Tsunami: One Year On

Related pages: Tsunami: Six months on | How you can help | Affected countries: Sri Lanka | Indonesia | Maldives | India | Somalia

It is one year since the devastating earthquake and tsunami in the Indian Ocean, which killed 200,000 people across South Asia and East Africa on 26 December 2004.

As well as the catastrophic loss of life, the waves caused billions of pounds worth of damage to homes, businesses and infrastructure.

Hours after the tsunami hit, DFID set up a crisis team to co-ordinate the response and sent experts to assess the situation in Sri Lanka. Over the following few weeks, we arranged 15 airlifts of essential relief supplies and paid for 25 Disasters and Emergency Committee flights to ensure that all the money raised went on aid, not travel expenses

Our focus is now long-term reconstruction. Although much remains to be done, our work on this is progressing, and we are working in partnership with the governments of Sri Lanka, Indonesia and India to ensure that our contribution is coordinated and continues to meet the needs of the affected population.

• Tsunami Frequently Asked Questions
• Read our summary of DFID funding with info about evaluation and action in specific countries
• Disasters and Emergencies Overseas: How You Can Help
• 'Inside DFID Operations' is our feature and Q and A with our Head of Operations Group
• Read our interview with a DFID team leader directly involved in the relief effort when the tsunami first hit
• BBC Tsunami homepage

Top tsunami links

• BBC Tsunami timeline and maps of the affected countries
• Tsunami Operations feature from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies
• New Zealand Aid One Year On blog
• Oxfam Tsunami homepage
• ReliefWeb tsunami coverage: World Food Programme stories from the field
• Latest updates on tsunami reconstruction (ReliefWeb)
• Tsunami pages on Food and Agricultural Organisation

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