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View all search resultsAceh now experiencing a second tsunami, governor says
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.
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A residential area is seen damaged after flash floods in Bener Meriah district, Aceh province on December 4, 2025. (AFP/Chaideer Mahyuddin)
F
or fisherman Effendi Basyaruddin, the deadly floods and landslides in 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.
"I saw the highest wave during the tsunami, about 20 metres high," Effendi told Reuters. "But the flooding was greater ... villages became a river."
Those memories have been revived for the 64-year-old after cyclone-induced floods and landslides bore down on three provinces on Sumatra island. More than 800 people have died in Indonesia as a result, including more than 200 in Aceh, and the storm systems have also killed about 200 people in Thailand and Malaysia.
"We were very traumatised," said Effendi, whose house was swept away. He is now living in a tent near the ocean, which he sees as both a friend and a foe.
Effendi is not alone in his suffering and problems reaching isolated villages and getting aid to those in need have added to residents' pain.
"Aceh right now is like experiencing a second tsunami," a tearful Governor Muzakir Manaf said.
