 years — that tore open the seabed off Indonesia’s Sumatran coast, displacing billions of tons of water and sending waves roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds as far away as East Africa.
Weeping survivors and others took part in beachside memorials and religious services across Asia, while some European countries also marked the anniversary, remembering the thousands of Christmastime tourists who died in the disaster.