The giant wave hit suddenly, in the corporate of shocks from the earthquake, which threw every little thing at chaos.
“The wave took every little thing in sight.”
It was a tsunami within the Indian Ocean, which took place on December 26, 2004, brought on by an earthquake measuring 9.1 on the Richter scale with an epicenter at a depth of 30 kilometers on the west coast of Sumatra in Indonesia.
Not only Indonesia was affected, but a 9.1 earthquake also caused huge waves that crashed into the ACEH coast in Indonesia and swept to Sri Lanka, India, Thailand and nine other countries within the Indian Ocean region.
At the start of the twenty first century, Tsunami is registered as probably the most terrifying natural disasters, with at the very least 14 countries, mainly in Southeast Asia, affected by about 230,000 people.
The most difficult area was the Indonesian province of ACEH, through which 130,000 people were killed.
Tsunami Indian Ocean was considered one of the darkest moments in the worldwide history of Tsunami. A 50 meter high wave moving at a speed of over 800 kilometers per hour (500 miles per hour) crashed 5 kilometers deep into the land near Meulaboh.
According to the provisions, this disaster caused a mass wave that released the equivalent energy of 23,000 Hiroshima atomic bombs, which causes damage on an enormous scale.
The influence not only occurs in Indonesia
Based on EMDCE data cited from DWLarge waves were hit by countries surrounded by the Indian Ocean, comparable to Sri Lanka with over 35,000 dead, India, which lost 16,389 people in Thailand, who recorded 8345 deaths and almost 300 people in Somalia.
In addition, the Maldives also had over 100 deaths, in addition to dozens in Malaysia and Myanmar.
Attracting global attention
On December 26, 2004 at 07:59 local time, just a couple of hours after the earthquake, the tsunami waves also reached Africa, causing complete destruction within the affected region.
The UN called Tsunami in Aceh the worst and the best humanitarian disaster in history.
International help was immediately sent to the place of disaster, especially in ACEH, Khao Lak in Thailand and a part of Sri Lanka.
Global help begins to look, including:
- Germany sent a military aircraft as a lifebuilding clinic to the disaster area and assigned 380 Bundeswehr military staff to supply the care of 3000 victims in Indonesia.
- The German government also provided EUR 5,000 million to assist in humanitarian aid and rehabilitation of affected areas, while German public opinion collected EUR 670 million donations related to the tsunami.
- The United States deployed helicopters and aircraft carrier “USS Abraham Lincoln” within the waters off the coast of Sumatra to support the evacuation of victims and distribution of help.
- The international community has undertaken to assist $ 2 billion.
- In Europe, many large cities expressed their deepest condolences for a moment of silence, in addition to during parliamentary sessions, when the news of the Tsunami spread.
Also read: Lake Toba, Indonesia: A lovely remnant of a terrifying, close apocalyptic disaster
After the reconstruction of the Tsunami
According to information from DwOn March 14, 2005, Indonesia cooperated with Germany to create a warning system of Tsunami.
This technical tool, German assistance value 40 million euros, was often known as GITEWS (the German system of early warning of Indonesia Tsunami).
In 2008, the GITEWS system was updated to Inatews (Indonesian Early Tsunami warning system).
After years of coping with Tsunami, especially in Indonesia, which is an area at risk of a disaster, considered one of the steps to transfer the region is training with disaster limiting, drilling training, construction of evacuation buildings and preparing evacuation places.
Recovery after tsunami, especially in ACEH, is an extended journey that’s related to many obligations of many parties.
Cooperation and give attention to sustainable development is considered one of the ways through which ACEH and other affected countries can get well after destruction.
Also read: Unite Against Disaster: How ASEAN has joined to assist the victims of Taiphoon Haiyan
While there are various obstacles to the event of infrastructure, economic recovery and repair of psychological or psychological trauma, the continual development of early warning systems might be considered one of the means to be higher and stronger when natural disasters occurred again.
These incidents not only leave a deep influence on history, but additionally require recovery efforts that can not be accomplished in a short while.
