In coastal towns, a torrent of grief

SONANKUPPAM, India -- Huddled in hushed silence, an anxious crowd stood staring at the approaching motorboat. As six bloated corpses were pulled out and laid on the ground, the crisp morning air was shattered by the shrill wails of women who began to examine the bodies, in search of a missing family member.

''My son, this is my son," screamed Abirami Kadirvel, 28, as she broke down and fell over the muddied body of a 10-year-old boy that she identified as Madhavan.

''The water has eaten my child," she said repeatedly, beating her chest in mourning.

A day after huge tsunamis left a trail of death and destruction along the coastlines of southern India, killing more than 4,000 people and leaving tens of thousands homeless, rescuers continued to pull corpses out of the receding waters in this tiny fishing village hugging the sea in Cuddalore district of the state of Tamil Nadu.

Officials feared that the toll in the islands of Andaman and Nicobar, which experienced aftershocks measuring 6 on the Richter scale, might be in the thousands; information via radio communication has been difficult to obtain.

More than 22,000 people were killed in south and Southeast Asia as giant waves, triggered by a massive undersea earthquake, lashed coastlines across the region on Sunday.

Scores of families in Tamil Nadu refused to move to safer areas yesterday and waited along the coastlines all day hoping to find missing people swept away by waves as high as 22 feet.

As Kadirvel rocked her dead son on her lap, another man searched through the bodies for his 11-year-old daughter.

''I cannot find her," said fisherman Parasu Raman, 30, to his wife who was waiting at a distance. ''I have looked at each of the 50 bodies brought in since dawn. She is not in any of the hospitals either. I do not know whether to be relieved or disappointed. Maybe she is alive somewhere. Or maybe I will never see her body."

Once a bustling fishing village of about 2,000 people, Sonankuppam, 115 miles south of Madras city, lay devastated by the fury of the waves that swallowed thatch-roofed huts and even brick homes. Forty people have died in the village, about 500 are still missing, and 75 are injured and in the hospital, according to the villagers. Most of the dead in the village are either children or the elderly.

Several large motorboats were hurled from the shore into the village, ramming into the houses. Flattened coconut trees entangled in fishing nets dotted the swampy village, whose eerie silence was broken only by the sound of wandering goats and wailing women in the distance.

''It used to be a beautiful village," said a tearful village leader, Duraimuga Selvam, 40, pointing to the direction from which the waves invaded. ''Most of it is wiped out, no sign. We have lost their boats and nets. How will we pick up our lives again?"

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India planned to tour the ravaged southern areas of Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, and Kerala today. Singh also announced cash relief of a little more than $2,000 to the family members of victims. Nagapattinam, the worst affected district of Tamil Nadu, reported 1,700 dead, even as a senior district official acknowledged that relief operations were hampered by day-long rains and a broken bridge. Wedding halls and temples in the state swarmed with homeless people as they waited for the slow arrival of assistance.