Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the University of Malikussaleh Health Research Ethics Committee (No. 040/KEPK/FKUNIMAL-RSUCM/2022).

Knowledge and attitudes of individuals and households were seen based on surveys and interviews with several indicators such as the definition of a tsunami, the causes and signs of a tsunami and what to do when a tsunami occurs. This knowledge is the basis of preparedness. Knowledge of people living in disaster-prone areas is the main aspect in order to be aware of disasters that can be measured using indicators: disaster characteristics, early warning systems (EWSs), evacuation facilities such as shelters, evacuation maps and routes, experience and disaster simulations (Patrisina et al. 2018). According to Gregg et al. (2004), knowledge of the hazard will enable individuals to know about the risks that will be posed by the hazard. The results of the analysis show that the knowledge and attitudes of individuals and households in four villages towards tsunami disaster risk are in high category, and as many as 80% of households in four villages have a high category of knowledge and attitude towards tsunami disaster risk.

Knowledge of the tsunami disaster is the basis for emergency planning, resource mobilisation and early warning. With knowledge, individuals will know the right activities in anticipating a disaster. Based on the data, 85% of informants know the definition of tsunami. The knowledge about tsunami comes from individual and household experiences.

Experience of disaster events will provide knowledge to the community. Experience is something experienced in the past. Studies related to disaster experience state that there is a significant influence on preparedness. Experiencing a disaster event can lead to a higher perception of risk and will lead to individual preparedness plans (Wang & Zang 2018). Correspondingly, individuals who do not have disaster experience will tend to behave passively when there is an early warning (Walters, Mason & Ellis 2019). The signs of the 2004 tsunami disaster, such as an earthquake and receding seawater, provide knowledge so that the community can save themselves, likewise with the people in four villages, who on average knew about the tsunami because of the 2004 tsunami in Aceh. The experience of the tsunami disaster that had been experienced or seen made most of the informants recognise the characteristics of a tsunami event. This is evidenced by data showing that as many as 85% of informants know the signs of a tsunami.

The second parameter of preparedness in dealing with a tsunami disaster is policies and guidelines related to preparedness to anticipate a tsunami disaster. Regarding policies related to tsunami disaster management, only 22% of informants know about policies related to preparedness to tsunami disasters and only 17% of informants know guidelines for action plans in dealing with tsunami disasters. Based on observations, there has been no socialisation from the local government so that individuals do not yet know about policies and guidelines for tsunami preparedness. However, the plan for preparedness has been verbally agreed upon by the community. The community has agreed on an evacuation location, namely in the sub-district. If the waves get higher, then the evacuation site is in the Kuala Dua area. Kuala Dua is one of the villages in Muara Batu District, which is closest to the coast of Muara Batu District with a hilly topography:

Other than policies and guidelines related to preparedness to anticipate a tsunami disaster, a very important regulation in disaster management is the availability of regulations based on disaster-prone areas. In Indonesia, especially in Muara Batu District, these regulations also exist, namely in the form of Qanun, although they have not been fully implemented. A study conducted by Ayuningtyas et al. (2021) showed that the implementation of regulations and policies in disaster management in Indonesia has not yet been optimal.

The knowledge possessed by the individual and household must be followed by an emergency response plan. As many as 88% of informants have planned an emergency, which shows that individuals and households in four villages are ready with a plan for rescue during a disaster emergency. The knowledge of tsunami signs, evacuation sites and evacuation routes make people know how to save themselves when a tsunami disaster occurs. Disaster emergency plan needs to be developed in order to take proactive action in disaster preparation, which includes protecting assets, self and family evacuation, engagement with family, communication, supplies and live stocks (Patrisina et al. 2018).

As explained in the previous sub-chapter, the community knows where to evacuate during a tsunami disaster. In Muara Batu District, they only use the district office as an evacuation place, and if the water gets higher, residents evacuate to a higher village, namely Kuala Dua Village. In general, evacuation is divided into two, namely horizontally by moving away from the beach or vertically by heading towards the evacuation building (McCaughey et al. 2017). Determining a tsunami evacuation building as an optimal evacuation site needs to consider several things such as the characteristics of the tsunami arrival, road network and width, procedures of danger warnings and the time of occurrence. Apart from that, evacuation routes also need to be developed to avoid crowding during the evacuation process by paying attention to several parameters such as pedestrian speed, available routes, route width and number of people who need to be evacuated (Koshimura et al. 2006 & Wood et al. 2016). A study conducted by Soviana et al. (2023) in Banda Aceh City showed that the main road of Banda Aceh City consists of six lanes and two lanes, with lane widths capable of accommodating vehicles with a width of no more than 2.5 m. Secondary roads consist of two lanes and two lanes with road widths ranging from 4 m to 5 m.

However, almost all the informants did not prepare important documents and essential medicines, sufficient ready-to-eat and durable food, alternative means of communication, family photos, and addresses and/or phone numbers. Perry and Lindell (2008) said that preparing emergency equipment to anticipate disaster is one of the preparedness activities. The basic emergency equipment according to Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA 2020) refers to water, food, cash, battery-powered or hand crank radio, flashlight, and extra batteries, first aid kit, whistle, masks and local maps.

One of the parameters of preparedness is disaster warning system. Early warning system is an integrated system of hazard monitoring, forecasting and prediction, disaster risk assessment, communication and preparedness activities systems and processes that enables individuals, communities, governments, businesses and others to take timely action to reduce disaster risks in advance of hazardous events (UNISDR 2016). There are four components of EWSs, namely risk knowledge, monitoring and warning, dissemination and communication, and response capability (UNISDR 2006; WMO 2016). The EWS in four villages is still traditional, using sirens or loudspeakers from each mosque or meunasah. An EWS is very important because it serves as a marker for the community to immediately respond to disasters that occur. Based on the data, 70% of the informants answered that they knew the tsunami warning system. This is because this siren has become a hereditary thing, namely every time there is a siren it indicates that there is something important when there is a siren sound in the meunasah.

The EWS in the four villages has been applied. This was explained by each village chief and youth who said that when an earthquake occurred, there was a special task force or usually youths who were sent or voluntarily monitor the condition of the ocean. If there are signs of a tsunami, the youth will inform the village chief to notify the community to save themselves to a higher place. Based on the information obtained, the signs of a tsunami that are understood are first an earthquake followed by receding seawater. Dudley and Min (2006) explained that tsunamis are caused by earthquakes, landslides, volcanic eruptions or the fall of meteors that occur in the sea. The public understands that the signs of a tsunami are earthquakes. The public knowledge about the signs of a tsunami and the traditional system of early warning is not only as a result of experience but also because the community has received training from several foreign non-governmental organisations. The receding seawater shortly after the earthquake also served as a sign for the people of Simeulue, Aceh, to save themselves when a tsunami occurred. This is called as smong which is the local wisdom of the people of Simeulue, Aceh, who consider tsunamis to be smong and make smong into a tsunami EWS (Syafwina 2014; Rahman, Sakurai & Munadi 2017).

Currently in Indonesia, there is INA-TEWS, which is a tsunami disaster warning system. Tsunami EWS is based on an earthquake and tsunami observation network consisting of seismometers, geodetic sensors and sea level measurement stations, which then transmit real-time data to Tsunami Service Providers (TSPs) and National Tsunami Warning Centers (NTWCs) (UNESCO 2022). Tsunami EWS in Indonesia also applies the real-time global positioning system (GPS) deformation monitoring method or monitoring deformation fields installed along the coast of the Indian Ocean and information can be obtained 5 min–10 min after the earthquake and can be immediately used to detect the potential for a tsunami because of the earthquake. The seismicity data are then sent in real time via satellite to the BMKG warning centre in Jakarta. Tsunamis in Indonesia are included in the near-field category where the distance from the earthquake epicentre is approximately 200 km with a very short arrival time of the tsunami, namely 10 min to 1 h, so the main challenge in developing a tsunami EWS in Indonesia is how to know the character of the deformation zone formed by earthquake in detail accurately (Lauterjung, Münch & Rudloff 2010; BMKG 2012; Kurniasih, Marin & Setyawan 2020).

Based on data, only 7% of the community had received training in tsunami emergency response. The low parameter value indicates that the capacity of individuals and household in mobilising thir resources during tsunami disaster is still low. That is because the community has never received any preparedness training. Apart from the information from the community, no community has prepared all the things or needs such as disaster preparedness bags and important documents in one place so that when a tsunami occurs, they can be used or taken immediately. Although disaster preparedness varies in time, place and type of disaster, two common components in preparedness are preparing emergency supplies and creating an emergency plan (Lam et al. 2017). In Indonesia, emergency equipment is referred to as a disaster preparedness bag, which is a package of items for survival, such as clean water, food and first aid supplies, while an emergency plan refers to special procedures for dealing with sudden or unexpected situations (Bhanumurthy, Shankar, Rao & Nagamani 2015). The existence of a disaster preparedness bag will make it easier for people to evacuate when a disaster emergency occurs (Utariningsih et al. 2023).

Based on the surveys and interviews, the preparedness of households in four villages in dealing with the tsunami disaster is in the ready category, which is 60.5%. Based on the analysis conducted, the individual and community of four villages has a high level of knowledge and attitude. Even though there are no guidelines or rules, knowledge and community emergency response plans are still high. This knowledge should be trained, or simulation to increase community preparedness in anticipating a tsunami disaster. Appropriate and effective community preparedness in dealing with disasters can be seen from the extent to which they can be responsive in responding to disasters, which is in accordance with the statement (Herdwiyanti & Sudaryono, 2012).

Disaster preparedness refers to the activities and actions taken to ensure an effective response to the impact of hazards (Paton 2019; Dasgupta et al. 2020). Increasing preparedness needs to be a special concern for high-risk areas such as Muara Batu District. Increasing preparedness can be performed by conducting socialisations and disaster simulations. This is as suggested by Julianto et al. (2019) and Utariningsih et al. (2022), where preparedness knowledge can increase after disaster socialisation is carried out.

Government preparedness related to relevant policies and guidelines is still lacking in all locations. The government is still concentrated on disaster management, while preparedness is not yet a focus. Organisations such as the Gampong youth organisation, fishermen’s groups and Family Welfare Programme or Program Kesejahteraan Keluarga (PKK) also explained that efforts to improve preparedness had never been carried out in the four locations. In addition to this, the village head explained that early warnings are usually used by sirens from the meunasah. The data obtained also explain that the Gampong government in all research locations also does not know about tsunami EWS. They use a tsunami sign, namely an earthquake. After there was an earthquake, the youths were assigned to shore up the beach. If the water recedes, the monitoring team will inform the village head to be conveyed to the community via loudspeakers in the meunasah.

Until now, Indonesia is still a country with earthquakes that can also cause tsunami disaster. Based on the Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters (CRED 2022), Indonesia is included in the 10 countries with the highest mortality in the world because of earthquake disasters (Table 1).

In mobilising resources, the Gampong government has coordinated with other stakeholders such as the PKK, youth groups and fishing groups. This shows that the government’s preparedness is still quite high. Preparation of equipment for evacuation sites such as tents has also been provided by each village government. Apart from that, there is no equipment prepared by the village or sub-district government. The government’s readiness is closely related to the ongoing disaster experience.