Deadly Sumatra Flooding Triggers Memories of Indian Ocean Tsunami

NORTH ACEH, Indonesia, Dec 5 – For fisherman Effendi Basyaruddin, the deadly floods and landslides in Indonesia’s Aceh province over the past week have triggered traumatic memories of the day 21 years ago when he ran for his life as the ocean rose like a cliff face and smashed through his hometown. Nearly 200,000 people died in Aceh alone after a 9.1-magnitude quake off the northern province triggered the catastrophic Indian Ocean tsunami on December 26, 2004. Effendi recalls, ‘I saw the highest wave during the tsunami, about 20 metres high. But the flooding was greater… villages became a river.’ These memories have been revived as cyclone-induced floods and landslides lash Sumatra, claiming over 800 lives in Indonesia, with more than 200 in Aceh alone.