Red Cross Blogs

Roundup: Boxing Day tsunami, five years on

By Jamie
December 26, 2009 at 4:04 pm

On this day five years ago, one of the deadliest natural disasters in history struck eleven countries in the Indian Ocean.

Under the water off the west coast of Sumatra a magnitude 9.2 underwater earthquake – the second largest ever recorded -  triggered a series of tsunamis that killed 230,000 people and devastated thousands of communities. Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, India and the Maldives were the hardest hit.

Five years on, the survivors of the Boxing Day tsunami have rebuilt their lives and communities with the help of the British Red Cross and other aid agencies. Our delegate Mandy George visited one of the worst affected areas, Banda Aceh in Indonesia, this month to learn how the country has recovered and hear the stories of survivors as they remember the Boxing Day disaster five years ago.

She recorded her trip on the British Red Cross delegate diaries blog and on Twitter, and you can see the photographs from the journey on Flickr.

The BBC also visited Aceh and describe how ‘where once there was nothing, there is now a city bustling with life…In place of that desolate landscape [after the tsunami], there are now rows and rows of newly-built houses, red and blue roofs glinting in the sunlight.‘

The Guardian visited Dhuvaafaru in the Maldives, Thailand and Banda Aceh to explore the Red Cross’s role in ‘rebuilding lives and salvaging communities’, guided by a motto of ‘build back better’ – the strategy of replacing housing structures with earthquake resistant homes that would stand a better chance of protecting residents from the effects of natural disasters in future.

The Times described ‘the new dawn’ for the people of Aceh following the tsunami related the stories of several Acehnese locals who saw the 100ft waves destroy their homes. They tell how ‘nearly every survivor in Aceh has a story to tell of that Sunday morning when the sky blackened, the birds disappeared and three massive bomb-like explosions from the sea heralded three gigantic waves, each higher and more ferocious than the last, cutting a swathe through Aceh’s land and people.’

The New York Times wrote how, since 2004, ‘more than 800 nongovernmental organizations, multilateral agencies and donor countries have combined to spend $6.7 billion’ on the reconstruction effort in Aceh.

The Scotsman described the appeal following the disaster as one that left ‘a legacy to be proud of’ and said how the British Red Cross and other members of the Disaster Emergency Committee (DEC ) “‘engaged… in a way which built trust, ownership and responsibility. Their reconstruction programmes have left a legacy that is more than just bricks and mortar.’“

CNN reported on the prayers and memorial ceremonies across Asia today to remember those lost in the tsunami: “‘We are only human’ said a woman who lost her teenage children and several nieces in the tsunami. ‘We’ll never really forget.‘”

Reuters also visited a memorial in Thailand where they saw ‘hundreds of lanterns [floating] into the sky at Patong in one of many events across the region‘. Associated Press described how ‘Buddhist monks chanted on white-sand beaches in Thailand and thousands prayed at mosques in Indonesia‘.

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Tags: banda aceh, boxing day, Indonesia, tsunami

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