Aid rushing to American Samoa tsunami zone
The area affected by the earthquake and several tsunamis on September 30 is in the remote South Pacific. The people of the island nations of Samoa, Tonga and the territory of American Samoa have all suffered deaths and destruction on a massive scale.
Typhoon damage in Southeast Asia and a major earthquake in Indonesia have diverted attention and assistance from this disaster. Yet, the United States, Australia and New Zealand are rushing support to the area.
Calculations performed by the European Community staff suggests that the waves hitting Pago Pago in American Samoa were about 8.8 feet, though they could have been higher locally. Wave heights in Samoa were about 3 feet lower.
The United States has sent one C-130 aircraft to Pago Pago and two C-17 aircraft from the Hawaii National Guard are also expected to arrive this evening. 90 Guardsmen are on board.
The USS Ingraham is expected to arrive shortly. It carries two helicopters.
The Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) today announced additional federal support en route to American Samoa by air. The flights below represent the first legs in an “air bridge†being established to ferry supplies into the island territory in the immediate aftermath of Tuesday’s tsunami. Flights will continue for the foreseeable future in order to respond to the needs of the survivors on the ground.FEMA and its federal partners continue to work closely with territorial and local government to respond in areas impacted by the tsunami. Planned flights for the response efforts that will include personnel, skill sets and commodities, are as follows:
C-130 Flight:
A U.S. Coast Guard C-130, from Coast Guard Air Station Sacramento, Calif., left Honolulu at 11 p.m. HDT (5 a.m. EDT) carrying the initial response team as well as FEMA Federal Coordinating Officer (FCO), Kenneth J Tingman. Tingman will coordinate closely with Region IX who has the lead on the response until a Joint Field Office is established. [snip]Additional personnel on the flight include a FEMA logistics team and initial staff from U.S. Health and Human Services (HHS), the Coast Guard, the Federal Aviation Administration and the Department of Defense. They arrived around sunrise in Pago Pago which was early this afternoon eastern time.
C-17 National Guard Flight:
A Hawaii National Guard C-17 cargo flight is scheduled for travel from Honolulu to Samoa later today. The cargo on this flight will include primary commodities such as food, generators, water, shelter materials, and medical supplies and pharmaceuticals.DC-8 Flights:
Supplies are now being loaded onto multiple DC-8 planes in Dallas-Fort Worth. One flight will head toward Samoa today and additional flights will leave tomorrow. These flights will include FEMA, HHS and Coast Guard staff as well as expertise from the Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the American Red Cross. These flights will also include commodities including vehicles, generators, food, cots and blankets.
There are some outstanding graphics at this NOAA Tide Gauges site showing the tsunamis.
Table of contents for Somoa
- Samoa rocked by earthquake, drowned by tsunami
- Samoa reeling from tsunamis, 3 to 5 waves strike
- Situation report for American Samoa 9-30-2009 Noon EDT
- Aid rushing to American Samoa tsunami zone
- How far away is American Samoa
- American Samoa tsunami update for October 1 2009 10 am EDT
- American Samoa tsunami update for October 1 2009 9 pm EDT
- American Samoa tsunami update for October 2 2009 3 pm EDT
- American Samoa tsunami update for October 3 2009 4 pm EDT
- American Samoa tsunami update for October 5 2009 11 pm EDT
- American Samoa Wrapup
- USS Ingraham aids American Samoa
