Thanks so much, Sharon.
To see a slide show of the devastation in American Samoa, click here.
Earthquakes in the Pacific are nothing new. Located within the Pacific Ring of Fire, the islands of Samoa and American Samoa to the East are exposed to the movement of the Tonga Trench and experience hundreds of them a year, ranging from those which are barely detectable to the ones that make you sit up and take notice – perhaps for 10 to 15 seconds. Some wake you up at night, making you consider for a few moments whether it is worth getting out of bed for; others are a minor interruption to the daily work routine.
The quake that struck the Samoan Islands just before 7:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 29, 2009, caught most people at their breakfast, or just setting out for work where many schools and offices start the day at 8:00 a.m. As my granddaughter and I looked at each other across the dancing cups on the breakfast table, we knew that this one would definitely be the main topic of conversation for the day, but as the shaking, creaking and rumbling continued, we decided to get outside – fast.
The feeling was of amazement, rather than fear, as the rocking and trembling of the ground beneath our feet went on- and on- and on, for over three minutes. The Richter Scale measured its progress from 7.9 to 8.3, the most powerful recorded in Samoan meteorological history. When we finally judged it safe to go back inside, a blazing toaster and cocoa slopped all over the table occupied our attention for the next ten minutes, but we both thought the excitement was over. Wrong.
Ten minutes later the wail of the sirens at the Apia Fire Station could be heard, indicating that the nation-wide Tsunami Drill of last year had now escalated to the real thing. There was still no panic as we hauled out the 72-hour kit and got it stowed, together with some bottles of water, bananas and a few other things, onto the back of the pick-up truck.
My husband drove off to get the rest of our family, while I sprinted (well, jogged) the 500 yards down the road to the Ah Mu Academy to make sure that all the students had been evacuated from this private elementary school where I am principal.
It was like swimming against the tide. I was the only one moving down the hill. Hundreds of people - old, young, uniformed students from neighbouring schools including the LDS Church College (high school) at Pesega, parents pushing toddlers in strollers, big brothers packing little ones on their backs - all streamed up both sides of the road which was crowded with cars, buses and trucks. All were headed to the designated safety zone of the Tuanaimato Sports Complex, built for the 2008 South Pacific Games and ideally suited to accommodate thousands of people in a disaster.
When I, and the last stragglers from Ah Mu Academy, finally made it to the Sports Ground some 20 minutes later, the waiting began. We were elevated enough to see the ocean, sparkling and calm in the sun a little over a mile away. No movement could be seen, and as the sun got hotter and the hours stretched on, the excitement wore off and the children got bored and restless, waiting for parents to pick them up in response to my text messages. My water bottles, so carefully stowed, were on the truck with my husband and family further up in the hills, but fortunately some of the children had their school lunches packed in their backpacks, including drink bottles.
Mobile phone lines were jammed, as thousands of people all over the country attempted to contact family and friends. When calls did manage to get through, it became apparent that the outside world had picked up on the story that something big was happening in Samoa. We on the Apia side still had only a vague idea of what had happened elsewhere on the island.
Damage in Upolu
Samoa consists of two main islands, Upolu, the most heavily populated, and the “Big island” of Savaii. Apia, the capital is on the central northern coast of Upolu. There are also several smaller islands clustered around Upolu, and 80 miles away to the east lie the islands of American Samoa, known for the town of Pago Pago at the end of its long, deep harbour.
The south-east coast of Upolu is a tourist paradise, with resort hotels and several smaller family-run businesses providing accommodation in little traditional Samoan fales right on the beach. Cool, open, and providing panoramic ocean views, these are very popular with holiday-makers escaping the cold New Zealand and Australian winters at this time of the year. Resorts large and small had a high rate of occupancy that Tuesday morning.
Unbeknown to the people of the north and west areas waiting for hours in the safety of the high ground for the “All Clear to sound, disaster had struck with savage intensity just minutes after the earthquake had subsided.
With the epicentre of the quake barely 200 miles away, and travelling at speeds between 450 and 600 miles per hour, the tsunami that built from the quake hit the South Coast in a series of three or four waves just twelve to fifteen minutes later. In some areas the wave was not more than four feet high. In others, a tide line of dead, salted trees testifies to a height of eighteen feet or more.
Local fishermen and visiting surfers felt the water flatten out, bubble, then drop beneath them as the ocean drained out, leaving the sea bed and coral reef exposed. One early morning swimmer says “One minute I was on top of the water, the next, I was standing on the ocean floor with fish flapping around my ankles”. He managed to scramble almost to shore before the first wave caught him, flinging him against a coconut tree to which he clung for dear life as the second and third waves rushed in. Other surfers and fishermen in canoes paddled frantically out to sea beyond the reef, where they rode out the worst of the surge, or tried to avoid the wave-born missiles inshore as they clung to their boards in an arm-wrenching effort to stay afloat.
On shore, some were warned by the urgent shouts of those who had seen the waters recede, and knew they had to run to higher ground before the waves came in. Some made it, many did not, among them infants and old people, school children on the road to school, and those trapped inside cars along the coastal road.
Those who tried to outrun the waves in cars had to depend on sheer luck. If the water was slowed slightly by an obstacle such as a house or rock wall, they had time to drive up one of the roads leading up into the plantations. If they were caught in an area where the only road was parallel to the shore, they and their vehicle were engulfed, and slammed against the mountain wall.
Anguished parents had children torn from their grasp. There was no chance to save elderly parents too frail to run or swim. Even strong swimmers were killed by the tons of debris hurled around in the maelstrom – boulders from beach or sea bed, whole trees torn up by the roots, cars, roofing iron and glass windows from shattered houses, even whole houses.
Heartbreaking Losses
Jack Batchelor of the Lupesina resort (formerly Boomerang Creek) lost eight of his twelve employees. He managed to save the life of one of his neighbour’s small children by flinging it over his head onto the rocky cliff above; another infant was pulled from his arms and washed out with the retreating wave, to join its two siblings, aged just two and three years old, who had been swept out with their father minutes before.
Holidaying sisters Kerry and Lynne Martin from Matamata, NZ, were swept away as they breakfasted together on the deck of their fale accommodation. They were among seven New Zealanders confirmed killed by the tsunami, while others from Australia and Great Britain were also taken. Other foreign nationals escaped with their lives by heeding the alarms given by staff at the various hotels, although many sustained injuries from sharp metal, coral and stones in the churning water.
All foreigners were evacuated by military aircraft to either NZ or Australia during the next two days, some admitted directly into hospitals for further treatment.
By midday Tuesday an appeal had gone out over the local radio for those who owned large trucks to help evacuate the wounded back to the main hospital in Apia. A further sad task for those trucks was to transport the bodies of the dead back also, as the Lalomanu hospital in the disaster area was quickly overwhelmed. One doctor at the National hospital reported as many as fifteen bodies an hour were being received, along with the hundreds of injured, over seventy of whom required hospitalization.
Over fifteen villages were badly damaged, some, like Lalomanu, virtually wiped out. No families were spared the loss of loved ones, with many losing two, three, seven or more from immediate and extended family.
Especially heartbreaking is the story of the Taufua family, who lost thirteen relatives including the 97-year old patriarch and six small children.
Twenty- eight LDS Church members were among those killed from Malaela, Lalomanu, Leagiagi, and Lepa, while those whose lives were spared usually found that their homes and possessions were not, saving only the clothes they were wearing.
Hundreds of local police, fire rescue personnel , doctors and nurses were joined by teams of volunteers from overseas military and medical personnel, including those specializing in body recovery with a team of trained dogs. Day by day the death toll climbed until it reached over 130 from Upolu and a further 38 from the badly ravaged harbourside areas of Leone and Pago Pago in American Samoa, where the destruction of private and commercial property amounted to millions of dollars.
In Tonga, the small island of Niuatoputapu was engulfed by the tsunami , with waves claiming another nine lives, taking the total to approximately one hundred and seventy, with more still missing.
Anyone and everyone who had any connection to the Samoas and heard of our plight rushed to help in any way they could, offering money, food, clothing, shelter, technical support, and most of all, love and prayers. School children donated their piggy banks; former diplomats, ex-patriate government employees, heads of governments, businessmen and prominent sporting figures all pledged assistance, organized clothing drives and fund-raising activities, and formed work details.
Distraught overseas relatives scrambled for flights in an effort to be here to mourn for their dead, clean up the wrecked homes and bring whatever assistance they could to the survivors. Sympathetic airlines put on extra flights, lowered fares, and increased baggage allowance, while equally sympathetic employers and co-workers arranged special leave, advanced wages, and made donations to help with expenses.
LDS Church on the Scene
Among the first on the scene on Tuesday afternoon was the LDS Church, working closely with the Red Cross to make an assessment of needs and to distribute clothing, food, tarpaulins and water, not only to the LDS members but to all who were and are in need. This assistance has continued every day, adding tools, personal hygiene supplies and bedding from local Stake Relief Societies and from the Church’s highly organized Humanitarian Aid department. Trucks make a four-hour delivery run of clean drinking water three times a day to the camps of displaced persons in the hills.
A chartered DC 10 aircraft has arrived with more material, including tools and building supplies. Full-time missionaries have been deployed for the past week to help with the clean-up of debris. They will be joined by another four hundred volunteers from four stakes in a “Helping Hands” effort.
Elsewhere, earthquake damage to Church property has been quite extensive, with at least three chapels and three stake centres declared unsafe as ceilings caved in. The newly renovated stake centre at Malaela stands across the road from the beach, a shattered wreck, its blue curtains flapping limply in the breeze.
A stunning sight for the saints in the Pesega area is the Angel Moroni, still shining brightly atop the temple, but with his outstretched arm holding only the empty air. The trumpet fell off during the quake.
Samoa will recover. The dead will be buried, but not forgotten. The salt-saturated trees and gardens will be replaced, and businesses and hotels will reopen. Ruined chapels and churches will be rebuilt, and the golden trumpet will again be placed in Moroni ‘s hand. Although we will all look back on September 29 with our own memories,let’s hope that here we will do a bit more to prepare ourselves physically, emotionally, and spiritually for whatever the future may hold.
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The Drama Continues
After Bethel Hunt filed this report for us another earthquake struck. This is her additional report, received Wednesday in the U.S.:
Samoans are going to be gun-shy for a long time to come. As if last week's traumatic events weren't enough, we were again sent heading for the hills after another earthquake shook Vanuatu and put the Pacific on tsunami alert.
When the news of the quake came through at 11:00 a.m. this morning, there were confusing reports and rumors that another wave might be heading our way. Many schools took no chances and evacuated immediately, while others, faced with further disruptions to preparations for national examinations, preferred to wait until an official alert was sounded.
This came at approximately 1:20 p.m., so Apia offices emptied into the streets again and joined students and shoppers in moving as quickly as possible to higher ground and the designated safety stations. Given last week's carnage, no one was prepared to take any chances!
I can only imagine what must have been going through the minds of the people on the South Coast,. Although it must have seemed somewhat unreal that they could possibly be put through the horrors of another wave, no one would have failed to take the warning seriously, and this time the evacuation of residents and hundreds of relief workers still in the area was complete.
Fortunately, the All Clear came by 2:30, and everyone was allowed to return home, many stores and businesses reopened, and life went back to normal.
Even more fortunately, the event happened today, and not tomorrow, when the National Memorial Service for the victims of last Tuesday's disaster would be ready to commence at Apia Park stadium. Emptying that complex, located only a few hundred yards from the shore, could have been a disaster in itself.
Some of us are still a bit jumpy at the sound of a bus braking, a car horn or church bell sounding, or a ship leaving the habour. It may be some time before we can truly settle down and return to normal interpretation of common sounds. And how long before we once again start taking life for granted?
