at least 82 people were killed and 26 unaccounted for from a population just over 270,000 , according to the Maldives Disaster Management Center . Sixty-nine islands were completely flooded and a further 30 islands half flooded . The capital of Male was also flooded , although sea walls protected it from further devastation . The government has calculated that creating a similar barrier around the rest of the country would cost too much . Watch Maldives president vow to save the nation . Â '' And so the tourist nation , which has white sandy beaches that lure well-heeled Westerners , wants to set aside some of the $ 1 billion a year it receives from tourism and spend that money on buying a new homeland . `` We will invest in land , '' Nasheed said . `` We do not want to end up in refugee tents if the worst happens . '' Nasheed 's government has said that it has broached the idea with several countries and found them to be `` receptive . '' Lands owned by Sri Lanka and India are possibilities because the countries have similar cultures , cuisine and climate as the
MALE , Maldives -LRB- CNN -RRB- -- The new president of the Maldives wants to relocate -- his entire country . Much of Male , capital of the Maldives , was flooded following the 2004 tsunami . Mohamed `` Anni '' Nasheed , a former political prisoner , was sworn in Tuesday after he unseated Asia 's longest-serving leader in the country 's first multi-party elections two weeks ago . He inherits an island nation with several problems . Foremost among them : the very likely possibility that the Maldives will sink under water if the current pace of climate change keeps raising sea levels . The Maldives is an archipelago of almost 1,200 coral islands located south-southwest of India . Most of the islands lie just 4.9 feet -LRB- 1.5 meters -RRB- above sea level . The United Nations ' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has forecast a rise in sea levels of at least 7.1 inches -LRB- 18 cm -RRB- by the end of the century . The island was badly hit by the December 2004 tsunami , which killed an estimated 273,800 people and left thousands missing across Asia and Africa . In the Maldives itself ,