(Bloomberg) — Ten years after their world was shattered by theIndian Ocean tsunami, an Indonesian man who had sold fish totourists, and his younger brother, now run a thriving business onthe beaches of Aceh.

Erwan and Ichsan Jamaluddin invested aid money and earnings fromodd jobs to rebuild their lives after losing their parents and twosisters to giant waves on Dec. 26, 2004. Now they repair and rentsurf boards on Lampuuk beach, generating $250 to $300 a monthduring peak season. It's far more than they ever earned before.

“Life is much easier now,” said Erwan Jamaluddin, 34, inside hisrough-hewn wooden surf shack. With more tourists and more business,“I have my zest for life back.”

The tsunami unleashed a decade ago by a 9.1-magnitude underseaearthquake off the Sumatran coast was the deadliest naturaldisaster this century, taking more than 220,000 lives and leavingmore than 1.5 million homeless. Waves as high as 15 meters (50feet) crashed into towns and shorelines across more than a dozencountries, destroying people's livelihoods and possessions.

While families will never be rebuilt nor the trauma forgotten,interviews with survivors across the devastated coastlines ofThailand, India, Sri Lanka and Indonesia show how lives have beentransformed. Displaced people who struggled for months without jobsand lived in tents or shacks saw an improvement in living standardsin the following years.

Global Grief

Television images of the devastation stirred donations frompeople across the world. Grief was shared from Sweden to Australia,among dozens of countries that had citizens swept away from beachresorts in Thailand, the Maldives and Sri Lanka. About $14 billionpoured into the stricken areas from governments, agencies andindividual donors, money that helped provide tens of thousands ofhomes, often better built than before, in villages and towns thathad been razed.

Half the aid went to Aceh, the first place to be hit by theworld's biggest earthquake in 40 years. The force of the movingocean floor displaced a giant body of water, unleashing waves thatrippled across the sea at the speed of a jetliner before crashinginto shore. More than 600,000 houses were destroyed and 3,400schools damaged, along with dozens of bridges and 22 ports, in Acehand the neighboring island of Nias.

Aceh's economy, which had been booming faster than the wholeIndonesian nation's, shrank for four of the next five years. It'sgrown above 2.7% annually since 2010, reaping the benefits of a2005 peace deal between separatists and the government that came inthe wake of the tragedy.

Loud Whir

Much of the infrastructure was restored within four years,according to Kuntoro Mangkusubroto, head of the reconstruction andrehabilitation agency in Aceh and Nias after the tsunami.

“Everything that was planned to be built has already been built:houses, roads, bridges, airports, ports, schools, community healthcenters,” he said. “A lot of measurements of human life areimproving.”

Only the memories don't get better.

Thirty minutes after he was awoken by the shaking of his house adecade ago, Erwan, then 24, heard a loud whir.

“The water is rising,” yelled his uncle, racing back from thebeach. The sea was a kilometer away from his home in Lampuuk on theisland of Sumatra, but the young man still ran, sprinting towardthe next village alongside his mother and two sisters.

He wasn't quick enough. A wall of water as black as asphaltengulfed him, dragging him under. Erwan thought death was certain.He swam furiously to reach the surface, where a bed was floatingby. He clung to it and drifted two kilometers to Lhamlom village.His mom, dad and sisters weren't so lucky.

Wall of Water

A day later, as Erwan stepped over countless bodies, piles ofrubble that were once homes and boats tossed ashore, he found hisbrother, Ichsan, who was on his way home from fleeing to themountains. The brothers, in tears, hugged each other close.

“We asked each other about our parents, but neither of us knew,”Ichsan said.

For days, they relied on the kindness of people from inlandvillages for food and water. There was no power, they wereisolated, disease was rampant.

“I had my wallet but with no money in it,” said Erwan, who sleptin a tent outside the mosque while Ichsan stayed in Lhamlom. “Ididn't work.”

“We were just thinking how to move on,” recalled Ichsan, now 28,as he sat on a bench beside his brother. “We have no parents, wehave no family. How will our future be? The house is no longerthere.”

Home Building

Gradually, aid began to arrive. In 2007, Erwan and Ichsan movedinto a 110-square-meter two-room house, one of 700 built in thereconstructed village by the Turkish Red Crescent Society. TheIndonesian Red Cross also gave Erwan 3 million rupiah ($240) thathe spent on furnishings.

“When I got the house, there was no furniture,” Erwan said. “Isaid to myself: I have to work, find some money so life can getback to normal.” Both brothers are single.

NGOs offered training and finance for survivors, includingIchsan, to start businesses. He now also works for a turtleconservation project, a concept he says was introduced by aidagencies. Before, turtles and eggs were taken and sold for easymoney.

“With programs from foreign NGOs on agriculture, people gotknowledge,” he said.

Mangkusubroto, the reconstruction head, said his biggestchallenge was coordinating 900 domestic and foreign institutions,including the World Bank, and preventing corruption on theground.

Still Vulnerable

Unemployment and rising crime remain a concern in the province,which is subject to shariah, or Islamic, law following the peacedeal, he said.

“Aceh still has a long way to go to recover from the conflictand the tsunami disaster,” said John McCarthy, from the AustralianNational University's Crawford School of Public Policy, who hasmade study trips there. “While the aid programs have reconstructedroads and infrastructure, many villagers still face seasonal foodshortages and households in many parts of Aceh remainvulnerable.”

A peace dividend has also aided Sri Lanka, where giant wavessmashed into the east coast about an hour and a half after thesubterranean earthquake. An end to decades-long conflict withrebels in 2009 helped the country's per-capita GDP rise to $3,280in 2013 from $1,242 in 2005.

Vikum Samanpriya was 11 years old when he saw a neighbor's house“collapse like a cardboard box” in Thotagamuwa village inHikkaduwa.

Coconut Tree

Unable to swim, he clutched a door as water flooded the home ofhis uncle, who grabbed him just as the door broke off its hinge.They were swept toward a coconut tree, which they latched on to.The uncle kept the boy's head above water. His mother, RamaniPremalatha, and 5-year-old brother also survived.

Even though they lost their home and their shop, aid arrivedquickly and no one went hungry, said Premalatha, 54. “People fromother areas came in trucks and distributed food,” she said. “Thearmy and police helped. We were given nets, tents.” Thegovernment gave the family 250,000 rupees ($1,904) to build ahouse, and cement structures replaced the lean-to buildings manyhad lived in.

Reconstructed villages along the coast bear the names ofsponsors: two-story homes paid for by the Victoria state governmentin Australia, a cluster funded by by accounting firm KPMG, andanother by London-based insurer Aviva Plc. More than 1,000dwellings were built using donations, according to Sampath Viraj,general manager of Foundation of Goodness, a charity connected toleading cricketers.

Swimming Pool

For years Premalatha took her kids to school, scared to let themgo. Now, her fears are less and she talks proudly about how thearea is much more developed. Thotagamuwa school was rebuilt by theItalian government and has playgrounds, while a local swimming poolmeans children can learn to swim, potentially saving their lives ifwaves wash ashore again.

Hotels and guest houses along the coast have been rebuilt as SriLanka's tourism industry has become a key driver of its economy,forecast to grow 7.8% this year. The more than 1.3 million visitorsthis year are almost three times the level of 2008, a low.

Tourism was devastated in Thailand too, where more than 8,000were counted missing or dead, including many foreigners in thebeach resorts of Krabi and Phuket.

The army built cinder block houses within seven months in BanNam Khem, in the badly hit province of Phang Nga. Hotels and thefaith of tourists took longer to restore. Tourist arrivals slumped72% in 2005, to 831,000, from almost 3 million the year before.They have risen steadily since and overseas arrivals alone jumped60% last year to 1.3 million.

Palm Oil

Phang Nga Governor Prayoon Rattanasenee said it took three tofour years for the province — which relies on rubber, palm oil andtourism — to recover economically, and slightly longer for peopleto cope with the trauma.

Prayoon, banking on rising tourism, says he's seeking investorsto build more hotels on the 50-kilometer stretch of white sand.

One of those who already has is Yutthana Sanguannam, whose PalmAndaman Beach Resort abutted the beach in Khao Lak, south of BanNam Khem. Its 79 rooms were fully booked when the tsunami swept in,reducing his resort to rubble and killing guests and staff. He saidhe doesn't know how many died as records were lost.

He had left the hotel on Christmas night to drive 90 minutes tohis Phuket home. The next day, when he heard news of floodingacross the coastline, he rushed back. Reaching the top of a hillthat overlooks Khao Lak and seeing the resorts leveled by thewaves, he said he had one thought: “Disaster.”

Paying Debt

After the initial days of searching for loved ones, employeesand guests, Yutthana's thoughts turned to rebuilding.

“At the time there was an outstanding loan,” he recalled. “I hada debt to pay.”

He received some money from the government's tsunami recoveryfund and hired a contractor to start work on the first 79 rooms ofthe new Ramada Khao Lak Resort. It opened on the same site inJanuary 2007. In 2011, the second phase was completed, addinganother 37 rooms.

“I think this kind of situation will happen just once in yourlifetime, so I just rebuilt it,” Yutthana said. “I made it bigger,better quality and better service. Everything.”

He has taken some safety precautions: His new resort is built ina modern style with flat roofs, allowing guests to evacuate therein case another wave hits. It also has its own tsunami alarm systemand clearly marked evacuation routes.

Hair Salon

The resort town now has 6,000 to 6,500 rooms, up from about4,000 before the tsunami. Local villagers too have rebounded. InBan Nam Khem, Wanchai Chitcharoen, 57, invested in renovating hisnew army-built home so that it houses his wife's hair salon infront and their living quarters in the back.

“I'm very proud, in 10 years we have come so far,” he said, ashe sat in front of the lime green building. “The tsunami broughtpeople down to their knees. To witness that horror and have yourcommunity left bare naked, you learn that no one can live alone. Ina way the tsunami has made us a stronger community.”

For many around the Indian Ocean, rebuilding homes was easierthan repairing the psychological scars of losing loved ones.Thangamma Anbuselvam, 37, lost her 10-year-old daughter and hermother-in-law when the waters came to Vailankanni, Nagapattinamdistrict, in southern India's Tamil Nadu province. They were amongthe more than 6,000 killed. The family's home was demolished.

Public Faucet

Her husband turned to drink to deal with the pain, she said,frittering away aid money as they lived in a tent for three years.When they got a new home 800 meters from the sea, it leaked. Thatwas fixed. But fresh water still comes from a public faucet thatsometimes runs dry.

Her hopes are vested in her son, Shiva, whom she found withscratches and bruises many hours after the tsunami hit. Sheinsisted he go to school and the boy, now in 11th grade, haspersuaded his father to give up drinking and once again gofishing.

“I don't want my son to do anything relating to the sea, but heonly wants to work in a ship,” Thangamma, dressed in a magenta andblue sari, said as she helped repair a stall made of dried coconutleaves from which the family sells fried fish, octopus and crabs.“I'm leaving it to him to decide what he wants to do. In a way wedo not fear death. We are inured to it after seeing dead bodies allaround.”

Outdoor Functions

As Thangamma and her family have found, aid money hasn't beenable to deal with longstanding problems afflicting some poorcoastal communities. In the nearby village of Saamandham Pettai,residents said they were moved to an area without properdrainage.

Residents of the 340 houses have to defecate in fields, whilewomen must take baths in the open because there is no water insidetheir homes, said Paramaguru Pakkiri, 32, who lost his father tothe tsunami.

“We're asked to pay 5,000 rupees for each household to get waterin our homes,” said Pakkiri. “We can't afford that.”

An underground drainage system in the town will start operatingin the next two to three months. said T. Munusamy, the topgovernment official in Nagapattinam. Residents will have to pay adeposit to get water supply connected inside their homes.

In Lampuuk, where Ichsan and Erwan have rebuilt their lives,many people have returned to normal with traditional jobs asfishermen and farmers. Some have even gotten rich.

“But life is no longer the same, because families are no longercomplete,” Ichsan said.

–With assistance from Asantha Sirimanne and Anusha Ondaatjiein Colombo, Subramaniam Sharma in New Delhi, Sharon Chen inSingapore and Supunnabul Suwannakij in Bangkok.

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