"There is a strong indication this foreshadows the big one," Danny Hillman, an earthquake specialist at the Indonesian Institute of Science, said of this week's seismic activity. "We all agree there is an 8.5 or stronger earthquake waiting to happen."
That's exactly the fear of residents along Sumatra's western coast, which is expected to bear the brunt of the next disaster. The island was hardest hit by the 2004 tsunami, accounting for nearly two-thirds of the deaths.
In the tiny fishing village of Sungai Pisang, just south of the badly damaged city of Padang, hundreds of people were too scared to return home after the recent tremors sent a large wave washing into their bay.
At a camp pitched on a muddy hillside cemetery, they have been sleeping atop plastic sheets or on the cold ground between graves. A small generator powers a light bulb, hung over branches in the thick tropical undergrowth, but there is little else.
"I am very afraid of another tsunami," said Dasima, a 50-year-old rice farmer who fled with her 7-year-old grandson, Rolin. "We only cook our rice in the town and then return here to eat and sleep. We will stay here until we feel it is safe."
