2 decades after tsunami, survivors still counting cost of great wave

At least 10,749 people in India were killed. According to the then Thanjavur district collector, Tamil Nadu alone accounted for around 7,900 of the dead.

A Anjamma was sorting fish on the beach somewhere on the Tharangambadi coast when she saw a giant wave rise. She instantly dropped her catch of the day and began running towards her house where her mother was alone with her four children. “I was running and screaming at my mother to carry the children,” says Anjamma. Then the wave was upon her. “I lost my consciousness and I remembered waking up near my neighbour’s house. There was rubble on

Army personnel carry out relief at a tsunami-hit village, in Nagapattinam district, Tamil Nadu, on December 31, 2004. (PTI File)