Tsunami—“The Day the Ocean Moved”

Early in the morning of 26th December 2004 as a result of a massive nearby earthquake of magnitude 9.0, a Tsunami of ‘black water’ with waves up to 20 m tall struck Aceh Province of Indonesia causing massive damage and killing over 200,000 people, including 38,683 school children. UNESCO needed to be there along with other United Nations Agencies to assist the immediate response and initiate action to rebuild the society and its resilience. Along with the earlier Indonesian Revolution, this event demonstrates how development assistance agencies intrinsically cannot totally plan their future priorities. This chapter takes you there—starting with Stephen’s flight into the capital, Banda Aceh where he was shocked to see the vast extent of the damage—later to be experienced on the ground. The chapter shows how other agencies needed to handle immediate humanitarian relief but UNESCO was immediately involved too, first in getting local radio stations back on air as a reliable source of information to limit panic-based rumor, to provide scientific support required for safe rebuilding, e.g.: of groundwater and ocean damage, but particularly to rebuild education, science capacity and media, ultimately to provide the inputs needed for the society and culture to re-generate.