After the wave: ten years since the Boxing Day tsunami

As the 10th anniversary of the Boxing day tsunami approaches, a new documentary details the huge forensic investigation that came after the wave.

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More than 200,000 people perished in the disaster and millions more across the world are still living with the lasting effects of those deadly waves . 

The  features heartbreaking first-person accounts of families torn apart when the tsunami struck.

It also tells the story of the Australian Federal Police officers who led what became the world's biggest forensic identification operation - returning a staggering 4000 bodies to families in 40 different countries.

Superintendent Mick Travers, who worked for the Disaster Victim Identification team on the ground in Thailand, says nothing prepared him or his colleagues for the enormous task which lay ahead of them.
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"Literally in front of us were thousands of bodies. I'd seen disasters before, I'd been to the Bali bombings and experienced them but nothing prepares anyone for that sort of sight; literally a sea of bodies waiting for their loved ones to claim them."

The extent of the losses are staggering. Those who died in the Boxing Day Tsunami in 2004 outnumber the total populations of Hobart and Darwin (in 2013).



 

WATCH the full documentary After The Wave


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1 min read
Published 12 December 2014 2:28pm
Updated 14 December 2014 9:09pm
By Jason Thomas

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