World Marks One Year Since Tsunami

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BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Beside gentle seas, survivors, friends and family remembered the fury of the Indian Ocean tsunami that swept away more than 200,000 people in 12 countries one year ago Monday and laid waste to entire communities in one of the worst natural disasters in memory.

On Thailand's Patong beach, a man sat weeping in the sand before a gently lapping sea, a bouquet of white roses in front of him. He was among hundreds of Westerners survivors, relatives and friends of the dead who came to Thailand's famous beachfront where their loved ones disappeared.

On India's southern coastline, thousands of fishermen visited mass graves, sharing stories about lost families and friends.

"I searched for my daughter for hours but never found her. I don't know where she was buried," E. Jayaraman said Monday as he looked forlornly out to sea.

"The sea is like God to us. My wife will come later in the day and pray at the same site for peace to the soul of our daughter."

Last Dec. 26, the most powerful earthquake in 40 years ruptured the sea floor off Sumatra, displacing billions of tons of water and sending 33-foot-high walls of water roaring across the Indian Ocean at jetliner speeds. At least 216,000 people died or disappeared.

In Indonesia's Aceh province on Sumatra island, the closest land to the epicenter of the magnitude-9 earthquake, the president sounded a tsunami warning siren to start a minute's silence at 8:16 a.m.