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Rebuilding Aceh, 10 years after tsunami

BANDA ACEH — Arriving in Aceh, one does not feel that this was ground zero of one of the world’s worst natural disasters 10 years ago, when a magnitude 9.2 earthquake triggered a tsunami from the Indian Ocean.

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BANDA ACEH — Arriving in Aceh, one does not feel that this was ground zero of one of the world’s worst natural disasters 10 years ago, when a magnitude 9.2 earthquake triggered a tsunami from the Indian Ocean.

Waves as high as 30m crashed onto Banda Aceh — the closest to the epicentre of the quake — wiping out villages. More than 167,000 people in the Indonesian province were killed or went missing and 500,000 were left homeless. The tsunami on Dec 26, 2004, took away some 230,000 lives in 14 countries.

Watch: TODAY speaks to various people in Aceh about their experiences during the tsunami. For many, the painful memories are still vivid.

Watch: The tsunami put an end to conflict which plagued Aceh for close to three decades. TODAY speaks to two Acehnese women on life in Aceh before and after the tsunami.

Today, people in Aceh are cheerful. New buildings, roads and airports have been built, with the assistance of almost 500 international agencies. It is hard to find any signs of the devastation caused by the deadly tsunami. The tsunami also ended nearly three decades of armed insurgency by the Free Aceh Movement for the province to be independent from Indonesia.

Today, with infrastructure put in place by aid from the Indonesian government and foreign donors, Aceh is ready to move on from internal strife and the destruction caused by the tsunami.

Watch: Minister for Manpower Tan Chuan-Jin, who served as the commander of the SAF's Humanitarian Assistance Task force in Meulaboh following the 2004 tsunami, tells TODAY of his experiences during the mission.

Watch: Schools are more prepared than ever against disasters in Aceh, especially after the 2004 tsunami. TODAY takes a light-hearted look at an evacuation exercise at Fajar Hidayah Boarding School in Banda Aceh, where an excuse for students to get out of class might just one day save their lives.

Understanding the big wave

The Indian Ocean earthquake in 2004 off the West Coast of Sumatra measured 9.2 on the Richter scale. It was the third-largest ever recorded and the amount of energy the undersea earthquake released was 1,500 times that of the Hiroshima atomic bomb. The abrupt vertical movement in the seabed caused by the earthquake unleashed massive seismic tidal waves, which killed 230,000 people in 14 countries on the Indian Ocean. Tsunami waves were observed on shores as far as South Africa and Antarctica. The event is one of the deadliest natural disasters in history. To see the full infographic, click here.

Watch: Retired from NUS geography department and now Visiting Associate Professor at University of Adelaide, Dr Wong Poh Poh has been to Aceh and other tsunami affected coasts numerous times since 2005 to study the impact of the tsunami on the coastline, and its recovery over the years. He tells TODAY of the importance of mangrove forests and how it can dampen the impact of a tsunami.

 

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