The ocean is both a blessing and a curse to the idyllic coastal district of Banda Aceh. While the seaside town is picturesque, the danger of disaster is very real as the memory of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami remains fresh.

However, the incident on April 11 was not like December 2004. Sirens wailed, warnings blared and police moved millions of people away from coastlines around the Indian Ocean as Wednesday's 8.6 magnitude earthquake off northern Indonesia sparked fears of another devastating tsunami. Damage was light - the quakes were horizontal rather than vertical - and the big waves never came, unlike eight years ago when walls of water roared across the same ocean and ploughed into seaside communities in 13 countries without warning. – Photos and text by Agencies