Racing for Higher Ground
Panicked residents of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, head for higher ground after a magnitude 8.6 earthquake hit off the island of Sumatra (map) on Wednesday. A tsunami warning was issued but later canceled, and there are no reports so far of deaths or damage. (See "No Tsunami? Why Earthquake Spared Indonesia Today.")
Becca Skinner, a National Geographic Society young explorer, traveled to Aceh Province in 2011 to photograph the region seven years after a tsunami had killed some 170,000 people there. (The Society owns National Geographic News.)
Skinner found a boom in new construction and a general lack of bitterness from the people, some of whom believed the tsunami had been divine punishment. (See pictures of the 2004 Banda Aceh tsunami aftermath.)
After the Aceh project, she said, "everything else seems really easy now. It was a really eye-opening experience."
(See "Sumatra Poised for Another Tsunami, Study Says.")
—Christine Dell'Amore
Indonesia Tsunami Pictures: Banda Aceh, Then and Now
Wednesday's earthquake struck the same Indonesian province decimated by a tsunami in 2004. See how the area is faring today.
