BANDA ACEH (AFP) – Hundreds of Indonesians fled for higher ground yesterday as they ran through disaster drills in the region worst hit by the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami ahead of its 20th anniversary next month.
Children burst down the stairs in a rush for safety from the second floor of a school near Aceh’s provincial capital Banda Aceh, where more than 60,000 were killed in the tsunami.
As school bells rang out, dozens of children ran into the road covering their heads, following marked escape routes as volunteers shouted “evacuate”.
“With exercises, we can prevent, rather than cure,” said 34-year-old participant and local village official Rizky Firmansyah.
“It’s better like that I think, because it’s better for us to anticipate than to have things that we don’t want to happen.”
The drills simulated a repeat of the magnitude 9.2 earthquake which struck off the west coast of Indonesia’s Sumatra island on December 26, 2004, sparking giant waves that killed over 200,000 people in 14 countries.
The United Nation-organised drills saw hundreds of students and volunteers run to safe houses, including one four-storeys high, when the mock quake struck.
The drills – which took place in two villages as hundreds of observers watched – were part of a tsunami summit of experts organised by the United Nations cultural agency (UNESCO).
Nearly 20 years on from the disaster, the UN is trying to get 100 per cent of coastal communities prepared for a repeat tsunami by 2030.
“We must ensure the next generation remains informed, prepared, and resilient,” a UNESCO official and head of the Indian Ocean Tsunami Information Centre Ardito Kodijat told AFP.
“Ensuring community preparedness requires regular drills.” Indonesia is one of the most disaster-prone nations on earth.
The archipelago nation lies on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where tectonic plates collide and many of the world’s volcanic eruptions and earthquakes occur.
UNESCO experts said the world is much safer today from the threat of massive tsunamis due to early warning systems that were lacking in 2004.
But the agency has also warned coastal communities to stay alert.
“While we have made significant strides, the nature of this hazard requires us to remain vigilant,” executive secretary of UNESCO’s intergovernmental oceanographic commission Vidar Helgesen told delegates in Banda Aceh on Monday.
