Marco Garcia

Hope for Renewal

On December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake with a magnitude close to 9.0 rattled the ocean floor near the West Coast of Sumatra, Indonesia sending a series of tsunamis that crashed onto the coastlines of several countries surrounding the Indian Ocean. More than 225,000 people were killed by the wave in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka and Somalia. Banda Aceh, Indonesia was the hardest hit.

Banda Aceh, Indonesia was the closest city to the earthquake’s epicenter and took the full brunt of the tsunami's power. Survivors recalled the earthquake rattling the city for more than ten minutes followed by the screams of people running from the coast as the ocean began moving forward. Ocean waves rolled over the city reducing the city to rubble. Many who died had no chance of survival as the tsunami gave no warning as waves reached the Sumatra coast within 20 minutes of the earthquake.

The images captured in this section reflect two trips taken to Indonesia in 2005…one three weeks after the initial strike of the tsunami and the second trip six months later.

The images are from the publication, Hope for Renewal, Photographs from Indonesia after the Tsunami. Proceeds from the book helped raise relief funds for tsunami victims globally.

Faith proved to be the hardest part to capture in Indonesia on both trips but much can be summed up by one of the pictures in the series. A stack of soaking wet, mud stained Korans sat in a destroyed building in a schoolhouse. A man took and prayed murmuring calls to Allah. To many elsewhere, the damaged book would haven been tossed as rubbish; but to a member of the surviving class of Aceh, the destroyed Koran represented all.

COVER IMAGE OF THE BOOK "Hope for Renewal: Photographs from Indonesia after the Tsunami."Eleven year old Redi plays soccer in front of a tsunami destroyed truck May 8, 2005, in the town of Leupung, Indonesia. 95% of Leupungís 10,000 residents were killed instantly by the tsunami where survivors estimated the waves to be more than 100 feet high. Not a single building remained standing after waves slammed into the town. The survivors were in the process of rebuilding a new town further inland away from the ruins and the sea. Leupung, 25 miles south of Banda Aceh. Image taken from the book, "Hope for Renewal: Photographs from Indonesia after the Tsunami," an East West Center publication. (Photo by Marco Garcia)
   
A panoramic photo of the Merduati district in Banda Aceh, Indonesia, January 15, 2005 several weeks after a devastating tsunami rocked South Asia. Please note picture is digitially created from six different images in post production.
   
A man rummages on the second floor of a destroyed home in Banda Aceh, Indonesia January 14, 2005. In many neighborhoods close to the shore, water reached more than two stories high. Witnesses on Sumatra's West Coast reported the tsunami to be as high as 100 feet.
     
  
Holding a photo album of their missing colleagues, two police officers search the ruins of their former station hoping to find the remains of their friends January 14, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
   
An Indonesian woman grimaces as she walks past several corpes laid on the street in the business district of Merduati in Banda Aceh, Indonesia January 15, 2005.
   
Crossing a field of oil barrels and debris, a young boy scavenges for anything useful three weeks after the oil depot and fishing town of Krueng Raya, Indonesia was struck by the devastating tsunami, January 17, 2005. Krueng Raya is 40 kilometers north of Banda Aceh, Indonesia. Several fuel oil storage tanks were destroyed spilling waste into the environment. Hundreds of full oil drums were scattered in the area as well. Oil mixed with mud and water along with debris throughout the area.
     
  
Three weeks after a tsunami slammed into the coast of the Aceh Province, corpses and body bags fill a makeshift mass grave near the Ulee Lheue Mosque January 14, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
  
Juan Carlos Soria, a member of the Mexican rescue team TOPOS, pulls a corps traped in the rubble in the Merduati District January 15, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
  
Juan Carlos Soria, left, and Hector ìel Chinoî Mendez, rescue workers from the Mexico City group, TOPOS, murmur an Islamic prayer over a recovered body in Banda Aceh, Indonesia January 15, 2005.in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
     
  
Body bags await for burial in the Merduati District of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, January 15, 2005.
  
Three weeks after the devstating tsunami struck the Aceh Province, an Indonesian man rides a bicycle through the flooded street a block away from Aceh Market in the city center, January 16, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
  
Desperate tsunami survivors wrestle boxes of aid out of the hands of United States Navy helicopter crew member Joseph Sabia, of Dunmore, PA, on Sumatraís West Coast, January 19, 2005. The United States military launched a massive relief effort delivering food and water to destroyed areas in the Aceh Province.
     
  
Members of the Mexican rescue team, TOPOS, carry a corps from a destroyed neighborhood in Banda Aceh, Indonesia January 16, 2005. TOPOS, an all volunteer rescue and recovery team, arrived in Aceh two weeks after the tsunami to help with the recovery of bodies from the disaster.
   
A carpenter walks down the beams of an unfinished housing project in a village west of Banda Aceh, Indonesia May 11, 2005. Six months after the tsunami, housing projects have sprouted up all over the Aceh Province.
   
A man flips through the pages of a tsunami damaged Koran found in a destroyed schoolhouse May 11, 2005 in Banda Aceh, Indonesia.
     
  
Corn stalks and watermelons grow out of the cement foundation of a destroyed home in the tsunami ravaged Lamjabat District of Banda Aceh, Indonesia, May 5, 2006. A rebuilt yet roofless home stands in the background. The villagers in the area began to cultivate the crops to subside their meager food rations and lack of work. Many homeless displaced by the tsunami were paid the equivalent of $3.00 US a day to clear debris from the town while living in makeshift homes and tents.
  
Six months after a tsunami struck the Sumatra Coast, a new village springs up further inland away from the coastline and the ruins of the former village, May 8, 2005 near Calang on Sumatra's West Coast.
  
Zaki, left, and Cut Megawati Sani greet guest in the parlor of Zakiís home during their wedding ceremonies in a subdistrict in Banda Aceh, Indonesia May 7, 2005. Although Zaki lost his mother during the tsunami tragedy, his family decided to continue with the wedding ceremony.
     
  
Eleven year old Redi plays soccer in front of a tsunami destroyed truck May 8, 2005, in the town of Leupung, Indonesia. 95% of Leupungís 10,000 residents were killed instantly by the tsunami where survivors estimated the waves to be more than 100 feet high. Not a single building remained standing after waves slammed into the town. The survivors were in the process of rebuilding a new town further inland away from the ruins and the sea. Leupung, 25 miles south of Banda Aceh.