Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Finland

The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami, by far the worst disaster in the number of lives lost during peacetime Finland, killed 179 Finns in Thailand and Sri Lanka, and caused widespread public debate and investigations into the actions of Finnish officials who were claimed to have failed to help their citizens in the affected areas.

Overview

The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake of 9.1 to 9.3 in Richter scale that struck the Indian Ocean off the western coast of northern Sumatra, Indonesia on December 26, 2004 at 00:58:50 UTC (07:58:50 local time in Jakarta and Bangkok).

Finnish citizens in the affected regions

There were approximately 2300 Finnish citizens on package tours in Thailand, and 600 in Sri Lanka, at the time of the earthquake. The number of independent travellers has not been confirmed. By May 31, 2005, a total number of 179 Finns have been proclaimed dead as caused by the tsunami; in October 2006, one adult and three children are officially still missing in the affected areas. One person went missing in Sri Lanka and 178 in Thailand. Eight Finnish casualties had resided in the Phuket island, and 170 in Khao Lak beach, which was the area in Thailand hardest hit by the catastrophe. 106 Finns went missing from the hotel Blue Village Pakarang in Khao Lak.

Among the dead were an executive from Finland's Pfizer, Harriet Eckstein, and a popular rock and jazz musician Aki Sirkesalo. Among the escaped were a right wing politician and a director of the European Investment Bank, Sauli Niinistö, who rescued from the tsunami wave by climbing into a lamppost with his two sons in Khao Lak.

Finnish government officials' actions

The Finnish government officials have been heavily criticised for their slow responding to serve their citizens. There were a lot of travellers in the affected areas in need for information on lost relatives, help to find travel documents to get back home, and generally in need to get evacuated in an organized manner; and in Finland, thousands of relatives to those travelling in the affected areas needed information on their relatives. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs received the most criticism, mostly by not providing enough emergency telephone services during the Boxing day and the day after that.

One of the reasons for the government's slow response, as has been claimed, was the general lack of information about the situation, and the lack of readiness to organise evacuation efforts in politically stable foreign locations. [cite web| title = Foreign Minister Tuomioja Apologises for problems with telephone hotline| publisher = Helsingin Sanomat International Edition| date = 2004-12-29| url = http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Foreign+Minister+Tuomioja+apologises+for+problems+with+telephone+hotline/1101978109189| accessdate = 2006-10-31] In Sweden, the country in Europe hardest suffered from the tsunami, widespread criticism towards the government led to resignations of top politicians, but these consequences didn't occur in Finland.

Diver instructors in rescue efforts

In response for the need to coordinate rescue and evacuation efforts for Finnish people in Thailand, a group of Finnish scuba divers started collecting namelists of the ones missing and the ones in safe locations, and sending them as text messages to the homeland to be published in lists in the [http://www.sukellus.fi Sukellus.fi] website. This operation was led by entrepreneurs Janne Miikkulainen and Jani Mäkinen from Raya Divers, a scuba diving firm based in Phuket, and by internet entrepreneur Alex Nieminen and journalist Petri Ahoniemi in Helsinki. Miikkulainen, Mäkinen and a crew of tourist agents also circulated hospitals and evacuation centers around Khao Lak and Phuket in order to find Finnish people and give them information about the situation.

Janne Miikkulainen was awarded a Cross of Merit of the Order of the Lion of Finland for his work during and after the catastrophe. The others hosting the Sukellus.fi-website received a State information award. [cite web
title = Divers among winners of State information award
publisher = Helsingin Sanomat International Edition
date = 2005-03-31
url = http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Divers+group+among+winners+of+State+information+award/1101978984424
accessdate = 2006-10-31]

References

External links

* [http://www.onnettomuustutkinta.fi/31812.htm Investigation report] from the Finnish Accident Investigation Board