Almost one week after a huge quake exploded off Indonesia, deepening both the physical and mental damage of last year's tsunami, the country now faces a steeper road to recovery and the alarming prospect of preparing for more disaster.

Shortly before midnight of March 28, a geological fault line off the southwest coast of Sumatra, rumbled into life, unleashing one of the most powerful earthquakes in the past century.

For five terrifying minutes, people as far away as Singapore and Kuala Lumpur felt the earth tremble beneath them, while on islands nearest the epicenter, concrete houses toppled, crushing hundreds beneath them.

The United Nations estimates that up to 1,300 people may have perished, but so far about 500 people have been confirmed dead, mostly in Gunung Sitoli, the capital of the worst-hit island of Nias.

As the sea roiled and surged onto shorelines, the force of the quake thrust some stretches of shoreline permanently underwater and exposed once-submerged reefs and beaches.

Despite the size of the shockwave, it still paled beside the monster 9.3 earthquake generated by the same fault line on December 26 last year, which generated a huge tsunami that killed 270,000 on Indian Ocean shorelines.

The latest quake caused intense panic in the region and prompted tsunami-hit countries India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Sri Lanka to raise warning signals and attempt to evacuate coastal areas.

In Indonesia's westernmost Aceh Province, which bore the brunt of the December tsunami, there was pandemonium as thousands struggling to cope with the last disaster fled for hills fearing a repeat of earlier horrors.

As aftershocks continued to strike, a major international relief operation was mobilized, with many ships, helicopters and humanitarian groups reprising roles they played just months ago when one of the largest aid efforts ever was mounted.

Groundwork in Aceh ensured that relief was quick to arrive, although a few bottlenecks built up as a damaged airport and roads on Nias combined with rough seas and bad weather to delay aid.

The relief effort was dealt a particularly cruel blow late Saturday when a Sea King helicopter that had arrived earlier in the day on board the Australian navy's HMAS Kanimbla supply ship, crashed killing nine people on board.

But with aid yet to arrive in some places, and panic intensifying with every aftershock, one week on, Indonesia was still in the throes of its latest disaster.

What has quickly become clear is that the country now faces an even tougher challenge to recover from the December tsunami, with new damage draining funds allocated for rebuilding Aceh, while stirring more psychological problems for those who lived through both events.

"The wound that was healing is festering again," said Eko Kariswanto, a social worker from the Save the Children aid group in the Aceh capital Banda Aceh.

During Sunday church services on mainly-Christian Nias, clergy sought to calm parishioners as rumors that the island was about to sink added to fears of an impending third disaster that scientists say is a near certainty.

Hundreds have tried to leave Nias, risking choppy seas on rickety and overburdened wooden boats in their desperation to leave what they believe is a doomed island. Many others plan to flee Aceh.

On Nias' neighbor Simeulue, where just 17 people have been confirmed dead, most of 78,000 islanders have been camping in hills, taking their possessions and livestock to higher ground.

"The people are now in great fear and are worried because there is a rumor circulating that an even more massive earthquake will soon occur again," said the island's chief Darmili, who uses only one name.

Phobias, insomnia and depression have all been reported since the December catastrophe, said Nurjanah Nitura, 42, Aceh's top psychologist.

Harry Minas, the director of the University of Melbourne's Centre for International Mental Health said the situation will be worsened by the latest quake.

"For people who have already suffered severe loss of family, homes, property or livelihoods, something like this will increase their sense of despair," he said.

In Aceh, half a million are living in camps or temporary barracks, while hundreds of thousands have no permanent income.

The government says it will take up to five years to rebuild Aceh, an operation that will completely exhaust roughly US$4 billion of funds pledged by government and organizations for Indonesia's tsunami reconstruction.

In the wake of the latest disaster, it now plans to re-think a grand plan for rebuilding the shattered province that was released in draft form late last month, as funds will have to be diverted to Nias and Simeulue to reinforce money already committed to the islands.

Vice-President Yusuf Kalla, on a visit to Nias on Saturday, said it would take at least three months to fully restore power and water on the island, let alone repair damaged buildings.

But of paramount concern is putting Indonesia, which is prone to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions, on standby for its next disaster, when the resources already in place for Aceh may not be so easily to hand.

A prominent Indonesian scientist warned last week that an earthquake measuring as high as 9.0 on the Richter scale could hit regions off Sumatra and trigger another tsunami.

Matoyo's comments echoed warnings by leading seismologist Mustapha Meghraoui, of the Institute for Planetary Physics in Strasbourg, who said the two recent disasters could be the start of a "cascade" of quakes.

Welfare Minister Alwi Shihab said the country's national disaster agency, known by its Indonesian acronym Bakornas, was inadequate for such future catastrophes.

(China Daily April 4, 2005)