A helicopter crash and a powerful tremor in Indonesia today briefly hindered aid operations for tsunami victims.
Relief work in Sri Lanka could also be disrupted by a cyclone that the Joint Typhoon Warning Center of the US Defense Department warned was moving towards the south coast.
A US military Seahawk crashed near the crowded airport in the Indonesian city of Banda Aceh, the hub of a huge effort to help millions of people whose lives were crippled two weeks ago by the most widespread natural disaster in living memory.
Officials said no one died but all on board were taken to hospital. The US military halted all helicopter flights taking aid to cut-off areas but scaled-back operations soon resumed.
Earlier, panic-stricken people in the devastated city fled from their homes and shelters after a 6.2-magnitude aftershock hit.
"There has been no report of casualties," said an official at Indonesia's meteorological bureau.
Fraudsters posing as Tsunami victims are soliciting funds worldwide through letters and e-mails in a new variation of an old African scam, police warned today.
More than four million such letters have been circulated, the first sent out the day the disaster happened, the commercial branch of the South African Police Service said.
At least 15 variations exist, including one claiming to be from residents of a destroyed Indonesian village, and another from an individual claiming to be helping victims, police said. Recipients are asked to transfer money into a bank account.
"Please be aware that once the money has been sent, it will never reach the real victims of the disaster," police said.
The tsunami triggered by a 9-magnitude earthquake on December 26th killed over 156,000 people around the Indian Ocean, with Aceh province on the north tip of Sumatra island accounting for almost all of Indonesia's 104,000 deaths.
The waves also killed about 30,000 people in Sri Lanka, 15,000 in India, more than 5,000 in Thailand and others in the Maldives, Myanmar, Bangladesh and several east African nations.
But 15 days on, with hope all but gone of finding tens of thousands of missing people alive, came a rare bit of good news.
A cargo ship announced it had picked up an Indonesian survivor adrift in the Indian Ocean, the third person to be rescued this way, and was steaming towards Malaysia to take him to dry land. Details of his ordeal were still scarce.
President George W. Bush today pledged a long-term US commitment to helping the tsunami-hit nations of South Asia today and said the Banda Aceh area of Indonesia is going to require the most intense effort.
Mr Bush was briefed by Secretary of State Colin Powell on his tour last week of tsunami-hit countries. The White House said that of $350 million pledged by the US government, $78 million had been spent.
Mr Bush left open the possibility of an increase in US assistance but told reporters he wanted to make sure it was "demand-driven" and to "make sure the money that is available actually achieves a co-ordinated objective."
UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan flew over stricken areas of the Maldives to assess the damage, which officials say has changed the whole coastline of the remote island chain.
The global response to the disaster has been unprecedented, governments and agencies have pledged more than $5 billion in aid and companies and individuals have promised $1.5 billion.
Rich countries say they will suspend tsunami-hit nations' debt repayments to help free resources for rebuilding.
Much of the huge relief effort has been focused on getting food, water and shelter to victims in Aceh, where hundreds of thousands have been rendered homeless.
World Food Programme officials told the BBC they were optimistic no tsunami survivors would lose their lives to hunger, and aid should reach nearly all survivors within a week.