When the great flood came

20 years of the tsunami: “You’ll never forget the smell!”

Exactly 20 years ago, on December 26, 2004, a huge tsunami hit the coasts off Sumatra after a mega seaquake in the Indian Ocean and razed individual villages to the ground. Among the 230,000 fatalities were 86 Austrians, including eleven Styrians. Two former Cobra officers remember what was probably one of their toughest missions.

The disaster killed around 230,000 people in Indonesia, Thailand, India, Sri Lanka and other countries - the waves also hit numerous tourist resorts. Just a few hours after the tsunami, the Ministry of the Interior ordered special teams to fly to the disaster area. Colonel Rupert Gruber, head of the police school in Graz, and course commander Chief Inspector René Stockner were on site for two weeks for the Cobra task force.