December 9, 2025 | 04:38 pm
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - It was not very late yet. But Gampong Ujong Pacu in Muara Satu subdistrict, Lhokseumawe, Aceh, was already silent. Home to nearly 3,000 people, the village looked like a ghost town. On Tuesday evening, December 2, 2025, six days after a flash flood tore through the village, electricity was still out, houses lay in ruins, and the streets were choked with mud and sludge.
The meunasah (a place for religious and social activities) at the village center became the liveliest place that night. The multipurpose hall that is often found in Aceh was the only comfortable shelter for flood and landslide victims. The building could accommodate more than 100 people, most of them women and children sleeping on sarongs spread across the floor. "This is the only structure left that is still livable," said Hermandin, a resident of Gampong Ujong Pacu.
Sitting along the Trans-Sumatra Highway, Ujong Pacu lies between major cities like Lhokseumawe and Bireuen. Under normal conditions, the gampong (village) is a 30-minute drive from Lhokseumawe or about 50 minutes from Bireuen. But the flood multiplied travel time severalfold.
Tempo reached Ujong Pacu from Bireuen by road, a trip that took nearly two hours. The fear that the village might be unreachable was already palpable at departure. Volunteers warned that access to the village had been cut off. The Kuta Blang Bridge, which connected the arterial road, had been swept away by the flood.
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