GEORGE TOWN, Dec 26 ― Ten years ago today, a “big wave” triggered by a massive underwater earthquake off Aceh in Indonesia struck the western coast of Penang island and Kedah, claiming the lives of 68 Malaysians from among 220,000 worldwide.

The local death toll may seem small compared to the losses suffered on the global scale, but the widespread devastation of home and loved ones demonstrated by this force of nature is now deeply etched into the minds of those who survived the Boxing Day 2004 tsunami.

“Just a few months back, someone told us there was a strong earthquake in Indonesia, in a town quite near us, so all of us immediately grabbed our valuables and made a run for it to the hinterland far from the sea,” said Abdul Majid Kassim, one of the villagers in Kota Kuala Muda, Kedah, whose life was forever changed by the “big wave”.

The fisherman claimed the villagers had carried out their own evacuation even though there was no official warning or confirmation of a possible tsunami threat.

“It is not something we forget easily, so all of us are still quite traumatised and every time we hear that there’s a strong earthquake and possible tsunami, we will immediately leave, it is better to be safe,” he said.

The passage of those 10 years have not eased the nervousness of the remaining residents of this quiet coastal village upon hearing or seeing the word tsunami or earthquake; they remain ever watchful for the signs of these two natural disasters.

Abdul Majid, 60, recalled the day the tsunami came to the quiet fishing village of Kota Kuala Muda like it had just happened.

There were two kenduris held at the houses located closer to the beach and the people there were making merry, when the “big waves”, as the locals called it in Malay, rolled in just after the clock struck 1pm.

“When the first wave hit, many of the villagers could barely make a run for it because it was fast and sudden, so some just held on to whatever they could,” he said.

After the first wave receded, the villagers immediately ran as far inland as they could; some even climbed up on to the roofs of sturdier houses and the second storey of one of the village houses, Abdul Majid said.

Tombawan looking at the Tsunami monument at Kota Kuala Muda in Kedah.

Tombawan Khamis, 75, survived the giant waves that rolled over Kota Kuala Muda. Not so, her elderly mother who was killed by the force of the first wave.

She remembers the family desperately carrying her mother’s lifeless body to the upper floor of a neighbour’s house where they had sought shelter just scant minutes before a second giant wave battered the village.

“We couldn’t just leave her body there, so everyone helped us to carry her body and took her with us,” the frail housewife told Malay Mail Online.

A total 11 villagers died that day. More than 100 houses were damaged or destroyed.

Kota Kuala Muda, consisting mainly of fishermen, had been a village of over 160 village houses before the tsunami.

Today, only 60 of the original houses still stand, and the majority of the villagers have since relocated further inland to a new housing area built to replace their smashed dwelling.

Those who live in the 60 houses along the shoreline do so not because they want to; according to Abdul Majid, they were not given new homes as their dwellings were only slightly damaged by the waters and they cannot afford to buy new buildings.

“We have nowhere to go so we continue to stay here despite the fear lingering on,” he said.

Today, a monument of wooden boats stacked on top of each other stand at the centre of the village as a reminder and to commemorate those who were lost on that day.

Nearby, a row of derelict houses stand behind a brand new wire fence that mark the compound of the Tsunami Museum, set up by the Kedah government.

A total 68 people died in Malaysia as a result of the 2004 tsunami; most of the victims were killed on Penang’s popular beaches touted as picnic hotspots covering Batu Ferringhi to the north and the island state’s entire western flank.

At the coastal village of Pulau Betong on Penang’s Balik Pulau, a fisherman remembers sitting on the shore mending his nets when his friends alerted him to the strange wave rushing towards them.

“I acted on reflex to quickly jump up onto land and ran inside just as the wave came splashing in; all the moored boats flew upriver as if [struck] by an invisible force ,” said the man who wished only to be known as Chew.

Picnickers at Miami Beach, Batu Ferringhi, where many were killed 10 years ago when tsunami hit the shores here on Boxing day.

Till today, Chew said he has the jitters when thinks of his narrow escape from death 10 years ago. He is now extra mindful when he ventures out to sea.

“Our village was also affected by the water, but we are lucky that we were spared from worse impact as we have a mangrove swamp that had softened the waves from directly hitting us,” the fisherman said.

Batu Ferringhi trader Mizi Yahya remembers how the popular tourist belt was deserted for months after the tsunami, in particular a stretch named Miami Beach where many were swept out to sea.

The seaside visitors, most of them from outstation, have since returned; but Mizi said he and other traders can never forget witnessing the sight of the killer waves.

“Previously, we have never heard of tsunami. On that day, all we knew was that these are big strong waves. But today, everyone knows what is a tsunami and that it is not something anyone who has seen it and survived can ever forget,” he told Malay Mail Online.