Yesterday’s tsunami scare lasted for about 12 hours and proves that both the government and residents got serious about disaster preparedness after the Sept. 29 earthquake and tsunami that caused such death and destruction here in the territory, in Samoa and also in Tonga.

While there is still no siren system in place, police and first responders were out in the villages warning of a tsunami generated by the 8.8 earthquake that struck Chile early Saturday, collapsing buildings, killing at least 700 people and downing phone lines. 

Radio stations let residents know that the government had issued a statement around 1 a.m. Saturday morning calling on people in shoreline villages to move to higher ground as the territory prepared for an estimated 8:51 a.m. arrival time for the tsunami.

The American Samoa Power Authority informed customers that they would be turning off the power in threatened areas at about 7:30 a.m. in order prevent damage to equipment and alleviate safety hazards from downed lines. 

The all clear for American Samoa was called at about 12:45 p.m. local time on Saturday.

There were no immediate reports of widespread damage, injuries or deaths in the U.S. or in the Pacific islands, but a tsunami that swamped a village on an island off Chile killed at least five people and left 11 missing, according to Associated Press.

AP reports in Hawaii, water began pulling away from shore off Hilo Bay on the Big Island just before noon, exposing reefs and sending dark streaks of muddy, sandy water offshore. Waves later washed over Coconut Island, a small park off Hilo's coast.

The tsunami was causing a series of surges that were about 20 minutes apart, and the waves arrived later and smaller than originally predicted. The highest wave at Hilo measured 5.5 feet (1.7 meters) high, while Maui saw some as high as 2 meters (6.5 feet).

In American Samoa the weather service measurements showed wave fluctuation in 12 minute intervals in Pago Pago harbor for several hours.  

The tsunami caused by Chile's devastating earthquake Saturday wasn't as dangerous or big as experts first feared.

In Japan, the biggest wave hit the northern island of Hokkaido. There were no immediate reports of damage from the four-foot (1.2-meter) wave, though some piers were briefly flooded.

As it crossed the Pacific, the tsunami dealt populated areas - including the territory of American Samoa and the U.S. state of Hawaii - only a glancing blow.

The tsunami raised fears Pacific nations could suffer from disastrous waves like those that killed 230,000 people around the Indian Ocean in December 2004, which happened with little-to-no warning and much confusion about the impending waves.

Officials said the opposite occurred after the Chile quake: They overstated their predictions of the size of the waves and the threat.

"We expected the waves to be bigger in Hawaii, maybe about 50 percent bigger than they actually were," said Gerard Fryer, a geophysicist for the warning center. "We'll be looking at that."

Besides the panic buying, and hoarding, of food and supplies that caused some supermarkets to place limits on staples like Spam - and long lines as gas stations - officials in Hawaii said everything went as planned.

"I hope everyone learned from this for next time, and there will be a next time," Fryer said.

Contributing to this report:  Associated Press

We’ve previously posted about the public health risks facing tsunami survivors.  It seems it’s now being picked up by mainstream media. Public health professionals in Samoa voiced concerns about deaths resulting from untreated and infected injuries from Day one. They said secondary deaths would result from injuries and infections left untreated. One doctor, whose Red Cross diary we published here, talked of the challenge of trying to convince an injured survivor to leave his family to get treatment. His infection was spreading and posing serious risks to his well-being. It was only after much urging that he finally agreed to leave his family to attend the medical clinic.

One thing that some may have overlooked is that when dead bodies have been in the water, it contaminates the water. That’s because a corpse leaks faeces and release gases, some of them poisonous, as part of decomposition at some stage.

Another story we heard from survivors was of men, who had survived the tsunami with severe injuries but still refusing to get treatment. Instead, they got stuck into clearing debris and rebuilding their homes. As noble and appreciated as that is, it poses a dangerous risk to their health and life if they don’t stop to get urgent medical treatment.

Public health professionals in Samoa were predicting from day one that there would be secondary deaths among survivors simply because of infection from untreated wounds and injuries.

This is where our men, and our women, need to really take care of themselves and take their injuries seriously.

That brings us to post-traumatic stress disorder. Many, as predicted by health professionals, are suffering from it. The challenge that grief counsellors faced in the first weeks post-tsunami is something we posted about earlier: some survivors did not want to talk. Their refusal to talk about it is said to concern counsellors citing Samoa’s previously high suicide rate.

Water
UNICEF Media Release

UNICEF supports water tankering for displaced Samoan families

Apia, 1 November 2009 – Almost 3,000 people, many of them children, are still relying on roadside delivery of water a month after a tsunami hit Samoa.

The UN Children’s Fund is supporting the Samoan Water Authority (SWA) with two water tankers to provide essential supplies for families who don’t have any other water source in the tsunami-devastated south and southeast of Samoa. The SWA is operating up to eight water tankers, supported by UNICEF and partner organisations, that run between 8am and midnight on a daily basis.

UNICEF Water, Sanitation and Hygiene Specialist, Madhav Pahari, says that after the tsunami on 29 September, many people who originally lived in coastal areas moved inland, often setting up temporary shelters on plantation lands that are on higher ground.

“The tsunami destroyed and damaged many people’s houses by the coast, forcing them to relocate. A lot of families also feel that it’s not safe to live beside the sea any more,” says Mr Pahari.

“Although running water has since been restored to the tsunami-devastated areas, a lot of people have relocated to agricultural areas where there is no existing water source.

“Trucking in water for these displaced families is essential to meet their immediate humanitarian needs for drinking water, as well as water for cleaning, washing and sanitation.

“Delivery is along secondary dirt and gravel roads, near to where people are sheltering. Families, including young children, bring containers to the roadside where they are filled directly from the water tanker.

“Although this situation is far from ideal, families do appear to be receiving adequate quantities of water for their needs.”

Mr Pahari says providing water using tankers is only ever a temporary measure until a more permanent source of water can be developed.

“UNICEF is working with the SWA to bring in a water engineer within the next week whose job will be to identify safe water sources for the displaced population and to provide options for a more sustainable water supply. We will then need to identify funding options with the Government and partner organisations. The area has a number of rivers and lakes, so it may be that tapping these sources using a gravity-fed piping system is a practical and cost effective option.”

In the aftermath of the tsunami, UNICEF has provided 3,500 collapsible 10-litre water containers; 5,000 bars of soap; 2,000 oral rehydration salts (to treat the dehydration resulting from diarrhoea); and close to 10,000 copies of key hygiene messages including the importance of hand-washing before eating and after using the toilet, food safety and rubbish removal. In addition, supplies of 5,000 water purification tablets are available for deployment as required.

CocaCola NZ and Air NZ have partnered with UNICEF to fly in 2,000 bottles of drinking water for distribution to children at tsunami-affected schools.