The 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami: The Day the Sea Ran Away | 10-Minute Documentary

The ocean drew back half a mile from the shore — and then it came back. On 26 December 2004, the third-largest earthquake ever recorded (magnitude 9.1) tore open the sea floor off Sumatra. The tsunami that followed killed or left missing 227,898 people in 14 countries across the Indian Ocean. But one island remembered. Simeulue's elders had kept the word "smong" — the danger of the sea — alive for a century, and their children ran to the hills when the sea drained away. This is History, Painted: a 10-minute documentary told in watercolor scenes — the earthquake, the silent warning systems, the Queen of the Sea train, the girl who saved a beach, and the sirens that now listen for the next great wave. Subscribe for a new painted history every week. Which story should we paint next?