As Hamdaniyah Surbakti, a 62-year-old resident of Aceh province, began to pick up the pieces of her house that was destroyed by last month’s severe floods, she inevitably thought about the 2004 tsunami that devastated Indonesia and other parts of the world.
“It was worse than the 2004 tsunami,” said Hamdaniyah, referring to the recent torrential rains and flash floods that swept across northern Sumatra.
“When the tsunami came, it only hit one area around [the provincial capital of] Banda Aceh. The flood this time covered almost all of Aceh.”
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On December 26, 2004, a 9.1 underground earthquake erupted off Sumatra, with the resultant tsunami killing more than 160,000 people in Aceh alone and levelling entire communities.
At the end of November, heavy rains brought by a rare equatorial cyclone battered North Sumatra, West Sumatra and Aceh, triggering flash floods and landslides that buried villages, cut off roads and displaced millions. More than 1,000 people were killed across Sumatra, according to authorities.
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For survivors, the disaster felt more terrifying not because of the death toll but because of its scale and unpredictability.