The tsunami of December 2004 in Sumatra

November 21, 2008 at 2:45 pm

Tsunami, killed more than 180,000 peoples with many more still missing

On December 26, 2004, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake occurred with an epicenter off the west coast of Northern Sumatra.

The earthquake and the tsunami it spawned resulted in more than 225,000 confirmed deaths, the worst tsunami disaster on record and one of the top 10 earthquake disasters ever recorded. The tsunami itself was generated along the 1200km fault rupture and the waves were recorded over 5,000 miles from the source. It has been estimated that the power of the tsunami itself was the equivalent of approximately 5 megatons of TNT; to put that into perspective, the entire explosive arsenal used during 6 years of World War II was around 2 megatons. The earthquake itself generated around 1.5 exajoules, which is around the same amount of energy consumed in the United States per annum and more than 1000 times the power of the most powerful nuclear weapon ever detonated.

The Bodies at Kesdam Hopital, Banda Aceh

Jl. Tentara Pelajar, Banda Aceh after tsunami

Human and environmental impact of the tsunami has been catastrophic; in addition to the near quarter million casualties, a million people have been left homeless and hundreds of thousands of livelihoods, homes and businesses have been left in ruins. The United Nations estimate that the disaster will prove to be the costliest ever recorded, with full economic recovery not expected for up to 10 years in many areas. (Source: http://www.intute.ac.uk)

Second days after tsunami, together with IRD’s country director — Rod Snider — setup emergency response team. In the first week, I organized emergency relief supplies based at Halim Perdana Kusuma airport and Tanjung Priok sea port. Also, David Prettyman and I went to Medan to coordination with US Consulate General for arranging six congress delegation members in Medan/Indonesia at 16 January 2005. Then, I was on the ground to provided emergency response on this disaster until March 2005.

In first 2006, I joined AmeriCares to be part of AmeriCares’ team to continue tsunami relief efforts in Aceh and Nias.