20 years ago, one of the deadliest natural disasters in the history of the planet hit in the form of a tsunami spanning 14 countries. National Geographic is marking 20 years since the horrific tragedy with a new docuseries, Tsunami: Race Against Time, that gives an impressive and personal look into the events of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, which resulted in the loss of over 225,000 lives.
The morning of December 26th, 2004 started off like any other in the island paradise of Thailand. Progressing from 8:20 a.m. to just over an hour later, the gigantic waves of the tsunami made its way across the beachfront and into the towns and villages. Thailand was devastated, and they had no warning of the events to come. The series features first-hand accounts from those that were lucky enough to survive, in addition to some incredible, yet distressing footage captured during the event. The series tells the story in an engaging and easy to follow way, mostly thanks to the incredible captured footage.
But it wasn’t just Thailand that was affected by the tsunami, with the devastating waves making their way to a number of other countries in the Indian Ocean. This was unexpected at the time, as tsunamis in the Indian Ocean are relatively rare, compared to those in the Pacific Ocean. Fortunately, thanks to groundbreaking new technology at the time, those in Sri Lanka and Indonesia were able to get a bit of a warning of the incoming tsunami.
As is quite often the case from the prestigious National Geographic, the docuseries expertly weaves together the found footage and recalling of events from survivors, with input from experts – giving an excellent telling of just how quickly things changed on this tragic day. Among the many touching stories was that of brothers Theo and Louis, who just happened to be on vacation from the U.K. Escaping from the tsunami, they lost each other and their parents. While their parents sadly perished during the event, Theo and Louis were reunited before leaving Thailand.
Tsunami: Race Against Time will debut over two nights, starting on November 24th at 9/8c on National Geographic, featuring back-to-back episodes. All episodes will be available for streaming on Disney+ and Hulu beginning November 25th.