The capital of Simuelue is Sinabang. A few years ago the infrastructure was not very good and transportation was hard to find.
Nowadays the main road running around the island is finished and new roads are being built across the island. Ferries go from both Meulaboh and Labuhan Haji three times a week and the domestic airline SMAC has flights once a week. Susi Air is another small airline now operating flights from Medan.
In Sinabang you can find a lot of turtles. Fish and lobsters are exported to Japan.
On 26th December 2004, an earthquake measuring 9.3 on the Richter scale occurred 150km off the coast of the Indonesian province of Nanggroe Aceh Darussalam (Aceh). The earthquake sent powerful tsunamis throughout the region, devastating coastal communities throughout Asia. Simeulue was in the immediate path of the tsunami and while major loss of life was averted by the population’s rapid response and retreat to higher ground, many coastal communities were totally devastated.
The newly active fault line caused a second major earthquake on March 28 2005, which killed over 900 people and caused large-scale destruction of houses and infrastructure on Simeulue and the neighbouring island of Nias. While the earthquake did not result in a second tsunami, its epicentre was located less than 42 kilometres from Simeulue and the entire island was uplifted between 1-2 metres.
