Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Scene 1 2 3 4
5 6 7 8
9 10 11 12
FRONT COVER Video scenes from Banda Aceh, December 26, 2004. All but the last were shot
in Simpang Lima, at the tsunami’s feather edge almost 3 km from the sea (p. iii).
Scene
1-4 Crowds gather and an ambulance passes in front of a department store collapsed by
the Aceh-Andaman earthquake, which occurred close to 8:00 a.m. (timeline, p. 4). Little
more than the store’s facade remains upright (scene 1; side view, p. 7).
5-8 Close to 9:00 a.m., people begin fleeing on a street that is still dry. They have heard that
the sea is coming. The water follows. Children can run through it at first.
9-11 Household objects congest the growing flood.
12 A survivor receives help.
Credits, p. 22
Published in 2010 by United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO),
for its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), 7 Place de Fontenoy, 75 352 Paris 07 SP,
France
Produced by Jakarta Tsunami Information Centre (JTIC), UNESCO/IOC, UNESCO Office Jakarta,
Jalan Galuh (II) No. 5, Kebayoran Baru, Jakarta 12110, Indonesia. www.jtic.org
Supersedes “Surviving a tsunami — Lessons from Aceh and southern Java, Indonesia,” 2009. Based
on “Selamat dari bencana tsunami,” 2009 (IOC Brochure 2009-1)
First printing 2010 for UNESCO/IOC - NOAA International Tsunami Information Centre, Honolulu,
Hawaii
When citing this booklet please include its IOC series and number, IOC Brochure 2010-4 (or IOC/
BRO/2010/4), and designate UNESCO/IOC as its publisher. In addition, please use each compiler’s
names in full because none is a family name (reference 14, p. 26).
The designation employed and the presentation of the material in this publication do not imply the
expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Secretariat of UNESCO, concerning the legal
status of any country or territory, or its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of the frontiers of
any country or territory.
Compiled by Eko Yulianto1, Fauzi Kusmayanto1, Nandang Supriyatna1, and Mohammad Dirhamsyah2
Adapted by Brian F. Atwater3, Eko Yulianto, and Ardito M. Kodijat4
1
Lembaga Ilmu Pengetahuan Indonesia (Indonesian Institute of Sciences), Bandung
2
Universitas Syiah Kuala, Banda Aceh
3
United States Geological Survey, Seattle
4
United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, Jakarta
Index Maps Number in bold italics denotes booklet page where place is mentioned.
Evacuation Strategies
Run to the Hills 11 During the tsunami
Abandon Belongings 12
Stay Out of Cars 13
Beware of Rivers and Bridges 14
Climb a Tall Building 16
Climb a Tree 18
Use Floating Objects as Life Rafts 19
If Offshore, Go Farther out to Sea 20
Expect More Than One Wave 21
Notes 22
Introduction 1
2 Where the First Wave Arrives in Minutes
The Earliest Warnings
Understanding Why Tsunamis Happen to Us
TSUNAMI WARNING begins decades before 1. It is by God’s will that we find themselves 2. Most tsunamis result from plate tectonics—the
the tsunami does. It takes time to build scientific on an Earth that both sustains and endangers us. motion of rock slabs that form our planet’s outer
and public knowledge of tsunami risk. Can Rocks yield minerals, oil, gas, and coal. Soils shell. Most tsunamis originate near a sloping
tsunamis damage a coastal community? If so, enriched by beautiful volcanoes nourish plants boundary between tectonic plates, where one
how often can they be expected to occur, and that feed and delight. Surrounding seas provide plate descends, or subducts, beneath another.
how much harm can they cause? In Indonesia fish and ports. But these same lands and waters Subduction yields the fault ruptures that set off
these questions lead to a more basic one: Why are also rich in natural hazards. Tsunamis, along most tsunamis. The plates themselves are moving
do tsunamis happen to us? Here are two of the with earthquakes, volcanoes, and landslides, are about as fast as our fingernails grow (arrows on
explanations offered in Indonesia: not punishments from God, but rather are part of map, p. 23). The motion, monitored by orbiting
God’s gift to contemplate. satellites, shows no sign of stopping.
Tsunamis since 1800 have taken more lives in Indonesia than anywhere else, in part because
the waves arrive quickly. Imam Abu Abdul Rhaffar holds a clock believed stopped by the
tsunami in Lhok Nga (left). The time is a little more than 20 minutes after the start of the 2004
Aceh-Andaman earthquake (above).
On most coasts, a damaging tsunami happens so rarely that people forget about the hazard. Earth’s own extended memory of tsunami history can help them remember.
Earthquake shaking provided a natural tsunami warning that was widely heeded
on Simeulue Island (facing page) but not in Banda Aceh. The shaking brought
down the Pante Pirak department store (right)—a collapse that surpassed most
other earthquake damage in Banda Aceh, and which drew onlookers in the hour
before the tsunami chased people from the area (front cover).
An earthquake without a tsunami reinforced a Sumatran city’s policy that upon feeling a strong
earthquake, people in its tsunami-prone areas should evacuate without waiting for official
guidance. The earthquake took place September 30, 2009 near Padang, where several hundred
thousand people live in tsunami-evacuation areas. Indonesia’s tsunami-warning center
quickly announced that the earthquake was too deep to set off a tsunami. But most people in
Padang had trouble receiving this news because of earthquake damage to electric-power grids,
cellphone networks, and radio stations. At right, the jammed evacuation and a timeline for the
mayor’s decision to cancel it.
Booms heard in Aceh during the 2004 tsunami sounded like artillery from
the area’s military conflict that the tsunami helped to end. At left, uniformed
soldiers from the national army mingle with the tsunami’s wounded.
Evacuation Strategies 11
Abandon Belongings
ONE OF SIMEULUE’S seven tsunami victims was a 60-year-old man who
used the 2004 earthquake as a tsunami warning and evacuated promptly, only
to take a chance on retrieving things he had left behind.
The man, Lasamin, was a life-long resident of Sinabang who felt the
ground shake strongly on December 26, 2004. Schooled in smong (p. 6),
he and his wife got on their motorcycle and sped towards the hills. They
reached high ground without incident.
As waters of the first wave receded, Lasamin told his wife he was going
to retrieve documents in their house. Perhaps he doubted that the sea would
come in again, or maybe he believed that if it did, he could outrace it on his
motorbike. Whatever was going through his mind, he headed back toward
the tsunami.
On the way he met his young friend Sukran (right). He asked him
to come along, and Sukran agreed. An incoming wave soon toppled the
motorbike and flung Lasamin to the asphalt. Sukran survived by swimming
to and climbing a nearby tree, but Lasamin was later found dead.
Evacuation Strategies 13
Beware of Rivers and Bridges
The incoming 2004 tsunami drove the remains of houses and entire boats into a bridge over
the Aceh River (left). In this area, 1 km seaward from scenes on the front cover, the tsunami
crested 6-8 m above the ground surface (flow depths, p. iii). On the south coast of Java,
Suwardi (right) shows how he braced himself against fast-flowing water from a stream that the
2006 tsunami had engorged.
Evacuation Strategies 15
Climb a Tall Building
Evacuation Strategies 17
Climb a Tree
PEOPLE caught in a tsunami sometimes survive it by reaching and
climbing trees. Some steer themselves toward the nearest tree, while others
have the good fortune to drift there by accident. Once in a tree, many people
manage to hang on for the tsunami’s duration (stories below and p. 10, 12).
Like so many others in the vicinity of Banda Aceh, Wardiyah could not
help but notice the 2004 earthquake. Although her house in Kajhu stood 300
m from the shore, she heard none of booms reported by others (p. 10). She
did, however, hear a sound like the roaring of a wind just before the tsunami
washed over her. She was carried inland by the first wave, then out to sea
by its backwash. Along the way she managed to grab a piece of wood that
helped keep her afloat. The next wave moved her back onshore to a place
near a kedondong fruit tree (right). There she found herself standing in
water just knee deep. But soon more water surged in, carrying her closer to
the tree. She grabbed a branch and climbed to the tree top. Fearful of more
waves she stayed in the tree several hours longer, along with a man who had
also taken refuge there.
The 2006 tsunami found Teguh Sutarno on Widarapayung beach, where
he was collecting little clams to feed to his ducks. It was the season for this
type of beach clam. Seeing something like a large swell on the horizon, he
wondered what it could be. He waited, watching, until realizing it was a
big wave. By then it was too late for an escape. The water first carried him Two saved by trees: Wardiyah in front of the kedondong tree that she climbed during the 2004
tsunami in Banda Aceh; and Teguh Sutarno, who used a coconut palm during the 2006 tsunami
into some bushes, where he remained until the second wave moved him to a near Cilacap.
group of tree stumps. During the third wave Teguh remembered hearing how
people had survived the 2004 Aceh tsunami by climbing trees. He aimed for
one of the many coconut trees nearby. Managing to reach and climb one, he
held on while the tsunami flowed beneath him.
Evacuation Strategies 19
If Offshore, Go Farther Out to Sea
AS A TSUNAMI approaches shore its great speed and wavelength
get converted into height. So it is not surprising that fishermen, already at
sea when the 2004 and 2006 tsunamis bore down on them, found safety by
going farther seaward. One of them, however, nearly fell victim to tsunami
backwash and another lost a friend who had sought safety by going to shore.
Emirza survived most of the 2004 tsunami while off Banda Aceh’s Ulee
Lheue coast. Here, four waves caught Emirza’s boat. He struggled to keep
the bow pointed into the incoming waves, and all the while trying to get
farther out to sea. Finally he reached calmer waters, where he waited before
deciding to head home. But just before he reached the harbor a torrent from
the land capsized the boat. Emirza survived by grasping an electric cable
and climbing up a power pole.
Budiyono and a friend were fishing, each in his own boat, about five
hundred metres off the shore at Pangandaran when the first wave of the
2006 tsunami loomed on the horizon. At first Budiyono did not see it
because he was facing toward land. The friend noticed the wave, but by the
time Budiyono noticed it the wave was fast approaching. The friend raced
towards the coast. Budiyono headed out to sea, needing all his strength to
fight the incoming waves. Budiyono survived but the friend who had turned Emirza (left), rode out the largest waves of the 2004 tsunami by taking his fishing boat to deep
back to land did not. water, though he struggled with tsunami backwash upon returning to Banda Aceh. Heading
out to sea also helped Budiyono (right) endure the 2006 tsunami, which took the life of a fellow
fisherman who had instead headed to shore.
Evacuation Strategies 21
Notes
THIS BOOKLET contains eight eyewitness accounts adapted (scene 12)—all provided by Badan Arsip Daerah Aceh, the
from a collection published by Aceh’s archive office5: provincial archive agency.
Katiman (p. 9), Sharla (p. 10), Surya (p. 10), Harianto The booklet evolved from several predecessors. It
(p. 11), Bukhari and Sujiman (p. 13), Nurdin (p. 21), and resembles, in purpose and format, a collection of eyewitness
Taha (p. 19). Eko Yulianto further interviewed Katiman, accounts of the 1960 Chilean tsunami2. UNESCO’s
Bukhari, and Sujiman. Another collection of dozens of “Selamat dari bencana tsunami”14, in Indonesian, was
essays and stories from Aceh8 contains a fuller account published in 2008. An initial English adaptation,“Surviving
from Brigadier General Suroyo (p. 10). The compilers also a tsunami – Lessons from Aceh and southern Java”, appeared
consulted a collection of newspaper accounts of the 2006 in 2009. The further adaptation you are reading incorporates
tsunami in southern Java15. The remaining accounts come translations by Eko Yulianto; diagrams and endnotes by
from interviews by Eko Yulianto and Nandang Supriatna at Brian Atwater, whose work on the booklet was supported in
Simeulue Island and mainland Aceh in 2005, 2006, 2007 and part under a Fulbright grant; design by Ardito Kodijat; initial
2008, and in Pangandaran and Cilacap in 2006, 2007, and editing by Sally E. Wellesly; and further editing by Brian,
2008. Ardito, Eko, and Mohammad Dirhamsyah in response to
Photo credits: Bedu Saini (p. 2), Franck Lavigne (p. 4), reviews from Marco Cisternas, Nate Wood, Irina Rafliana,
Patra Rina Dewi (p. 8), Herry Yogaswara (p. 12, back cover), Oakley Brooks, Pungky Utami, Veronica Cedillos, Delores
Murat Saatcioglu (p. 16), Ardito Kodijat (p. 26), Badan Clark, Michael Hoppe, Laura Kong, Velly Asvaliantina,
Arsip Daerah Aceh (p. 7, 13, 14), Brian Atwater (p. 1, 5, 22, Joaquim Post, Lori Dengler, Patricia McCrory, and Jane
27, facing 28), and Eko Yulianto (p. 6, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 18, Ciener.
20, 21, 24). Scenes on front cover are from video footage Additional booklets on tsunamis and tsunami safety
by Yasman Yatif (scenes 1-11) and from a documentary by can be found at http://ioc3.unesco.org/itic/categories.
Kementerian Komunikasi dan Informasi, a national agency php?category_no=75.
Legend in Java tells of an ocean queen, Nyi Roro Kidul, who captures men and
women in waves she sends ashore. Similar stories are told as far west as the
Mentawai Islands and eastward to Flores. At left, Roro Kidul drives a chariot on
a canvas by Wasdi, who stands in his studio a stone’s throw from the beach at
Pelabuhanratu, the Port of the Queen.
Notes 23
reach Hawaii47. The 1960 Chilean tsunami reached Hawaii of scientific and engineering papers on the 2004 tsunami33. potential. Earthquake size is estimated most readily by
in 15 hours13 and Japan in just under a full day2. The same collection contains an analysis by geologists and measuring what a seismologist, Emile Okal, has called
psychologists of natural warnings of the 2004 tsunami in “treble notes” – the high-frequency waves that people feel.
The Earth May Remember What People Forget Thailand20. The 1994 and 2006 earthquakes, however, were dominated
(p. 5) In a widely known celebration of traditional knowledge by “bass notes.” For much the same reason that people
THE SAND BEDS in the Thai photo further suggest that about tsunamis, a Greek-American journalist fictionalized scarcely felt these earthquakes, it is possible to underestimate
a total of four Indian Ocean tsunamis like the one in 2004 an evacuation by Japanese villagers who in real life were their size by neglecting their low-frequency content.
have occurred since 2,500-2,800 years ago, for an average well-practiced in using an earthquake as their cue to go to Seismologists have now come up with work-arounds30, 56.
recurrence interval of 800-900 years or less27. Geologic high ground. In the journalist’s dramatic retelling23, none of Indonesia officially inaugurated a national tsunami-
evidence for predecessors to the 2004 tsunami has also been them know to take this cue except for an elderly man steeped warning system in November 2008. As with such systems in
reported from Aceh Barat near Meulaboh36 and from India in in traditional knowledge. Too far away to be heard, the man Japan and the United States57, the initial cue is an undersea
the Andaman and Nicobar Islands43, 44 and south of Chennai42. lures the clueless villagers to high ground by torching all of earthquake detected by seismometers (http://www.jtic.
The sand beds shown in the photo from Pangandaran have his freshly harvested rice. The earthquake that he notices org/en/jtic/images/dlPDF/bha_budpar/The_Indonesian_
not yet been documented in scientific journals. is weak, like the real earthquake whose stealth tsunami Warning_Chain_V2.pdf). The seismic waves, by traveling
Multiple centuries typically separate back-to-back killed 22,000 people in northeast Japan in 1896. The story, tens of times faster than tsunami waves, make possible initial
earthquakes recorded geologically at several other published soon after that disaster and known in Japanese as warning messages within several minutes. Water-level
subduction zones including Sumatra48, Cascadia3, 19, 39, gauges on the coast and offshore are then to show whether a
Hokkaido37, 46, and south-central Chile10. At these zones, tsunami has been generated, after time lags under evaluation.
steady motion of tectonic plates converging at centimeters
per year produces the seismic slip that makes the zones’
The Tsunami May Arrive Before Official
largest earthquakes. The steady motion, like money put in Guidance Can (p. 8)
a savings account every payday, can take centuries to yield INTERVIEWS IN PADANG five to six weeks after the
the average slip of 10-20 meters in a giant earthquake, of earthquake of September 30, 2009 yielded lessons on
magnitude 9. the roles of natural and official warnings in a city where
It is an open question whether earthquakes of magnitude an estimated 200,000 persons reside in areas subject
8 or larger can happen on the subduction zone that slants to a fast arriving tsunami. These lessons are spelled
beneath Java34. This zone’s largest earthquakes measured by out in a recent report25 available at http://www.jtic.org/
seismology6,40 yielded the tsunamis that reportedly took 238 en/info-sources/other-tsunami-sources/publications.
lives in eastern Java in 1994 and about 700 in western Java html?download=1314%3A30-minutes-in-the-city-of-padang.
in 2006. At moment magnitude 7.8 and 7.7, respectively, Among 200 individuals interviewed, half evacuated
these earthquakes had less than 1/1000th the size of the 2004 in response to the earthquake alone, and four-fifths of
earthquake, which attained a moment magnitude in the range In an interview in 2006, Sabri (left) of Lakuban, Simeulue, said these evacuees got underway in the first 15 minutes. But
9.0-9.3; each whole number increase in the logarithmic scale he could still recall the 1907 tsunami. meanwhile, officials from government agencies and non-
of earthquake magnitude corresponds to a nearly 32-fold governmental organizations grappled with receiving and
increase in seismic moment, a linear measure of earthquake “Inamura no hi” (“The rice-sheaf fire”), brought the word broadcasting information about the lack of tsunami threat.
size28. “tsunami” into the English language4. Outages of power and telephone service contributed to delays
in notifying the public in Padang that the earthquake was
How Grandparents and Graves Kept Memories If The Earth Shakes, a Tsunami May Soon unlikely to generate a tsunami. The report’s authors found
Alive (p. 6) Follow (p. 7) that in Padang, official information about the absence of a
THE SAVING OF THOUSANDS of lives by Simeulue’s FEEBLE SHAKING like that from the 1994 and 2006 Java tsunami threat was largely unavailable to the public in the
tsunami traditions has been documented most fully in earthquakes poses a challenge for official tsunami warnings_ first 30 minutes after the earthquake.
an Indonesian report also available in English24. A brief as well as for natural ones. Tsunami-warning centers make Decentralized government in Indonesia gives local
account of the evacuation of Langi appears in a collection rapid estimates of earthquake size as a first clue to tsunami jurisdictions the authority to order and cancel tsunami
Notes 25
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The Jakarta Tsunami Information Centre, JTIC was founded in 2006 in response to the Indian Jakarta Tsunami Information Center
this booklet’s producer, develops and provides information Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004. In its first two UNESCO Office Jakarta
to reduce suffering and loss of life from tsunamis. It focuses and one-half years it was supported by the Canadian Jl. Galuh II No. 5, Kegayoran Baru
its efforts on Southeast Asia as a regional complement to the International Development Agency. Today it is an arm of the Jakarta 12110, Indonesia
UNESCO/IOC - NOAA International Tsunami Information Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC), which +62-21-7399-818
Centre. in turn is part of the United Nations Educational, Scientific a.kodijat@unesco.org
JTIC strives to promote tsunami preparedness through Cultural Organization (UNESCO). www.jtic.org
educational materials, this booklet being one of many JTIC does not issue tsunami warnings but it does provide
examples. A comprehensive website, www.jtic.org, allows information about how tsunami warnings are made and how
free download of dozens of tsunami-education materials to respond to them. Inquiries are always welcome.
developed by JTIC and others. The Centre makes some of
these materials available in print.
A TSUNAMI NEAR ITS SOURCE can start coming ashore less than an hour after the natural
warning of a felt earthquake. This booklet draws survival lessons from eyewitness accounts of
two such tsunamis in Indonesia. The booklet is intended for people who live, work, or vacation on
shores where fast-arriving tsunamis may strike. Such shores border parts of all the world’s oceans
and account for most tsunami deaths worldwide.
The Earliest Warnings A student in Langi, on Simeulue
Island off northern Sumatra,
Understanding Why Tsunamis Happen to Us pairs national and local words for
Fast-Arriving Waves Tend to Pose the Greatest Threat earthquake and tsunami during
The Earth May Remember What People Forget a school lesson in 2006. A year
How Grandparents and Graves Kept Memories Alive and a half earlier the 2004 Indian
Ocean tsunami swept Langi’s
Warnings of a Tsunami Underway houses off their foundations. The
tsunami reportedly arrived there
If the Earth Shakes, a Tsunami May Soon Follow in the first quarter-hour after the
The Tsunami May Arrive Before Official Guidance Can earthquake during which it began.
The Sea May Withdraw Shortly Before It Attacks Yet Langi, like most other villages
The Sea May Boom on Simeulue Island, suffered no
fatalities. The islanders have
Birds May Flee
a well-remembered history of
Evacuation Strategies tsunamis, and they have a tradition
of using earthquakes as natural
Run to the Hills warnings to go to high ground.
Abandon Belongings See page 6.
Stay Out of Cars
Beware of Rivers and Bridges
Climb a Tall Building
Climb a Tree
Use Floating Objects as Life Rafts
If Offshore, Go Farther out to Sea
Published by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural
Expect More Than One Wave Organization through its Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission
during the IOC’s 50th year