Thousands gathered in mourning on Thursday, December 26, to mark two decades since the world's largest tsunami.
On December 26, 2004, in one of the worst natural disasters of modern times, a magnitude 9.1 earthquake triggered catastrophic waves that brought destruction and devastation to at least 12 countries. It left an estimated 230,000 people dead, and an estimated 1.7 million more displaced – hitting India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and Thailand the hardest.
At mass graves across Indonesia's Aceh province on Thursday, people gathered and prayed to honor the victims of the tragedy, The Associated Press reported. At one in the village of Ulee Leue, where 14,000 unidentified victims are buried, families of those killed by the tsunami wept and laid flowers.
There were similar commemorations in Ban Nam Khem, a small fishing village in Thailand that was among the worst hit by the tsunami in the country, as well as in Chennai, India, and Pereliya, Sri Lanka, the AP.
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Tsunami Memorial in Thailand
Louis Mullan and his younger brother, Theo, were only teenagers when the tsunami destroyed Khao Luk, Thailand, where their family was on vacation, killing their parents.
The boys went back to Cornwall, England, a week after the storm as orphans. But when they arrived home, they received an unexpected message from a family of four nearby offering to take them in, Louis told PEOPLE in November.
“She felt something telling her she had to do that,” Louis said of the mother who said she would take them in. “If we didn't have that, I think that's when it would have been a lot more difficult.”
He said, “The opportunities they have offered us and the love they have given us have made us who we are.”
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Tsunami Memorial in Thailand
For Rachel Hearson, it was an “air pocket” that saved her life as the storm battered Thailand's Phi Phi Islands, where she was on holiday, she told PEOPLE last month. Hearson, now 61, was rescued by a small fishing boat before she went back to shore to look for her partner, Cici Romain, who she eventually found among the wreckage helping others.
Although she had no formal medical training, she held the hands of the survivors as they waited for the rescue helicopters. Two decades later, she said she has given up her career as a fashion designer to work for a cancer charity – learning from the tragedy, “I can be there for other people if need me.”
“Maybe it's hard (for the younger generation) to understand,” Soffie Modin, another survivor of the tsunami, said PEOPLE. Modin was also on holiday in the Phi Phi Islands and required eight months of hospital and home care to recover from an injury to her leg. While she survived, the brother of her lover at the time was killed in the accident.
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Tsunami Memorial in Thailand
Modin is one of the many survivors featured in National Geographic's Tsunami: Race Against Timepowerful four-part docuseries that sheds light on the bravery and heroism of those who survived the disaster.
“It's kind of nice to just raise that ceiling again,” Modin told PEOPLE of her participation in the docuseries, noting the need for new generations to learn about the tragedy.
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