Pulau Weh - Rebirth of Paradise after the Tsunami

Back at Gapang Beach, almost all the wooden houses and restaurants had disappeared, and Lumba Lumba Diving Centre had its front façade smashed away. The divers
had to wait two hours until the surge was safe enough to land the boat. It was the day of the 2004 Tsunami.
Fortunately and miraculously, the tsunami that hit Aceh on December 26, claimed very few lives on Pulau Weh located only one hour north of Banda Aceh. The owners of the dive center, Ton and Marjan Egbers, survived by standing atop the dive gear rinsing shed and a tree located just beside the shop.

Most of the destructive power of the tsunami was the strong pulling power of the receding wave, where everything was swept out to sea including fins and masks prompting the owners to later joke that they were the dive shop with the mismatched fins.