No abstract

When 2012 Banda Aceh earthquake triggered the tsunami warning signal, chaotic citywide evacuation was followed soon after. Unnecessary victims were fallen and damages were experienced due to this very disorganized process. The event raised questions whether the disaster education and evacuation training had successfully relayed essential information about evacuating process along with its safety instruments, including physical facilities such as the Temporary evacuation Shelters or TES. This paper aims to investigate Meuraksa District residents’ sense of reliance toward TES in their area during natural disaster, especially tsunami. The result will be analyzed to understand whether the district’s resident have embedded the basic survival skills taught in the routine trainings into their daily life, thus also in the decision making process during evacuation. Meuraksa was chosen as research location as it was the ground zero of 2004 Banda Aceh tsunami disaster. The research is carried out using mixed-method approach by data collected through face-to-face, in-depth interview procedure. The analysis shows that Meuraksa District residents’ reliance towards TES is very low. TES is intended to be one of the significant safe evacuation instruments. The citizens’ decision to opt out TES as shelters and safe destinations during natural disaster events is highly believe will be resulting in the same chaotic evacuation as one in 2012.