Here's a very sensible article from The Independent about The lessons that must be learned for the future by an Sri Lankan born English politician who was on holiday there, and saw the wave as it hit, but survived:

...We have all seen the terrible scenes on television, and I have seen many of them in Sri Lanka for myself. Hundreds of foreign holidaymakers have died as well - a dreadful tragedy, but one which has brought the peoples of their home countries together with the peoples of South Asia in a sense of shared suffering and determination. Determination, not to prevent natural disasters, for that is beyond our power, but to make sure that when the next one happens, as it surely will, we are much better prepared....