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A 100-foot wooden boat, which residents of Banda Aceh have dubbed "Noah's Ark," crashed down on top of a house during the 2004 tsunami. It provided a refuge for 59 terrified people who say they would have died without its shelter. (Luis Sinco / Los Angeles Times / October 27, 2009) |
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Reporting from Banda Aceh, Indonesia -
They are the ships that fell from the sky; two immovable objects, their very presence defying reason.
Residents call them acts of God. Most cannot fathom that the two ocean vessels were transported miles inland by floodwaters of the 2004 tsunami that ravaged this small city on Sumatra's northern tip.
Miles apart, both have been left intact as memorials to the 170,000 residents of Aceh province who either died or disappeared in the disaster.
Five years after the waters rose to biblical heights, the city continues to rebuild, constructing schools, clinics, roads and villages in coastal areas that had been wiped clean by the invading ocean.
"Acehnese people have moved on with their lives. Most of them have returned to their homes," said Yusriadi, a tourism office spokesman who goes by one name. "Aceh is back to normal."
Not for everyone. Some say Banda Aceh is forever changed, harboring a newfound respect for the natural forces that surround it. Dotting the city are boats of all shapes and sizes that rode the rush of water far from their ocean habitat.
None elicit more amazement than the two behemoths.
One is revered as "Noah's Ark," a 100-foot wooden boat that crashed on top of a house, providing a refuge for 59 terrified people who say they would have died without its shelter.
The other is stranger still -- a colossal vessel weighing 2,600 tons that plopped down two miles inland, like Dorothy's Kansas farmhouse crash-landing in Oz.
It's also a graveyard: Neighbors say a dozen bodies from the tsunami may still languish beneath the ship.
One tourist from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, snapped photographs of the iron vessel, called the Apung, which he said was a warning that man cannot always undo what God and nature have accomplished.
"Who among us could ever move this big ship?" said Sugiono, who also goes by one name. "God can bring it here from the sea, but we just don't have the ability to bring it back."
The tsunami cut a swath around the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal towns and villages in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
Triggered by a massive deep-sea earthquake 80 miles off the coast of Banda Aceh, the wall of water hit at 8 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2004, leaving death and wreckage in its wake.
One survivor who runs a market in the shadow of the larger ship lost his 5-year-old daughter in the panic.
Bustamam, 45, was at home with family when the earthquake hit. Within moments, he heard the cries from neighbors.
"The water is coming! The water is coming!" they shouted.
"We were all running in fear when the first wave came," he recalled. "I was holding my 5-year-old as tightly as I could. But my head was hit by a piece of wood.
"I don't remember what happened next. But when I came to my senses, my little girl was gone."
His wife, Ani Maulani, said she and their other two children were swept to the roof of a house 300 feet away.
Residents call them acts of God. Most cannot fathom that the two ocean vessels were transported miles inland by floodwaters of the 2004 tsunami that ravaged this small city on Sumatra's northern tip.
Miles apart, both have been left intact as memorials to the 170,000 residents of Aceh province who either died or disappeared in the disaster.
Five years after the waters rose to biblical heights, the city continues to rebuild, constructing schools, clinics, roads and villages in coastal areas that had been wiped clean by the invading ocean.
"Acehnese people have moved on with their lives. Most of them have returned to their homes," said Yusriadi, a tourism office spokesman who goes by one name. "Aceh is back to normal."
Not for everyone. Some say Banda Aceh is forever changed, harboring a newfound respect for the natural forces that surround it. Dotting the city are boats of all shapes and sizes that rode the rush of water far from their ocean habitat.
None elicit more amazement than the two behemoths.
One is revered as "Noah's Ark," a 100-foot wooden boat that crashed on top of a house, providing a refuge for 59 terrified people who say they would have died without its shelter.
The other is stranger still -- a colossal vessel weighing 2,600 tons that plopped down two miles inland, like Dorothy's Kansas farmhouse crash-landing in Oz.
It's also a graveyard: Neighbors say a dozen bodies from the tsunami may still languish beneath the ship.
One tourist from Jakarta, the Indonesian capital, snapped photographs of the iron vessel, called the Apung, which he said was a warning that man cannot always undo what God and nature have accomplished.
"Who among us could ever move this big ship?" said Sugiono, who also goes by one name. "God can bring it here from the sea, but we just don't have the ability to bring it back."
The tsunami cut a swath around the Indian Ocean, devastating coastal towns and villages in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and elsewhere.
Triggered by a massive deep-sea earthquake 80 miles off the coast of Banda Aceh, the wall of water hit at 8 a.m. on Dec. 26, 2004, leaving death and wreckage in its wake.
One survivor who runs a market in the shadow of the larger ship lost his 5-year-old daughter in the panic.
Bustamam, 45, was at home with family when the earthquake hit. Within moments, he heard the cries from neighbors.
"The water is coming! The water is coming!" they shouted.
"We were all running in fear when the first wave came," he recalled. "I was holding my 5-year-old as tightly as I could. But my head was hit by a piece of wood.
"I don't remember what happened next. But when I came to my senses, my little girl was gone."
His wife, Ani Maulani, said she and their other two children were swept to the roof of a house 300 feet away.
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