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Strong quake hits confidence in Andamans
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Strong quake hits confidence in Andamans
A powerful earthquake that hit the Andaman and Nicobar islands at the weekend has shaken the confidence of people in the remote chain, although it caused no damage or casualties, residents said yesterday. Sunday?s 7.0 earthquake in the Andamans, which came seven months after the 9.15 earthquake that caused the killer tsunami, led to a tsunami warning in Thailand, but that was soon withdrawn.
There have been 345 aftershocks of the Dec. 26 tremor which have rippled through the remote Indian Ocean archipelago, forcing thousands to flee the island chain.?We had decided to stay back after the tsunami but every shock forces my family to rethink that decision,? said Partho Burman, a music teacher who lives with his wife and two small children in Port Blair, capital of the island chain.
?If things continue like this, we better go back to our native place in Kolkata (Calcutta) as many of my friends have done,? Burman, who came from Calcutta in 2003, said yesterday.Others on the islands, which lie on an undersea faultline that runs to Indonesia in the south, said they were worried but still undecided what to do.
?The aftershocks were less in the past two months but it seems to be starting again. We are really worried about the fate of these islands,? Smriti Kana Saha of Ranjat village in the Middle Andaman island told Reuters by phone.Ranjat lies some 190 km north of Port Blair.
?My family and I were outside our house all night because of fear,? said Saha, who works for a telecoms carrier.Indian officials did not put out a tsunami alert on Sunday night after the earthquake ? with its epicentre in the sea near the southern Nicobar region of the island chain ? saying the tremor was not strong enough to cause a tsunami. About 3,500 people died in the Andaman and Nicobar islands in the Dec. 26 tsunami and some 2,000 remain missing.
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