Is Indonesia ready for another big one?
On 11 April, an 8.6 earthquake rattled most of Southeast Asia and even some parts of Africa, triggering an ultimately fruitless Indian-Ocean-wide tsunami warning and evoking memories of the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004 that killed more than 180,000 people, 130,000 of them in Indonesia. For the people of Aceh in Indonesia – one of the most affected areas in 2004 — the thought of reliving that tragedy caused panic in the streets as families tried to figure out what to do.
Luckily, this time around there was no tsunami formed by the earthquake, but the scenario that played out was as real as any disaster response drill we’ve ever organized. Plan Indonesia’s team of disaster response experts were poised to launch into action if children and their families had been affected and two members of the team travelled to Aceh to conduct an assessment on the ground. It’s with that in mind that we got in touch with Vanda Lengkong, Plan Indonesia’s disaster risk management expert, to ask for her reflections on the recent quake and the subsequent response.
• From your observations after what happened on 11 April, does it seem like people in Aceh are well prepared now for another large earthquake and tsunami?
Objectively speaking, not everyone in Aceh is well prepared for a large earthquake or tsunami. Once an earthquake strikes people will experience a “flashback” to what happened in 2004 and it triggers the traumatic memories and makes them panic. So even though they know what to do once any earthquake hits, for a certain period some people just panic. This was happened in Banda Aceh on April 11.
However, in a place like Simeuleu island, the level of preparedness and how people reacted was very different different. Everyone showed quicker reactions, from the children to the adults. They were able to organize themselves and flee from their homes calmly to higher ground.
• What was encouraging to see in the immediate response/reactions of people and what concerned you?
The most concerning thing is with the early warning system, including information management and its circulation to the communities affected after the earthquake hit. There were reports by the national and local authorities that many of the early warning tools and equipments were broken and didn’t provide any signs or warnings to the people in Aceh at that time.
The level of preparedness of people in Aceh still varies, so an early-warning system still has a significant role play in minimizing the impact of disasters.
Plan first worked in Aceh right after the tsunami in 2004 with a focus on emergency response and recovery programmes until 2009. There were some small disaster risk reduction activities that we performed in collaboration with the Red Cross as well as Handicap International that focused on awareness raising of disaster education, including preparedness for future disasters such as earthquakes.
After the recent earthquake, during the assessment process, Plan’s team also delivered information on disaster preparedness, such as the importance of having a “go bag” at home and how to survive an earthquake, to the community people they met on the ground.
• From the videos we saw, it seems like people are still traumatized by what happened in 2004.
Yes. Our assessment team compared locations that they visited. In Banda Aceh, most people were panicked, many of them crying and running the wrong way to evacuate, all triggered by the trauma from the disaster in 2004.
In Calang, Meulaboh, people were more organized, though still individualistic – in some cases, parents saved themselves and left their children behind. In Simeulue, they knew how to react in that kind of situation.
In terms of further support, of course awareness rising and capacity building to strengthen community preparedness is still needed. There are many disaster risk reduction actors still working in Aceh at the moment and the local government is already better equipped to assist the community, so at the moment there isn’t really a need for Plan to provide further support.
• If a huge quake hit again, what would be the process of Plan’s response in the first 48 hours?
In the first 48 hours we would:
- Coordinate with the relevant government agencies, cluster members and other humanitarian organizations, including with the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, to check and share initial data and potentially send a joint assessment team.
- Update the situation to county management team members.
- Monitor the situation’s progress through the media.
- Write and update situation reports for the Asia Regional Office.
- Check staff and their families are safe.
- Send an assessment team from the Emergency Response Team standby list.
- Prepare a media release and determine a spokesperson(s).
- Prepare any logistic support (warehouse checking, readiness of transport and suppliers for non-food-item shipments).
