Thousands of people were unaccounted for in Sri Lanka. One million others, about 5 percent of the population, were displaced as many fled for higher ground, hauling their radios, televisions and other valuable possessions on bicycles and seeking refuge in schools and temples.
"I think this is the worst-ever natural disaster in Sri Lanka," N.D. Hettiarachchi, director of the National Disaster Management Center, told Reuters.
A street on the Thai island of Phuket, a popular beach destination, is littered with vehicles and debris after the area was hit by tsunamis.
(Karim Khamzin -- AP)
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President Chandrika Kumaratunga declared a national disaster, deploying Sri Lanka's 20,000-member armed forces to help evacuate people from stricken areas, and appealed for international relief. Rescue efforts were proceeding slowly because police and military bases had been flooded.
"Our naval base in Trincomalee is under water, and right now we are trying to manage the situation there while rescuing people," Jayantha Perera, a spokesman for the Sri Lankan navy, told Reuters.
Officials said that the waves had dislodged land mines and unexploded ordnance left over from the country's two-decade civil war, posing hazards not only for rescue teams but villagers who remained in the area.
In India, a tsunami inundated a broad swath of the country's southeastern coast and flooded offshore islands. Hundreds of bodies washed up on the long, popular oceanfront near Madras, the capital of the state of Tamil Nadu, and officials said they expected more to come ashore in coming days. Officials reported that about 1,700 people had died in Tamil Nadu.
The Indian interior minister, Shivraj Patil, told local television that at least 200 others had died in the neighboring state of Andhra Pradesh. But local residents said that at least 400 fishermen were missing, and 200 Hindu worshipers who had gone to the beach in the early morning hours to take a sacred dip were unaccounted for. About 100 fatalities were also reported in both Pondicherry and Kerala.
The official Press Trust of India news agency, quoting a local police commander, said another 1,000 people had perished on India's Andaman and Nicobar islands, located off the western tip of Sumatra. "The situation is very grim," said Inspector General S.B. Deol of the Indian police.
In Thailand, tsunamis also crashed into the country's west coast. Authorities said at least 392 bodies had been retrieved and that they expected the toll to approach 1,000. The dead included foreign tourists who had packed into the country's beach resorts for the Christmas and New Year holidays.
"Nothing like this has ever happened in our country before," Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra said.
On the Thai island of Phuket, one of Southeast Asia's most popular destinations for backpackers and surfers, a 30-foot wave surged over the sand and into the crowded tourist strip, destroying hotels lining the seafront, tossing vehicles around like driftwood and sowing panic during one of the busiest times of the year.
"People were coming up the roads, running and screaming that the beach was disappearing," said Borge Carlsson, a Swede who owns a guesthouse about 200 yards back from the beach. "Cars were upside down, floating around. It's amazing to see anything like this."
At the southern tip of Phuket, on Nai Harn Beach, the waves dismantled a crowded strip of restaurants, tailor shops and motorbike rental outlets. At nearby hotels, amid shattered glass and broken concrete, a pickup truck was deposited in a swimming pool and a car came to rest in a lobby.
"There were thousands of people on the beach then," said Richard Motein, a Canadian who runs a dive shop on Phuket. "I looked up and saw a wall of water coming at me full of lawn chairs, boats, umbrellas. It just totally wasted the beach."
