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News blog - Samoa tsunami
Oxfam aid worker Janna Hamilton arrived in Samoa 48 hours after the devastating tsunami struck. Here she writes about her experience.
Thursday Oct 8, 2009
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Sina returns to her property for the first time after the tsunami. Her father is buried in front of the house and although she is scared, she wants to remain close by.
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One gentle old woman Sina, who lives with her 10-year-old grandson, had returned to the remains of her property for the first time after the tsunami. She told me she was incredibly scared and wouldn’t have come back had her father not been buried in front of her home.
So you can’t be surprised by the reaction in Samoa today, when the Pacific Islands were put on tsunami watch following another massive earthquake off the coast of Espiritu Santo in Vanuatu.
When the sirens started sounding in Samoa’s capital, school students, office workers, mothers holding young babies, all poured out on to the roads that ran towards the mountain behind the city. Phones jammed instantly as people tried to call their family and friends.
One family had either packed really fast, or the fear of last week’s tsunami encouraged them to have a contingency plan – they were dragging suitcases up the hill.
We knew Samoa was only under tsunami watch - not a full alert but it didn’t make any difference to the people here, who will tomorrow bury many of the 175 dead in a mass burial.
I grabbed the car keys, went knocking on my neighbours’ hotel doors to fill up the car and we joined the chaos on the roads heading up the hill above the city.
In the back was a young Kiwi family, with a very excited seven-year-old Joshua, asking why he was woken from his afternoon nap for a slow car trip. His parents did an impressive job of distracting him.
When we were parked safely up the hill looking out to the calm ocean, I thought of Sina, and her frightened face recalling when the wave swept her up, wondering after today’s warning, whether she would really be able to live back there.
Finding displaced families - Sunday Oct 4, 2009
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| Many of the children have infected wounds from being battered by the waves, as well as mosquito bites covering their entire bodies after moving into the plantations. |
It is five days since the tsunami decimated the coastline of Upolu. Today is a day of mourning in Samoa. Samoans are famous for their melodious church singing and it can be heard throughout the capital, Apia, this morning.
Two hours south on the scarred coastline, people sit on the foundations of what were once their homes, resting from the massive clean-up job. Plumes of smoke rose from the piles of burning rubbish.
Dozens of police are grid-searching the debris, continuing to look for missing people. Two bodies are pulled from the rubble, 8 more remain missing. The death toll from the tsunami now stands at 134, with 316 injured.
Oxfam’s water engineers travel inland with local health officials and Red Cross along rough dirt roads that wind up into the taro and coconut plantations. The team is searching for displaced families, helping to ensure the most vulnerable people don’t miss out on the supply of essential aid.
Many of the children have infected wounds from being battered by the waves, as well as mosquito bites covering their entire bodies after moving into the plantations. Health officials are recording names and locations to urgently alert medical relief personnel.
All along the damaged coast when I speak with those affected, they say they will build their new homes inland. The challenge that lies ahead is constructing these villages and ensuring people have all of the essential services needed to rebuild their lives. Oxfam is co-leading the coordination between the Samoan government and UN agencies to ensure communities will have access to clean water and sanitation.
Delivering supplies
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Oxfam’s Janna Hamilton and Tina Nuuvali from Oxfam’s partner organization deliver fresh water, clothing and food to displaced families from Satitoa village. |
Exhausted faces wait for us at the pick-up point for emergency supplies. Recovery staff and volunteers have been based above Lalomanu village, registering and distributing essentials for five days now. Working with Women in Business Development (WIBDI), we deliver tarpaulins and drinking water to Satitoa and Ulutongia villages. Thirty-six families from Ulutongia – more than 300 people – are now living in makeshift shelters at the primary school, 300 metres back from the sea.
The traditional village council system is being used to ensure everyone is looked after. We give the drinking water and tarpaulins to the village matai or chiefs, who distribute them to individual families.
The bigger picture
Oxfam is coordinating international humanitarian assistance in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors to assure that people’s needs are met within commonly-agreed international standards.
Through WIBDI, Oxfam is engaging with all other national and international stakeholders in the early recovery, food security, and livelihood sectors.
Arrival in Samoa - Saturday Oct 3, 2009
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Entire villages have been wiped out by the Tsunami that struck the southern coast of Samoa. |
When I first arrived in Apia, there were no signs of the devastation. The capital was buzzing as usual.
Driving south the road was full of cars and pick ups laden with bags of clothing, bread and bottled water. Family members and friends, or those just wanting to help, were all heading down to the southern coastline where entire villages have been wiped out.
We travelled with our Samoan partner organisation, Women in Business Development (WIBDI), to make an initial assessment of the urgent needs, to identify the most vulnerable people and to determine the most effective way Oxfam’s humanitarian expertise can support the relief effort.
Clearly, the supply of safe water and sanitation is critical in the immediate aftermath of disaster and our engineers, Dave Neru and Nick Hewer-Hewitt have swung into action.
Already, since the morning of the tsunami, WIBDI have been delivering drinking water, shoes, clothes, Fala Lilii (mats), sleeping bags and boxes of tinned fish to the families who lost their homes. Oxfam has already sent through funds to replenish these relief items and coordination of the distribution is now being managed through the National Disaster Management Office here in Apia.
To make sure no one misses out, it’s essential that the delivery of aid is now managed from this one distribution point, and details of who received what are recorded.
Scenes of devastation
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At the south eastern tip of Upolu the devastation is immediate. |
I’ve been along this devastated south coast several times now, delivering supplies – and hearing the stories of tragedy, loss and extraordinary heroism.
Where once stood fales, traditional Samoan houses, only the rectangular foundations are left. Twisted corrugated roofs are strewn for hundreds of metres, beaten cars are upturned and filled with mud and debris, a truck is twisted up in the coconut plantation and a child’s schoolbag lies beside the road.
The smell of fish rotting in the heat, 300 metres inland from the shoreline is overwhelming. Helicopters are flying overhead, searching for people who remain missing. People tell us the rocks that were once the sea walls built along the coastline did a lot of the damage to people. They are now scattered all across properties.
Our Samoan partners
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Adimaimalaga Tafuna’I, Executive Director of Women in Business Development Incorporated (WIBDI).
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Women in Business Development have strong ties to these local families. They operate in 150 rural villages across Samoa, supporting a range of community-based projects aimed at creating sustainable village economies and revitalising the agricultural sector.
Here on the south coast of Upolu, WIBDI has provided agricultural training and business skills support to farmers who earlier this year secured a valuable contract – the exclusive supply of organic coconut oil to The Body Shop International. These farmers also grow organic bananas and taro sold at an organics market in Apia that WIBDI established two years ago.
Along this coastline are other small family businesses that got off the ground through WIBDI’s successful micro-finance loan scheme. For many, they will need to start again from scratch.
“They are too scared to come back at the moment,” Visor Auvele, WIBDI staff member tells me. “Some say they will never rebuild on the sea, they wouldn’t be able to sleep listening to the rumble of the crashing waves.”
Fuamatuseti family- Poutasi village
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Fuamatusetil looks down over his devastated village. |
Three days ago 23 families lived in this lush cove. Some worked in the neighbouring tourist resorts, others lived a semi-subsistence lifestyle, growing taro and bananas, and selling produce to market.
Meleisea Fuamatuseti, 80, had recently joined WIBDI’s farming network, growing vegetables to sell at the organic market WIBDI started in Apia two years ago.
When I met Fuamatuseti he was resting in a fale on the hill looking down over his devastated village. He recalls the morning when it was all destroyed:
“Straight after the earthquake, I told the children to get in the car and drive away. I looked out to sea and saw the wave forming.
"My son drove away with my four grandchildren, but the road was jammed with cars, and when the wave came they were smacked like pancakes by the other cars. I lost three of my grandchildren. My son survived."
The children's mother Salaeualu Meleisea, 32, says she was up at the shop buying the children's food when the earthquake struck. She started to head back and could see her children aged 1, 2 and 3 being driven away. Then she saw the wave hit them.
She says the tears won't stop. She has one child who survived.
Oxfam's rapid assessment team
Oxfam’s rapid assessment team is working closely with the Samoan authorities, UN agencies and other non-government organisations to ensure a coordinated relief effort – one that has a complete picture of people’s needs, and that makes sure every person is accounted for.
Samoans have always had a strong sense of community, which comes from their strong sense of culture, and traditions of collective support. The local matai/chiefs are providing leadership at the village level and I can feel the incredible spirit here. For those with family to take them in, they are being well supported. Oxfam is working with all agencies involved to make sure the most vulnerable people are able to recover and begin to rebuild their lives.
Once the initial urgent needs have been met, it is clear people will require long-term support for reconstruction of their homes and livelihoods.
Being here, in Samoa, heightens my sense of family – and my connection, not just with New Zealand but with all Pacific communities.
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