Plan of operations: Sri Lanka Component of Forestry Programme for early rehabilitation in Asian tsunami affected countries, OSRO/GLO/502/FIN

The tsunami affected nearly two thirds of the coastline of Sri Lanka, or about 1000 kilometers along the northern, eastern and southern coasts. It killed about 37,000 people, and damaged or destroyed over 100,000 houses, thousands of vehicles and much infrastructure. The first and greatest impact of the tsunami waves was felt on the eastern coast, where the waves ranged in height from 3-9 meters and penetrated an average of 300 m inland. Penetration of the waves along the affected east, north and south coastlines was highly variable, in most places ranging from 100 meters to 1 kilometer, but in some places (e.g., along water courses) reaching further inland. Beaches, sand bars and sand spits, estuaries, lagoons and bays, sand dunes, mangroves, planted and managed vegetation (including coconuts and other palms) were damaged.