Aceh hopeful as Indonesia beefs up warning system 20 years after tsunami

By Yuddy Cahya Budiman

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia (Reuters) - Traumatised by the Indian Ocean tsunami that hit Indonesia 20 years ago, Teuku Hafid Hududillah has spent his adult life making sure that if disaster strikes again, his home province of Aceh will be ready.

Hududillah was among those who lost many relatives when the tsunami struck on Dec. 26, 2004, killing 126,000 in Aceh, where no sirens were heard, resulting in the highest toll among the 230,000 dead along the coasts of more than a dozen countries.

The tsunami was triggered by a 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the island of Sumatra.

Now a quake observer for Indonesia's geophysics agency, 28-year-old Hududillah is part of a team tasked with upgrading Aceh's quake detection and tsunami warning system, including sirens loud enough to be heard 100 km (62 miles) away.

"We think Aceh will be ready for evacuation if a tsunami occurs," Hududillah said at one of the siren towers in the provincial capital of Banda Aceh, adding that he was thankful for the effort, while hoping there would be no more disasters.

The system will quickly dispatch telephone and radio messages to notify residents of earthquakes of magnitude more than 5, he said, while the sirens will signal the likely risk of a tsunami.

Indonesia, which straddles the seismically active area known as the Pacific Ring of Fire, is one of the world's most disaster-prone countries, but has often been criticised for not investing enough in disaster mitigation infrastructure.

Elsewhere, its tsunami warning system has failed to avert deaths, in areas such as Palu in Central Sulawesi, where thousands died in a tsunami in 2018 unleashed by a quake of magnitude 7.5 after sirens did not go off in warning.

People in Aceh said they now receive regular training in responding to a big tremor or a tsunami.

Still, Zainuddin, 54, who goes by one name, like many Indonesians, urged the government to beef up urban planning measures.

"Our streets are not wide enough, especially during rush hour, and it would be difficult to get through if a tsunami happened," he said.

(Reporting by Yuddy Cahya Budiman; Writing by Gayatri Suroyo; Editing by Clarence Fernandez)