From the 22 December 2018 Tsunami to 18 October 2025 Risk Education: How Pandeglang Communities Preserve Banten’s Disaster Knowledge

Banten’s disaster knowledge survives in two connected forms: community memory and repeated practice. Oral accounts, local terms and commemorative traditions keep earlier tsunamis present in public life, while schools, field exercises, warning receivers and evacuation plans turn that memory into action. The clearest recent example is the earthquake-and-tsunami field school held by Indonesia’s Meteorology, Climatology and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) in Sumur, Pandeglang, on 18 October 2025, where residents and officials trained against risks highlighted by the 22 December 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami.

What is the short answer?

Banten communities preserve disaster knowledge when they connect stories of past events with verified science and routine preparedness. In Pandeglang, that connection includes BMKG training, school-based education, tsunami hazard maps, evacuation signs, contingency planning and locally understood warnings. It is not yet possible, from the sources reviewed for this article, to claim a provincewide October 2026 measure of how many communities have completed every preparedness step.

What did the 2018 tsunami teach Banten?

BMKG’s reconstruction says the 22 December 2018 tsunami was generated by volcanic activity rather than a tectonic earthquake. At 20:56 local time, an eruption of Anak Krakatau triggered a landslide on the volcano’s flank. BMKG later reported that the landslide covered about 64 hectares. Because the warning system at that time was designed to process tsunamis caused by tectonic earthquakes, it did not automatically issue a tsunami warning for this volcanic source. Reports of abnormal sea-level behaviour reached BMKG at about 21:30, and the agency issued a release at 22:30 confirming a tsunami affecting Banten and Lampung.

The human cost remains part of the region’s working memory, but figures must be dated. A BNPB situation report published on 23 December 2018 recorded a provisional total of 281 deaths, 1,016 injured, 57 missing and 11,687 displaced across five affected districts in Banten and Lampung. Its Pandeglang breakdown recorded 207 deaths and 755 injuries. BMKG’s account of the 2025 Sumur field school cited a later local figure of at least 292 deaths and 3,976 injuries in Pandeglang. These are not interchangeable totals: they come from different reporting points and should not be presented as one final count.

How does local memory become risk education?

A historical review published through BNPB’s disaster-history portal documents older knowledge in Banten, including oral accounts, local vocabulary and the Caringin “Haul Kalembak,” a remembrance associated with the 1883 Krakatau eruption and tsunami. The review also discusses “caah laut” stories in Lebak and Pandeglang and terms such as “urat” and “sidat” used in local understandings of geological hazards. The authors recommend that such knowledge be researched, explained carefully and connected with formal mitigation rather than treated as a substitute for scientific assessment.

This distinction matters. Memory can tell people that unusual sea behaviour, ground movement or a sudden natural disturbance deserves attention. Scientific agencies are needed to test hazards, issue official information and design safe routes. Preserving knowledge therefore means passing on the warning lesson while checking its meaning against BMKG, the Geological Agency and local disaster-management authorities.

What is happening in Pandeglang and across Banten?

At the 18 October 2025 field school in Sumur, BMKG described Pandeglang as exposed to several sources: the southern Java megathrust, active faults, possible submarine landslides in the Sunda Strait and Anak Krakatau activity. Participants practised with the developing Indonesia Earthquake Early Warning System scenario. BMKG also urged local government and residents to work toward the 12 UNESCO-IOC Tsunami Ready indicators, which include evacuation signs, tsunami hazard maps and a contingency plan. “Tsunami Ready” is a preparedness framework, not a guarantee that a community will never be hit.

The programme also shows why equipment must be paired with people. BMKG reported three real-time Warning Receiver System New Generation units in Pandeglang—at the regency secretariat, the BPBD office and the Tanjung Lesung special economic zone—and said tsunami sirens had been activated in Teluk Labuan and Sidamukti villages. The agency’s BMKG Goes To School and Tsunami Ready Community programmes are intended to make residents, officials, private operators and students capable of recognising official warnings and responding quickly.

Provincial policy follows the same logic. In a 14 November 2023 preparedness meeting, Banten officials said 100 representatives from BPBDs, emergency services, police, military, health services, volunteers and other groups were involved in preparations for a tsunami drill. The provincial BPBD also described continuing outreach with the education office for teachers and students in high-risk areas, including Pandeglang, Lebak, Serang and Serang City. The stated aim is to make risk recognition and emergency action familiar before a crisis.

What do evacuation plans add?

Cilegon’s tsunami contingency-plan document illustrates the operational side of preserving knowledge. It identifies dissemination equipment such as sirens and warning receivers, assigns roles to local institutions and describes simulation, public information and evacuation responsibilities. It also includes visitors and tourists in emergency planning. Such documents matter because remembered lessons become useful only when people know where to go, who communicates, how vulnerable groups are assisted and how organisations coordinate.

What we know—and what remains unclear

We know: the 2018 Sunda Strait tsunami had a volcanic, non-tectonic trigger; Pandeglang was among the hardest-hit areas; and official programmes since then have combined field training, school outreach, warning technology and evacuation planning.
We know: Banten’s historical record includes oral traditions and commemorations that can support risk literacy when they are tested and explained alongside science.
What remains unclear: the sources reviewed do not establish an October 2026 provincewide audit of completed Tsunami Ready indicators, siren coverage, drill frequency or current casualty-risk reduction. Equipment listed in a plan or reported as installed should not automatically be read as proof of everyday effectiveness.

The durable lesson is straightforward: remembrance is most protective when it is rehearsed. For Banten’s coastal communities, preserving disaster knowledge means respecting inherited experience, verifying it with geological and meteorological evidence, and practising evacuation until the next generation can act without waiting for a story to be retold.