Indonesia was the first country to be seriously affected by the earthquake and tsunami created by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on 26 December 2004, flooding the northern and western coastal regions of Sumatra, and the smaller remote islands outside of Sumatra. Almost all victims and damage occurred in the province of Aceh. The tsunami arrival time is between 15 and 30 minutes after a deadly earthquake.
According to the country's National Disaster Relief Coordinating Agency, 250,000 people were killed and 37,063 missing. In addition, the UN estimates that 655,000 people are displaced and are sheltering in refugee camps scattered throughout the province.
On January 23, 2005, the Ministry of Health reported 173,981 people were killed while the Ministry of Social Affairs recorded 114,978 people were killed. On January 25, Health Minister Fadilah Supari updated the estimated death to 220,000. The death toll now (2011) is estimated at 230,000 who died in the tsunami.
Video Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Indonesia
Aftermath
North Sumatra took damage from the earthquake itself when the tsunami landed on it. However, much of the damage is the result of the tsunami that struck Aceh's coastal region and to a much lower level than the province of North Sumatra. The west coast of Aceh is about 100 km (60 mi) from the epicenter and takes very severe damage as far south as Tapaktuan. The coastal city of Lhoknga is struck by a tsunami wave of more than 20 to 25 meters with a height of more than 30 meters in some places. The ten-meter waves pass through the northern tip of the island to race south along the Strait of Malacca and attack along the northeast coast as far east as Lhokseumawe.
Reports from those who flew on the coast of Aceh have reported a nearly destroyed coastline. In many cities and villages, concrete pads are left over from substantial structures, while wavy paper-wrinkled corrugated roofs are the only evidence of flimsier homes. Some of the intact mosques rose tremendously from the desert. "You can not really explain There used to be cities and towns there, everybody has a house, lives," said Petty Class 1 Officer Scott Wickland from the American aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln. "Now there's nothing."
The relief and communication efforts along the west coastline are complicated because a road along the coast has been disturbed by the destruction of dozens of bridges and many roads that have been washed away or blocked by mud. The districts of western Aceh, closest to the epicenter of a 9-magnitude earthquake that caused the tsunami, are "no-go" areas, according to UN Emergency Coordinator Jan Egeland. "Lack of access by road is a major problem facing aid agencies in the north and west of Aceh," said Chris Lom, a regional spokesman for the International Organization for Migration, on Jan. 7. A number of cities on the west coast are cut off from the road from any airport or port. Relief efforts, therefore, require the use of helicopters or boats. In the town of Meulaboh in Aceh, for example, where thousands of people are waiting for help, 99 percent of bridges disappear and 60 percent of asphalt roads are flooded with mud by Lom. "The increase in the number of deaths is almost certain," said William Hyde, Jakarta's emergency relief coordinator for the International Organization for Migration. "So many coastlines are inaccessible."
Government officials in Indonesia, admitted that they have been forced to make a rough estimate of the death toll due to the scale of the destruction and destruction of civil government. They have been forced to use measures such as counting the number of corpses in a mass grave and multiplying them by the number of plots. In other cases, they estimate the population of a village, count survivors and assume the rest die. ([1]) The scale of damage to civilian rule is demonstrated by the fact that after a week of 1,400 police disappeared in Aceh, it has not been reported. All Aceh provincial governments, which have capital in Banda Aceh, have been reportedly wiped out by the deaths of provincial legislators, and many government workers.
UN Secretary General Kofi Annan described the devastation in Aceh province as the worst he had ever seen, having toured the region by helicopter on Friday 7 January.
Banda Aceh
Banda Aceh, Indonesia is a city of about 300,000 people before the tsunami. The majority of victims are in the city. More than 31,000 people have been confirmed dead in the capital Banda Aceh alone, the government has announced. More than a thousand bodies found on the streets of the provincial capital Banda Aceh were placed in mass graves without waiting for identification as officials quickly tried to keep the sanitation situation from worsening.
Leupung
Leupung - sometimes spelled "Leupueng" , is a city in a district (Kabupaten/Kota) in Aceh Besar, close to the city of Banda Aceh, the capital of a special region Aceh. The city has been completely obliterated by the tsunami caused by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Media reports suggest that the tsunami was directed by limestone cliffs to the town of Leupung, which has a population of ten thousand. According to the no remaining vertical and rectangle report , and the estimated number of casualties is between 200 and 700.
Gleebruk
Gleebruk (SatPixs) is a village in the district (Kabupaten/Kota) in Aceh Besar only in the southwest of Banda Aceh. It was completely destroyed by the tsunami due to the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake.
Teunom
Teunom , a city in the district of Memphis the special region of Aceh on the Indonesian island of Sumatra, with a population of about 18,000, is reported to have been so badly damaged that it "disappeared completely and left only a split of scattered concrete" as a result of the tsunamis generated by the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake. Officials estimated 8,000 of the 18,000 inhabitants died.
Calang
Calang was devastated by the tsunami. It was the district capital, but there was little left. Only about 30 percent of the city's survivors. The estimated Calang population mostly falls between 9,000 and 12,000. The trail of destruction left by the tsunami extends two kilometers to the mainland from the coast. All the hills have been swept away.
The Minister of Welfare Alwi Shihab was quoted as saying that the possibility of Calang city, north of Meulaboh, would be relocated inland.
Meulaboh
The town of Meulaboh, which has a population of 120,000 before the tsunami, was hit by a series of seven waves, killing about 40,000 and destroying much of the city, according to aid organizers and local government officials. About 50,000 people lost their homes in the area, local government workers appear to be overwhelmed and there is little sign of coordination with local authorities. About 5,000 people have taken shelter at Meulaboh College but the condition is getting worse. An Indonesian naval vessel carrying relief supplies to Meulaboh was forced to turn away after it could not be docked because the port facility was destroyed. The small airport nearby has reopened and small planes can now land there.
Western Islands
Government officials were initially very concerned about the lack of reports from many small islands off the west coast of Sumatra, such as the islands of Simeulue and Nias, among the poorest regions of Indonesia. However, casualties appear to be relatively mild compared to the mainland of Aceh.
Simeulue Island
Simeulue is not a tragedy that many government officials fear is close to the epicenter. Only five of the 70,000 villagers in Simeulue were killed, all in an earthquake that struck at 7.55 on Sunday. Although 90% of the buildings along its shores have been destroyed, no one is killed on the five meter high water wall that followed. Local traditions seem to have saved them. Mayor Darmili said villagers on the island are accustomed to earthquakes and tsunamis. The last major earthquake occurred in 2002. "Thousands of our people were killed by the tsunami in 1907 and we have a lot of earthquakes here," he said. "Our ancestors have a saying - if there is an earthquake that shakes your life."
Nias Island
In the official account of the island of Nias, the death toll is at 122 through the Ministry of Health, while unconfirmed sources (mostly from phone calls by relatives living in Jakarta) report a death toll of over 600; others say this number is more likely to go over 1000. Reports have emerged that small islands off the coast of Nias island in Sirombu district are still relatively intact, but high waves still prevent locals from trying to reach the islands. Confirmation and communication to the islands is further hampered by the damage to the telecommunications infrastructure, where phone lines are damaged and radio networks have been said to have dropped due to bad weather. Damage to this infrastructure greatly hampers the distribution of aid.
Memphy
Maps Effect of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake on Indonesia
Complications due to Aceh rebellion
The accurate picture of the damage became difficult because of the rebellion of the Free Aceh separatist Movement and the suppression of the Indonesian military which meant that there were few journalists, government offices or aid workers in northern Sumatra before the earthquake. On 27 December the government lifted an 18-month ban banning foreign journalists and aid workers from traveling to Aceh. Also on December 27, a spokesman for the Free Aceh Movement declared a ceasefire so that humanitarian aid could reach the victims, and so as not to complicate the already destructive situation, but some have expressed doubts that there will be good cooperation between the Free Aceh Movement (Gerakan Aceh Merdeka). and the Indonesian military. Despite losing many troops due to the tsunami, the military still has a large presence in the region.
On January 6 the Indonesian military reported that the army had been attacked during a humanitarian mission. The rebels in turn claimed that the Indonesian military took advantage of the situation. If clashes continue, it will cause problems for humanitarian organizations operating outside cities near rebel strongholds. Travel restrictions may apply to strangers again if the conflict resumes. US Secretary of State Colin Powell has warned Indonesia not to use military aid provided for relief efforts for counterinsurgency efforts.
Effects
Although Indonesia is the first and worst state in the region, it is the last to start receiving aid. Two large aftershocks on Wednesday caused many residents, traumatized by their experience, to escape from the coast. Food looting was reported across all the northernmost provinces of Sumatra as aid has proven to be slow to arrive.
Fifteen thousand soldiers, who were in the area to fight the insurgency, were sent to help and search for survivors. However, many soldiers and their families were killed. Three days of national mourning were announced. The Indonesian government stated that the local Aceh provincial government was paralyzed (many local politicians living in Banda Aceh were killed when the tsunami hit the city) and stated that all administrative controls would be handled directly from Jakarta.
An unbearably high number of corpses strewn across towns and villages, limited resources and time to identify the body, and the real threat of cholera, diphtheria and other diseases prompting emergency workers to create makeshift mass graves. One of the most needed supplies is a body bag.
There are significant bottlenecks created by the lack of infrastructure and red tape. The US Children's Fund reported on Thursday that aid for 200,000 people, including medical supplies, soaps and tarps, was held in Jakarta for a day to clean up customs. The US Consul in Medan in southern Sumatra reported that the aid there was piling up at Medan and Banda Aceh airports because there were not enough trucks to transport it. 11 days after the disaster and some foreign aid workers or supplies have reached local residents in local centers such as Meulaboh, Aceh.
Immediately after that, one of the most pressing issues was the inability to distribute sufficient assistance due to the lack of accessible roads and the shortage of helicopters available. What little aid has been made in remote areas of Aceh province is mainly caused by boats and air.
While the airfield outside Banda Aceh works, most other small gravel fields are damaged by the earthquake and tsunami. In the first days only two airfields were functioning in the province. Since most of the few roads in the region are on the beach due to rough interiors, many transport infrastructures are damaged or destroyed. Indonesian helicopters and naval ships offshore provide small amounts of aid.
As it approached the Banda Aceh airport, a heavy cargo plane crashed into a lost buffalo on the runway on January 4, 2005. The underside of the plane crashed, leaving the plane motionless to block the runway for a large part of the day, except for helicopters, until several specialists came from Singapore to provide temporary support under the plane, and people move the plane off the runway.
Four aircraft carrying aid were sent by Australia and one from the US took the evaluation team. An Australian ship carrying a helicopter sailed, but did not reach Sumatra until January 14, 2005. A US Navy carrier aircraft carrier group headquartered in USS Abraham Lincoln, sent to help Aceh, began transporting a small amount of supplies to the rest - the remaining small coastal communities. US relief operations are based at Utapao Thailand base.
In Aceh several elephants from the wildlife park were used to remove debris. (Elephants are also used in Thailand).
See also
- Yogyakarta earthquake 2006
- Pangandaran 2006 earthquake and tsunami
References
External links
- Jakarta Post (Indonesia) newspaper
- Banda Aceh, Quickbird satellite images, DigitalGlobe Inc. , 2004-12-28
- Surf Aid International surfers are trying to restore their favorite surf spots
- NiasIsland.com is an open content site created by people of Niasia and (previous) visitors to Nias
- Aceh IT-Media Center is a coordination center/media center of assistance from the Indonesian IT community
- Indonesia HELP Help and donation blog information for victims of earthquake and tsunami in Aceh & amp; North Sumatra (Indonesia)
- IndonesiaHelp.ORG collection of news/articles from other sources (in multiple languages).
- Map the destruction - BBC
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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