BOX 3.1
Cautionary Tales and Education Saves Lives from Tsunamis
Traditional knowledge saves lives in Aceh, Indonesia, during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami:
Some 78,000 people were living on Simeulue Island, off the west coast of Aceh, Indonesia, at the time of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Most lived along the coast in villages the tsunami would strike. The tsunami began coming ashore as soon as eight minutes after the shaking stopped and too soon for official warnings. Although hundreds of thousands of lives were lost elsewhere, only seven people on Simeulue died. What saved thousands of lives was knowledge of when to run to higher ground. This knowledge had been passed down within families over the years by repeating tales of smong—a local term that entails earthquake shaking, the withdrawal of the sea beyond the usual low tide, and rising water that runs inland. Smong can be traced to a tsunami in 1907 said to have taken thousands of Simeulue lives and reminders of that event reinforced the story, such as victims’ graves, a religious leader’s grave untouched by the tsunami, and coral boulders in rice paddies. After any felt earthquake, a family member would mention the smong of 1907 and often concluded with this kind of lesson: “If the ground rumbles and if the sea withdraws soon after, run to the hills before the sea rushes ashore.” By contrast on mainland Aceh, where education had suffered from years of military conflict, only a tiny fraction of the population used the giant 2004 earthquake as a tsunami warning. After the initial earthquake, many people gathered outdoors, fearing further damage from aftershocks. Most missed their opportunity to evacuate—a time window of 20 minutes on western mainland shores and 45 minutes in downtown Banda Aceh.1
Elementary education from afar saves lives in Phuket, Thailand, during the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami:
More than 100 tourists and locals on Maikhao Beach in Phuket, Thailand, were saved when a 10-year-old girl from England persuaded them to evacuate to higher ground after the initial earthquake. While other tourists watched as the tide rushed out and boats in the distance bobbed up and down, Tilly Smith, who was in Phuket on holiday with her parents and younger sister, recognized these as natural cues of an imminent tsunami. Just two weeks earlier, Tilly had studied tsunamis in her prep
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1 Adapted from McAdoo et al., 2006. Mainland tsunami arrival times from Lavigne et al., 2009.
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