Tsunami anniversary is observed

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia — Parents prayed at mass graves for children swept away by last year's tsunami, and Western tourists returned to palm-fringed beaches to lay wreaths for lost friends. There was a minute of silence in Indonesia today to mark the moment the first tsunami waves struck the country's coastline.

The low-key ceremonies came as the region formally marked today's anniversary of the killer 30-foot-high waves that crashed ashore in a dozen countries around the Indian Ocean, leaving at least 216,000 people dead or missing.

"After I come here, I somehow feel satisfied," said Dasniati, a mother who traveled 15 hours to lay petals on a grave that holds the remains of 47,000 victims of the devastation in Indonesia's Aceh province.

Though she has no way of knowing for sure, she thinks her 10-year-old daughter was among those whose bodies were dumped in the pit in the days after the tsunami. "I pray that Allah accepts her at his side," Dasniati, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, said Sunday.

Utah physician Stuart Breisch, his wife Sally Nelson and 17-year-old son Jai planned to place a memorial stone Monday in a building the Thai government has erected for tsunami victims. Breisch's 15-year-old daughter Kali died when she and Jai were swept away from the Emerald Beach Resort in Khao Lak a year ago today.

The family has started a foundation called 4Kali (www.4Kali.org) to help people in and around Khao Lak rebuild their houses, schools and lives. The organization has raised more than $200,000.

In the past year other Utahns have also traveled to the area to help with relief efforts, including the group Mothers Without Borders, Utah physicians Scott Leckman, Don Pedersen and Fred Gottlieb, and Park City businessman Dave Rockwood, who brought Utah DNA technology to Thailand to help with corpse identification.

Flags were to be lowered to half staff in Sri Lanka while bells were to sound today in churches, mosques and temples. Hundreds in India were to walk silently to a mass burial ground. In Thailand, thousands of floating lanterns were to be floated to sea.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono — on a stage overlooking tranquil blue waters that belied the fury unleashed one year ago — set off a siren at 8:16 a.m. today to mark the moment the first waves struck following the magnitude-9 earthquake. Similar commemorations were planned in Thailand and Sri Lanka at the moments the waves hit those countries.

Hundreds of survivors, foreign dignitaries and aid workers bowed their heads.