2:27 PM |
Ta'afuli Andrew Fiu October 3 at 7:49am
As day breaks, the homeless walk along a gravel road from makeshift camps and fale near taro plantations protected by the higher grounds.
As far as the eye can see, a slick silt covers all surfaces, a tell-tale sign of the destructive wake of the tsunami.
Cars are flipped over, rubble strewn across the flattened vegetation.
Thick sheets of iron are crumpled like cardboard, and concrete slabs are all that remain of most fale. Damaged timber from homes and businesses is reduced to driftwood lapping against the beach shore.
Locals pick through the debris to rescue what can be salvaged; police pick through the debris to remove bodies.
Villagers begin to rebuild what remains of their lives. Most have nothing but the shirts on their backs. Even with trucks and diggers arriving, the clean-up seems an impossible task.
The village of Lalomanu, right on the tip of the coast, bore the brunt of the angry seas on Wednesday morning. What was once a thriving tourist spot, a postcard from paradise, is now little more than a rubbish dump. Some Lalomanu survivors have lost more than 12 members of their families.
Everyone we speak to has lost a loved one, but condolences are met with shrugged shoulders. There will be time to mourn, a time to remember and grieve, but there is too much work to do.
Help is on the way. As the locals pick through what is left of their lives, a convoy of Red Cross volunteers bring much needed food and supplies. Behind those, trucks bringing diggers to clear the ruins.
An Orion aircraft from the New Zealand Airforce flies low overhead, scanning for bodies swept out to sea. Flares are fired from the plane to mark locations for rescue boats to pick up the deceased from the sea.
Returning a loved one to the land of Samoa is a crucial part of the grieving process in this country. Every effort will be made.
Samoa had just six minutes to save lives.
Striking 200km to the southeast of the main island of Upolu, the 8.3 earthquake shook the tiny Pacific nation to its core, then delivered a knockout blow.
In just six minutes, thousands of tonnes of water surged across the sea and changed thousands of lives in an instant.
TOURIST Andy Belcher was staggered how quickly the water came, with so little warning.
Asleep with his wife Angie in a fale, he initially dismissed the quake as vibrations from a truck driving along the road.
The tremors became more violent, not just moving the room from side-to-side but forcing the bed to jump in the air, as if an unseen giant was picking up the room and shaking it.
For at least a minute, the Bay of Plenty couple, wearing nothing but a sheet, braced themselves in the door-frame, expecting the fale to fall down around them. Then nothing.
As far as the eye can see, a slick silt covers all surfaces, a tell-tale sign of the destructive wake of the tsunami.
Cars are flipped over, rubble strewn across the flattened vegetation.
Thick sheets of iron are crumpled like cardboard, and concrete slabs are all that remain of most fale. Damaged timber from homes and businesses is reduced to driftwood lapping against the beach shore.
Locals pick through the debris to rescue what can be salvaged; police pick through the debris to remove bodies.
Villagers begin to rebuild what remains of their lives. Most have nothing but the shirts on their backs. Even with trucks and diggers arriving, the clean-up seems an impossible task.
The village of Lalomanu, right on the tip of the coast, bore the brunt of the angry seas on Wednesday morning. What was once a thriving tourist spot, a postcard from paradise, is now little more than a rubbish dump. Some Lalomanu survivors have lost more than 12 members of their families.
Everyone we speak to has lost a loved one, but condolences are met with shrugged shoulders. There will be time to mourn, a time to remember and grieve, but there is too much work to do.
Help is on the way. As the locals pick through what is left of their lives, a convoy of Red Cross volunteers bring much needed food and supplies. Behind those, trucks bringing diggers to clear the ruins.
An Orion aircraft from the New Zealand Airforce flies low overhead, scanning for bodies swept out to sea. Flares are fired from the plane to mark locations for rescue boats to pick up the deceased from the sea.
Returning a loved one to the land of Samoa is a crucial part of the grieving process in this country. Every effort will be made.
Samoa had just six minutes to save lives.
Striking 200km to the southeast of the main island of Upolu, the 8.3 earthquake shook the tiny Pacific nation to its core, then delivered a knockout blow.
In just six minutes, thousands of tonnes of water surged across the sea and changed thousands of lives in an instant.
TOURIST Andy Belcher was staggered how quickly the water came, with so little warning.
Asleep with his wife Angie in a fale, he initially dismissed the quake as vibrations from a truck driving along the road.
The tremors became more violent, not just moving the room from side-to-side but forcing the bed to jump in the air, as if an unseen giant was picking up the room and shaking it.
For at least a minute, the Bay of Plenty couple, wearing nothing but a sheet, braced themselves in the door-frame, expecting the fale to fall down around them. Then nothing.
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