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FROM THE FIELD

Tsunami watch
08 Oct 2009 06:18:00 GMT
 Source: Oxfam - New Zealand
Janna Hamilton

Website: Website: http://www.oxfam.org.nz

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Sina Swanky reviews the damage the tsunami caused to her village, Si’umu on the southern coast of Upulo, Samoa
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Sina Swanky reviews the damage the tsunami caused to her village, Si’umu on the southern coast of Upulo, Samoa
Jane Ussher/Oxfam

Background

•  Pacific tsunami 2009

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Earlier today, powerful quakes off Vanuatu set off tsunami warnings across the Pacific - eight days after the tsunami that devastated parts of Samoa. Oxfam aid worker Janna Hamilton was there:

You can't be blamed for over 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 starting sounding in Samoa's capital, 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.

School students, office workers, mother's holding young babies were pouring out on to the roads running towards the mountain behind the city.

One family either packed 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, In Apia, bury many of the 175 dead in a mass burial.

Phones jammed instantly as people tried to call family and friends.

I have been up and down Samoa's devastated southern coastline for over a week now, helping to distribute emergency supplies to affected families who have lost their homes. Sitting and speaking with these people, most of them vow never to live on the idyllic coast again.

Sina, a gentle older woman who lives with her 10-year-old grandson, moved back to her home for the first time last night after the tsunami completely smothered and washed out her property. She said she was incredibly scared and wouldn't have returned had her father not been buried in front of her home.

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.


[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

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Topics

•  Working in Relief

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Emergencies

•  Pacific tsunami 2009

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Members

•  Oxfam - New Zealand

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NGO latest

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[ Any views expressed in this article are those of the writer and not of Reuters. ]

Background information

Briefings
Pacific tsunami 2009 - [Who works where]

Topics
Working in Relief
Facts & figures
Samoa (Western)

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A Samoan man walks through debris of his neighbourhood near Lalomanu on the southern coast of Western Samoa September 30, 2009, as he looks for a matching shoe. His village was ...


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