New tsunami alert sends rescuers scrambling in India

ASSOCIATED PRESS

PUDUKUPPUM, India — As the Indian government warned yesterday that there could be fresh tsunamis because of new quakes, villagers in this southern Indian village grabbed what they could and fled to higher ground. Soldiers, wearing surgical masks and digging for bodies, clambered into their trucks and drove to safety.

But in less than an hour, the villagers began wandering back to protect what was left of their homes. Although many said they were still afraid of the sea, they wanted to continue the search for the missing.

As they dug through the debris, mostly palm fronds used to thatch the roofs of their homes, they kept a wary eye on the sea for any sign that the waves would return.

“The ocean scares me. I feel crazy, I don’t know what to do, where to go,” said Rajesh, a 30-year-old fisherman who uses only one name.

The tsunami warning expired at 6 p.m. without any fresh waves.

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MALE, Maldives — Being the world’s lowest-lying country actually might have spared the Maldives from the worst of the damage caused by the Sunday tsunami, some Maldivian officials think.

Because the average height of the archipelago is 3 feet above sea level, the tsunami swept completely over many of its 1,190 tiny coral islands. But because the Maldives isn’t a tall landmass, the wave didn’t gain height as it approached land and didn’t break with devastating force, as it did on the shores of neighboring Sri Lanka and India.

Witnesses reported waves of up to several yards in height — much less than the 30 feet seen elsewhere — and most islands experienced a massive swell in the sea rather than a wall of water crashing down.

That meant casualties and damage, while considerable, were less than in neighboring countries. Seventy-three persons had been confirmed dead and 31 were missing as of late yesterday.

“We’ve wondered for years what would happen if a tsunami came to the Maldives. Now we know — the energy and height don’t build when the wave contacts the islands, so it gets dissipated through the chain,” said Ismail Firag, deputy director at the Tourism Ministry, who studied tsunamis in Fiji.

“A tsunami gains height and becomes most dangerous when it crashes into land. That didn’t happen so much here — it just passed over,” said Joerg Limper, general manager of the 156-room Full Moon resort on Furana Fushi island, which was swamped by the wave but suffered no human casualties and continued to operate.

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KHAO LAK, Thailand — Amid all the death, a stretch of road near one of Thailand’s most famous tourist areas was buzzing with activity.

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