JAKARTA (Reuters) – Marta Karouw was one of about 2,000 Indonesians who gathered in the city of Manado, on the northern tip of Indonesia's Sulawesi island, Saturday morning to practice and prepare for the unthinkable -- a huge tsunami.
The drill comes one day after the fourth anniversary of the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami that smashed coastal villages in parts of Asia on December 26, 2004, killing about 230,000 people.
Indonesia's archipelago, in an area of intense seismic activity, is particularly vulnerable to earthquakes and the risk of another tsunami just like the one in 2004.
Much of Aceh province on the northwestern tip of Sumatra, was devastated by the 2004 tsunami. About 170,000 people died or went missing, and the area is still struggling to recover.
Since then, Indonesia's government has taken measures to improve readiness for such disasters. It has installed an expensive warning system, and staged periodic evacuation drills.
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