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Deaths after tsunami scare
By Vidushi Seneviratne
There was no tsunami. But last Monday's earthquake in Sumatra sent shock waves through an already traumatised population who feared that it would be as devastating as the December 26 terror waves.

With residents fleeing inland, many were victims of the mayhem brought about by the scramble to get to safety. Accidents, heart attacks and other such panic-related incidents were reported from different parts of the country with over 12 deaths recorded from the southern and eastern coasts. Seven deaths linked to the tsunami scare were reported from Panadura, Moratuwa, Kalutara, Kosgoda, Panama, Wattala and Mutwal. Upto five people were reported to have died in Sammanthurai, Addalachchenai, Batticaloa and Kalmunai.

One of the victims was 72-year-old Harriet Pieris, a mother of eight. Living in Panadura, very close to the Galle Road, Harriet and her family had been affected by the December 26 tsunami and the memories of the horror were still fresh in their minds when the warning of another tsunami came on Monday night.

"It was shock and panic that gave her a heart attack," said her son. "We had just returned from a family function and my mother went straight to bed. It was about 11.30 when we heard about the Sumatra earthquake on the news and we were asked to move inland. Everyone started running and my mother, along with my sister, had run to a temple close by. Though my mother was feeling quite ill by then, she kept going. Then she suddenly collapsed. I put her in a three-wheeler to take her to hospital, but she was dead," he said, with tears flowing.

P. K. Milton Peiris of Welmilla, Bandaragama, was another victim. An attendant attached to the Bandaragama hospital, he had been entered to the hospital on Sunday morning to be treated for high blood pressure, but was transferred to the Panadura base hospital on Sunday night.

"When we heard about the earthquake and the possibility of another tsunami, we got worried about him, since he was in Panadura," his wife K. Siriyawathi Perera said. "On hearing the tsunami alert, he, along with most other patients, had fled the hospital to get to safer ground, and being in the condition he was in, he suffered a heart attack," she said, adding that her husband was due to retire next year. Milton, 55, was a father of four daughters and two sons, some of them still in school.

With no prior knowledge of when and where an earthquake in the Indian Ocean might occur and not knowing if a tsunami would follow, most people live with a feeling of uncertainty. Our once safe land just doesn't seem so safe anymore.

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