Case Study—Sri Lanka: A "Double Blow" to Development
On the morning after Christmas Day, 2004, several families in the Sri Lankan capital of Colombo were on their way to a festive brunch at a hotel overlooking the Indian Ocean. On their way, they heard an emergency broadcast over the car radio, reporting that large waves had hit the eastern and southern coasts. They watched as a strange haziness developed on the horizon and ocean undulations left boats damaged in the nearby harbor. Even though it took two hours for the tsunami waves to travel from the quake’s epicenter to Sri Lankan shores, disaster came to the country quite unexpectedly...
