BOXING Day 2004. The fury of the Indian Ocean unleashed by an offshore earthquake of gigantic proportions just miles from the northwestern tip of Sumatra in Indonesia thundered into 14 countries fringing the ocean. Estimates put the death toll at 300,000 and some 200,000 of those deaths occurred in Aceh, Indonesia. The tsunami that came into Indonesia’s northwestern tip was said to be more than five times the height of an average person, at some points turning into a 30m-tall massive wall. Though having lost its great speed as it struck shore, it was hurling in at an estimated 16kph and more, decimating lives and razing buildings.
Banda Aceh, the city nearest to the epicentre of the quake, was decimated with only its main mosque, the Baiturrahman, left standing. Its population, though traumatised, was in awe, mesmerised by a “miracle”. In fact, several mosques in the devastation of what was the thriving province of Aceh, one of Indonesia’s richest, were quite unscathed, a fact attributable to their sturdiness. Hence, the first lesson is that buildings in tsunami-prone areas must be well built. But a generally poor population can but take respite in higher grounds. Many of the coastal enclaves were saved as a result of folklore that warned of signs against a furious sea.
In Thailand, where it struck popular resort cities like Phuket, revellers from as far away as Sweden fell victim to the ferocious waves — 543 Swedes died. In all, some 9,000 foreign tourists, Europeans mostly, were killed by what is the world’s worst ever tsunami. These victims turned it into a global tragedy. Lives were lost in countries on Africa’s east coast, then eastwards to India, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh and then southeast to include Malaysia, where confirmed deaths stood at 68 and the number displaced were more than 5,000. However, the greatest miracle of all was the official aid and donations, forthcoming worldwide, amounting to about US14 billion (RM48 billion).
Now, 10 years on, early warning systems have been put in place. A sophisticated system costing more than US$400 million covering 28 countries have been built from zero base. The Indian Ocean Tsunami Warning System, overseen by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, alerts countries within 10 minutes of an earthquake. Unfortunately, in Indonesia, some parts of the system’s infrastructure — the buoys — have been damaged by fishermen and the one remaining is not operational. In Indonesia, too, the local authorities in Aceh are unwilling to take over from the agency responsible. In short, problems persist. But, in Japan, where the system has long been operational and high walls are built to contain tsunamis, the March 2011 occurrence, most notoriously associated with the Fukushima nuclear power plant disaster, demonstrates clearly that while deaths can be substantially reduced through the early warning system, tsunamis continue to be formidable adversaries.