Banda Aceh Marks Tsunami 5th Anniversary

Five years after the most devastating disaster in modern history, most survivors of the Indian Ocean tsunami have managed to pick up their lives.

The Huffington Post reports…In Aceh, the area hardest hit by the giant wave, homes have been rebuilt, families reunited and a stable government installed in a province that was battling a deep separatist conflict prior to the tsunami. The city has recovered so well that most of the international aids organizations have pulled up stakes and gone home.

Some aid workers still idle about town, bringing small dollars to the dozens of businesses born when volunteer numbers reached into the thousands. But among Aceh’s residents, concerns have shifted from fears of another disaster to fears about job opportunities. SOURCE–http://www.huffingtonpost.com/sara-schonhardt/learning-from-acehs-recov_b_402693.html

The giant wave swept away loved ones, homes, livelihoods and in some cases entire communities.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=*&iid=7429252″ src=”6/2/1/a/Banda_Aceh_Marks_a688.jpg?adImageId=8638425&imageId=7429252″ width=”380″ height=”253″ /]

A view of the city previously devastated by the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake and subsequent tsunami, on December 24, 2009 in Kuala, Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

Aceh was the worst hit location, being the closest major city to the epicentre of the 9.1 magnitude quake, suffering a huge hit from the following tsunami and resulting in around 130,000 deaths.

Throughout the affected region of eleven countries, 230,000 people in total were killed, making it one of the deadliest natural disasters in recorded history.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=*&iid=7429253″ src=”e/5/1/a/Banda_Aceh_Marks_fef4.jpg?adImageId=8638473&imageId=7429253″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]

Tsunami survivor Fatimah, aged 24, does the wash at the temporary housing camp on the fifth anniversary of the 2004 Boxing Day earthquake and subsequent tsunami, on December 24, 2009 in Bakoy Banda Aceh, Indonesia.

In the days and weeks following the tsunami, there were hundreds of impromptu weddings and adoptions.

Widowers found women who had lost their husbands and married them. Children were taken in by mothers who lost their sons and daughters to the water.

Life miraculously always finds a way to continue.

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=*&iid=7429243″ src=”8/7/c/3/Banda_Aceh_Marks_4306.jpg?adImageId=8638526&imageId=7429243″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]

[picapp align=”center” wrap=”false” link=”term=*&iid=7429246″ src=”1/4/5/d/Banda_Aceh_Marks_1117.jpg?adImageId=8638558&imageId=7429246″ width=”234″ height=”156″ /]

Follow this story here….

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/12/24/AR2009122402172.html