OBJECTIVE: To describe the distribution of mortality among internally displaced persons during two and a half months after the Indian Ocean tsunami, 2004. DESIGN: Cross sectional household survey with retrospective cohort analysis of mortality. SETTING: Camps for internally displaced persons due to the tsunami in an eastern coastal district of Sri Lanka. PARTICIPANTS: 3533 people from 859 households accommodated in 13 camps. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: All cause death and number of missing people. RESULTS: 446 deaths and 11 missing people were reported after the 2004 tsunami, of which most (99%) occurred on the day of the tsunami or within three days thereafter. No deaths were reported for the two and a half month period starting one week after the tsunami. CONCLUSIONS: Most mortality after the 2004 tsunami occurred within the first few days of the disaster and was low in the study area.
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Nishikiori et al. (2006) studied this question.