Officially documenting in unforgettable words and pictures the inspirational stories of people who survived against impossible odds; heroic acts crossing all boundaries of gender, age, and nationality; and a planet ignoring its artificial boundaries to come together, this account details the December 26, 2004, earthquake that set off a destructive chain of events nearly beyond comprehension, claiming more than 250,000 lives and leaving millions homeless. Fascinating stories include the family dog who rescued a seven-year-old boy when his anguished mother left him to fend for himself as she picked up her two younger sons and ran for high ground, a twenty-day-old baby who was sleeping on a mattress that floated her to safety after Malaysia"s Penang Island was hit by a wall of water, an eight-year-old boy who opened his eyes and sat up as grave diggers were about to bury him in the southern Indian town of Velankanni, and a man who was swept to the top of a tree, where he clung for three days with a giant python twisted around the trunk below him.