PERSPECTIVE: 20 YEARS ON, LESSONS LEARNED AND UNLEARNED FROM 2004 TSUNAMI

Flying with the Malaysian Emergency Response Team, the first international aid team to enter Banda Aceh. I was with them in my capacity as a journalist with BernamaTV then. Supplied photo.

Malaysian aid workers collecting bodies in the middle of Banda Aceh due to the tsunami on Dec 26, 2004. Supplied photo.

One of the lessons learned from the 2004 tsunami was to put in an international system to monitor seismic activity and all oceans. Multiple governments have since developed a global tsunami information system known as Deep-Ocean Assessment and Reporting of Tsunamis (DART). The system now has 74 buoys in oceans, communicating data and warnings to affected countries immediately. --fotoBERNAMA (2024) COPYRIGHT RESERVED

Wan Md Razali Wan Ismail (second from left), now the director of Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department for Selangor, meets with Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, who was the Malaysian Prime Minister in 2004, during the latter's visit to Banda Aceh. Supplied photo.

Mohd Hazrumi Halimi, senior officer at the Kajang branch of Malaysian Fire and Rescue Department, sharing his experience searching and bagging corpses in Banda Aceh due to the 2004 tsunami in an interview with Bernama recently. --fotoBERNAMA (2024) COPYRIGHT RESERVED

Malaysian paramedics attending to the injured in Banda Aceh after a tsunami hit the regional capital on Dec 26, 2004. Supplied photo.