‘I ran immediately’: Survivors of the 2004 tsunami remember ‘the big wave’ 20 years on

Twenty years ago today, Indonesian fisherman Razali was preparing for a day at sea off the coast of Aceh — a north-west province in Indonesia’s Sumatra — when he heard what sounded like an explosion.

Moments later, he looked out over the ocean and saw a wall of water heading his way.

“When I came out of my home, I saw the big wave. I ran immediately and didn’t turn back,” he tells SBS News.

The sound Razali heard was a 9.1 magnitude undersea earthquake, which struck 240km off the coast of Sumatra at around 8am on 26 December 2004.

I told everybody to get out and go up the mountain because a big wave is coming here, to our village.

Razali

In the hours that followed, a tsunami triggered by the earthquake surged across the Indian Ocean, at speeds of 800km per hour.

It reached Aceh’s shore in just 15 minutes; the ‘wall of water’ bringing death and destruction to the densely populated province.

Men carrying a dead body on their shoulders wade through piles of debris.

The United Nations estimates that at least 225,000 people died during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. Source: AFP / via Getty Images

Miracle birth

In that crucial window, Razali had run home to his heavily pregnant wife Nadiah: He was one of the few who had recognised the danger, and the pair left immediately on foot for higher ground.

Nadiah gave birth that night on the mountaintop, overlooking their entire village destroyed below.

“When the tsunami happened, I was nine months pregnant and going up the mountain was very difficult,” she recalls.

“When I arrived at the top of the mountain, it was 7pm. My son Mohamed was born just after. I had nothing, no midwife or anyone to help me.”

A man wearing a white t-shirt and hat sits next to a woman in a white jilbab and a printed green dress, holding a photo.

Nadiah and Razali with a photo of their son, who was born the night of the tsunami. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

When the water receded, the pair walked back down with their newborn son. It was a surreal experience, carrying life but surrounded by death.

“While we were walking to the emergency shelter, I saw so many dead bodies laid out on the road. I had to step over them; there were so many,” Razali says.

Mass graves

The United Nations estimates that at least 225,000 people died during the 2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami. It brought disaster to 14 countries, killing tens of thousands in Southeast Asia and South Asia and impacting coastal communities as far away as East Africa.

Around 60,000 people were killed in Aceh alone, as locals reported waves as high as 30m.

A mass grave marked by a marble memorial slab inscribed with words in Indonesian.

A mass grave in Aceh, where 3000 people were buried. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

The sheer number of deaths meant that tens of thousands were buried in mass graves, without ever being identified by their loved ones.

SBS News visited a mass grave in the village of Lhoknga, where around 90 per cent of its 6,000 residents were killed during the tsunami.

Around 3,000 are buried in its mass grave, which is looked after by a single volunteer named Sabari.

A man sits on the stoop of a rural property, wearing a faded navy t-shirt.

Sabari looks after the mass grave that contains around 3,000 bodies. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

Sabari survived the tsunami by clinging to a tree for 12 hours. He was with his wife in the moments before the wave struck, but she was swept away along with his daughter.

“I was adrift in the current, holding onto a banana tree [to stay afloat]. It eventually got wedged inside another tree. I survived in that position until 8pm,” he says.

“The next day, locals told me they found the body of a woman and a child.

I saw the many bodies lying on the road, waiting to be identified, and I saw my wife and daughter.

Sabari

Global disaster

With 170,000 fatalities, Indonesia recorded the highest death toll of the 14 affected countries, followed by Sri Lanka (35,322), India (16,269) and Thailand (8,212).

Thousands were killed on Thailand’s popular Phi Phi Islands, including hundreds of European tourists.

“I could see the bay was very dark. I could hear people screaming,” local Thai woman Cholada remembers.

“We’ve never had anything like that on Phi Phi Island. A lot of people died.”

A woman with dark hair pulled back into a ponytail wears a red and white spotted shirt and smiles at the camera.

Cholada lives on Thailand’s Phi Phi islands, located south-east of Phuket. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

The total economic cost of the damage was more than US$9 billion (approximately $12 billion) at the time across all countries. Restoring water and electricity and providing shelter for the 1.7 million people displaced by the tsunami took years.

The scale of destruction was met with a near-unprecedented international response, with around US$14 billion (around 18.4 billion) at the time raised internationally — much of it from the general public.

Charity organisation World Vision received $118 million in donations from Australian donors alone, which supported the rebuilding of 12,000 homes for survivors.

Supipi was 18 when the tsunami hit Sri Lanka’s Matara district. Her home was destroyed, and many relatives died, but she was given a new home further away from the coast where she still lives today.

“Today, I have no tears to cry; I have cried so much. I couldn’t bear that sadness. I first moved here with my mother, and now I have my own family,” she says.

A couple stands with their two daughters under the verandah of a house with yellow walls.

Supipi (pictured right with her family) was a teenager when the tsunami hit her home in Sri Lanka’s Matara district. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

A day of reflection

Back in Aceh, services will today be held across the region’s many tsunami memorial sites.

In addition to mass graves, the province is now home to the Aceh Tsunami Museum, which opened in the capital Banda Aceh in 2009. Other signs of the tsunami’s damage are scattered throughout the region.

In the centre of Banda Aceh, a wooden ship sits several stories off the ground, wedged between houses. When the tsunami swept through the city’s port, it carried the ship 5km inland.

It’s one of two ships that washed onshore during the disaster — the other is a staggering 2,600-tonne vessel named Apung 1 — which now forms a part of the collective memory of the Acehnese people, who have absorbed the tragedy and continued to grow.

This ship washed onshore during the tsunami and has since become a tourist attraction. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

The tsunami cost Indonesia an estimated $4.4 billion and destroyed almost all of Aceh’s economy. Today, beachside villages along the west coast, which were destroyed, are rebuilding around an emerging surf tourism scene.

Aceh’s waves and white sands have seen small restaurants and guesthouses pop up along the coast, servicing growing numbers of tourists from across Asia, Europe and Australia.

“In the last five years, surfing in Aceh has gone through some major changes, especially with the increase in foreign tourists recently,” says Aceh Surfing Association’s Dery Setyawan.

“We also held a national surfing event that was a good promotional event for Aceh, and showed we have very good waves.”

A man is kneeling on the beach shore teaching three kids how to surf, each of whom is standing on their surfboard.

Aceh’s burgeoning surf culture has become a tourist attraction in recent years. Source: SBS News / Aaron Fernandes

The ocean is a fundamental part of daily life for the people of Aceh. The region is estimated to have lost up to 20 per cent of its fishermen during the disaster, but those that survived have mostly returned to its waters to continue earning an income.

Signs along the streets now point the way for people to run if another tsunami occurs.

Two decades on, a region that saw a near inconceivable level of death and destruction is still bearing the scars — but finding ways to survive.

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