The 2004 tsunami was not the first to strike Southeast Asia and cause serious destruction and death.

On August 26, 1883, the explosion of the Krakatua volcano created tsunami waves reported as being up to 37 meters (120 feet) high. According to the Tsunami Page http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1883Krakatoa.html, 36,417 people drowned along the Sunda Strait in western Java and southern Sumatra.

Less than 100 years later, on August 19, 1977, a 7.7 magnitude earthquake in the Java trench west of Sumba Island created waves of up to 30 meters on adjacent Indonesian coasts and up to eight meters high in Australia. There were 180 confirmed or presumed deaths and 3,900 people were left homeless. http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1977Indonesia.html

In 1976, a powerful earthquake struck the island of Mindanao in the Philippines and created 4.5 meter-high tsunami waves in the Moro Gulf. Thirty-six people were killed on the island of Basilan and 89 were killed on Jolo Island. Up to 10,000 people in the region may have been killed in total. http://www.drgeorgepc.com/Tsunami1976Phillipines.html