Banda Aceh

Riding in a Tuk Tuk with driver Jack - air conditioning was great!

Helen, Jim and Carol outside the Tsunami Museum

Electric power generating barge which came to rest 4 kms inland

Fishing boat ended up on top of a house

Banda Aceh

April 2, 2016

We are taking advantage of this good anchorage in Sabang to do some extended sightseeing. After a week for the anchor to set well, not much wind entering the bay, contacts with locals for help, other boats in the bay, and a secure place to leave the dinghy all made us feel ok about leaving the boat. We don't know what we will find in other places in Sumatra.

The first place we wanted to visit is Banda Aceh, where the most severe damage was done by the tsunami in 2004. It is only a 45 min ferry ride to the mainland. Jim and Helen from Gaia also wanted to visit. So Saturday, April 2, we got Hasan to drive us to the ferry, along with Luc who was catching a flight home. Hasan arranged with friends of his, Herry and Jack, to take us around in their tuk tuks for the day doing chores as well as visiting the tsunami museum. Gaia ordered a new dinghy motor, and Rob replaced a watch and bought a portable charger.

The museum was worth the visit! There was info on the geology of the earthquakes and tsunami, and many photos and stats on the damage done at their location. 150,000 of the victims, one third of which were children, were from this one city. It is a large, low lying area susceptible to flooding. At the ferry dock, the wave was 18 meters high and traveling at 700 km/hr. By the time it reached the city core it was 5 m high. It was, by then, carrying much debris and bodies. Chinatown on the northern flats got the worst of it. That morning there were at least 6 earthquakes along the fault line. The closest and largest was a 9.3. There was already a lot of damage from the earthquake. The wave, 45 min later, was mostly unexpected. Our driver lost his wife and mother. Most families lost someone. It is hard to imagine what it must have been like!

As well as the museum, we visited a power generating barge that was in the harbour but is now 4 km inland and being used as another museum. There is another vessel that ended up on the roof of a house and is still there, and a coast guard boat tipped between a few houses. They have built a memorial park around one of the mass grave sites near the water for 45,000 people. The museum has a detailed accounting of the donations and type of work that has been done in the last 11 yr. They even were using elephants to help remove the garbage. It was a major effort to help people find their family members. Those involved in the planning are now consulted on disaster preparedness for other countries. It was good to see that Canada was one of the more significant donors.