Banda Aceh , Indonesia ( CNN ) -- Fitrie Ani was three months pregnant when she heard neighbors in her corner of Banda Aceh screaming : `` The sea is rising ! The sea is rising ! '' A wall of water twice as high as a house engulfed communities like Ani 's around the Indian Ocean , from Indonesia to East Africa , the day after Christmas 2004 , leaving some 200,000 people dead or missing in 12 countries in a tsunami that the U.S. Geological Survey says caused more casualties than any other in recorded history . I first met Ani in the chaotic aftermath in Banda Aceh and watched as she returned to the ruins of her home for the first time since the catastrophe . It was a pitiful scene . Her home , and every building around it , had been ravaged down to their foundations by the roaring waves . Ani sifted through the rubble , lifting a torn garment that belonged to her grandmother . The dress had been snagged on a piece of masonry , but the elderly lady it belonged to was n't able to hold on . Ani 's grandmother , husband and eight other relatives were sucked out to sea . None of their bodies were ever identified . Ani was also unable to fight the swirling vortex of water . She was carried on the currents far out to sea , where she drifted semi-conscious for more than ten hours . Did you survive the tsunami ? Did you lose a loved one ? Share your thoughts on the 5th anniversary on CNN iReport . Fishermen in a passing boat saved her life when they plucked her out of water filled with debris . Five years on , her neighborhood has been rebuilt , with homes made of wood and concrete , but little inside . The roads , bridges and mosques are better than you would find in an average Indonesian town . The baby she was carrying in her womb the last time we met is now a healthy four-and-a-half-year-old boy named Zahri . He is a child of the tsunami -- carried on the killer waves that spared him and his mother but took so many others . `` People were surprised seeing me pregnant without any wound , '' said Ani , who was convinced her baby would be affected . `` I swallowed a lot of that black , warm and stinky seawater . I thought the baby might get hurt from the water . When I checked , the baby was fine . I do n't know how ; it 's God 's will . '' She said after his birth , others asked her : `` How come this tsunami baby is perfectly fine ? '' Ani 's new house is not perfect : It is little more than a wooden shack built with aid money . She has remarried and has another boy with her second husband , who is a soldier . Like thousands of people here and others in countries where the tsunami struck , they have tried to rebuild their shattered lives as best they can . `` I feel sad when I remember what happened to me , it 's painful , '' she said . `` My kid was born without a father , other kids have both their parents . I was all alone . I did n't have a house , I went back to the refugee camp instead . I did n't get any help , no milk , no diaper . '' But Ani said she also felt blessed . `` I was lucky to survive , people said that this baby had brought me luck . ''
CNN 's Dan Rivers revisits Banda Aceh , Indonesia , to visit a survivor of the 2004 Asian tsunami . Fitrie Ani , who was three months pregnant , lost her husband and nine other relatives . Five years on the neighborhood has been rebuilt along with roads , bridges and mosques . On CNN International : `` Tsunami 5 '' ( all times GMT ) December 26 : 1430 , 2030 December 27 : 0930 December 28 : 1330 , 1730 .