Nights, they barely sleep. During the day, they worry what will happen if there's another tsunami.
For tens of thousands of families along coastlines hit by the Asian tsunami, last Monday's earthquake in the same region that set off the catastrophe three months ago revived fears that they were again about to face the ocean's terrible force.
In southern India and Sri Lanka, two countries where reconstruction is well underway, fishermen still avoid the sea. Women worry they will lose their husbands if they go fishing again. Children skip school to be with their parents. Newly built boats remain on shore.
"We fear another tsunami could occur anytime," said 55-year-old Kupuswamy Periaswamy, sitting on a heap of fishing nets at a relief camp in the port town of Nagappatinam.
For Periaswamy, who began fishing when he was 15, the sea had been his second home.
"We would spend days together in the deep sea. At night, we would sleep on the beach," he said. "But today, we are scared of the sea."
Similar fears echo across the coastlines of the dozen nations hit by the Dec. 26 disaster, spawned by a massive 9.0-magnitude quake off Indonesia's Sumatra island that sent huge walls of water thundering across the Indian Ocean. More than 280,000 people were killed or are missing, presumed dead, and more than 1.5 million were left homeless.
The fears were reinforced this past week when an 8.7-magnitude quake hit off Sumatra close to the epicenter of the tsunami quake, prompting authorities in India, Sri Lanka and Thailand to issue a tsunami alerts and evacuate hundreds of coastal villages.
In Sumatra, the quake caused widespread destruction in dozens of towns and killed hundreds. But it did not generate a large tsunami and the warnings were withdrawn within hours -- not before causing panic across the region.
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