September 29th
What a day!! It all started off with me jogging. At 6:50 AM I was rounding a corner of the Pesega School complex and I hear this loud noise like a jet plane was going to land on my head. I looked up and could see nothing and then the ground started to move. The signs were swaying back and forth and I had to stop running because I thought I would fall down. It lasted about 3 minutes. After it stopped I ran home to find Paul at the computer checking to see how bad it was.
Paul said that when the earthquake hit, he was walking down the hall and hanging on to both sides trying to save the pictures. So gratefully we only lost a few pictures, a clock and some water storage bottles fell off the shelve. There was very little damage around Apia except Angel Moroni did drop his horn and his thumb and the stake center behind us, had a crooked steeple, which has now been removed.
I got into the tub and was washing my hair when Paul came running in and said we had to go because there was a tsunami warning. The sirens were going off so I jumped out of the tub and put my tennie runners on, just in case I had to run. We grabbed some water and granola bars and then picked up the couple from across the street, who didn’t have a car and took off for the hills. When we were about 5 minutes out, Paul said “Shoot I forgot to get some Coke Zero.”
It was an amazing thing to see so many people heading for the hills. Whole families were walking with back packs clogging the streets.
We decided to go to our friend Sua’s home up the hill. He lives in American Samoa but is building a home here. He had been trying since the earthquake to get a hold of his family but unable to.
We stayed there for an hour and then decided to go back to our home. We called the Squires and I felt bad that we hadn’t checked on them before we left. They don’t have a car so they had started to walk up the hill when some other members saw them and put them in the back of their truck and dropped them off at the golf course.
We stopped at the golf course on our way home to pick them up. Our phone finally started working and we saw a rather worried email from Jodi. We quickly answered it and then loaded the 6 of us in a car built for 4 and headed for home. We went back to our house and made bacon, eggs and hash browns while watching the international news.
We could get CNN which had some coverage and the local news was in Samoan, so after a while we decided to go to the other side of the island to see the damage for ourselves. We had heard that a tsunami had hit and that some people been washed away but we weren’t sure where or how bad it was.
We took the first cross island road to the other side of the island and when we came down the mountain and turned on the beach road we could immediately see where the wave had hit the town of Poutasi. It was very interesting what was gone and what was still standing. All the cute Samoan Fale’s were gone and some of the homes were damaged and you could see standing water. This was now about six hours after the wave had hit.
As we continued eastward you could see a little more damage here and there. We wanted to see if Tafatafa was seriously damaged. It is a beautiful long beach with little fale’s all along the beach front. What we could see of it was that the fale’s were gone but the homes weren’t too bad. Some members live right behind the beach fale’s and their home was still intact so we asked them how they were doing and they gave us thumbs up sign.
We continued on our trek east and the next place we wanted to see was Vavau. Unfortunately it was chained off so we couldn’t go down that road. That was one of favorite places; the people there have always been so nice to us and hoped it’s not totally destroyed. Just down the road we came to what had been our favorite restaurant, called the Sea Breeze. As we drove down the steep road we could see that it was totally gone. It had been in a beautiful cove with little islands in the bay. The restaurant had great food and we had hoped to take anyone who came here to visit to this little paradise.
The rest of the trip was difficult because the road was now so cluttered that the traffic was down to one lane, bumper to bumper with devastation on both sides of the road. The road was washed out or undercut in several places causing us to drive through the actual villages to continue on. At this point we kind of wished that we had not come because we felt like we were intruding on their grief and could do nothing for them. It was hard to see these poor people sitting on what was left of the foundations of their homes or sitting in the trees staring into space.
There was so much debris in the water that it looked like someone had dynamited a city and threw it in the ocean. The water was all brown close to the shore because of all the dirt and debris and the land that had bordered the road was simply gone. There were huge boulders and coral head scattered from the beach inland to the base of the mountain with many on top of people’s homes. There were cars in the trees, in the ocean and smashed on top of the people’s homes.
We had been to this side of the island so many times but now we couldn’t tell where we had been. We thought we were at one of our favorite places but when we got there we weren’t sure if it was the right place. We knew we were close because of the little island in front but since all the homes were gone we just couldn’t tell where we had been. There was no trace of a little pink house that we used to park in front of. We kept wondering if the family from this home made it out with their five little children.
As we turned up the east end of the island going north at Lalomanu you could see that it was the worst of the worst. There was nothing left. There were boats in trees, cars smashed everywhere and the road was mostly gone.
We found the brand new stake center and at first we thought that it had survived. But as we got closer we could see that all the windows were gone and part of the roof was collapsed or missing. It was obvious the building is a total loss.
Our drive had taken us three hours to get to this point, a distance that should have taken us 45 minute. And what was amazing was as soon as we rounded the next corner there was no damage at all.
We headed home and as we got closer to Apia we saw people that looked like they were in a panic. They had back packs on and were all in a hurry. Cars were passing us and honking at us and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We were about out of gas and hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we were trying to find a place to eat. When we tried to go toward the beach in Apia the police stopped us and said that there was another tsunami warning and told us to head for higher ground.
These poor people didn’t need this at all. As it turned out it was a false alarm and we were able to go home after an hour or so.
When we got home we made some dinner and watched the news. They didn’t seem to do a very good job with the national news but we were able to get a local channel and see what was going on.
It was a very long day for us and an even longer night. Things kept going through my mind all night. “What if it had happened on this side of the island?” What if it happened in the night?” What if we had been out snorkeling? It was a very long night.
There are several stories that we heard that night from another senior couple. Their mission is to take care of all the missionaries’ fale’s. So the president asked them to take a van out to the Elders. They had grabbed tons of water and took off for the other side.
They were down by the stake center that had been destroyed and were asked to go up to the encampment up the hill and hand out water. They returned just a few minutes later and the area that had once been crowded with tons of people was completely empty. They looked around and saw some people running down the road. They drove to them and were told that another tsunami was on its way. The fifteen people jumped in the van and they took off. Poor Sister Eves kept a steady eye on the ocean for the wave to hit them. But thanks goodness it was a false alarm and nothing came.
I just can’t imagine after seeing all the devastation that had just happened to these poor people, to see them running and to be worried that it was going to come again and that you might be swept out to sea with them. Poor Sister Eves was still shaking hours after they got home.
There is a story about the two missionaries who barely got out of their fale and saw the wave coming right at them. They took off running and up to high ground came upon three little children so they picked them up under their arms and just kept running. When they saw the wave was about to hit them and knew that they would not make it they decided to climb a tree. They got the children in the tree and climbed as fast as they could. The first wave hit and they were praying that the tree would hold and that they were high enough. The second one hit and it came further up the tree and they continued to pray. When the third wave hit it came up to their feet and then subsided. They had made it, the tree had held and their prayers were answered.
Another story was that an Elder got a call to get out of his fale and jumped into his van just as the wave hit him. It took his van inland totally destroying it and he walked away.
Two other Elders were in their fale (home) and it was hit by the wave and taken inland totally destroying it and they walked out of it ok.
The mission president has asked all the Missionaries to write about their experiences and submit them to him. He asked them to do it soon so that they wouldn’t forget how things happened to them. It will be interesting to read the accounts of all of them.
By the evening of the earthquake and tsunami, the Church had already loaded three big trucks with food, water and tents and had them on the way to a rescue site. The call went out at 9pm for our stake to bring clothing to the stake center. By 8am the next morning, there was enough clothing, sheets and blankets to fill about 300 large garbage bags and it took three large trucks to haul it all across the island. Later that day another stake had a similar amount and that plus two more trucks of food went out. Most of the islanders were still in shock and the church had already responded with tons of food and clothing. It was an amazing thing to behold and be part of. The rest of the week was meeting after meeting trying to coordinate with Salt Lake on the needs of the people. There is a lot of work and coordinating that has to be done to able to receive outside help.
We have also been trying to get Media releases done, stories written and we have been inundated with 1000 emails. One guy from the U.S. wanted me to find his family and see if they were ok. They lived in Apia so I just told him that Apia wasn’t damaged and so I thought his family would be fine.
Oct 2 2009
Today we went with a small group of members to the other side of the island to help feed the workers and those that were still there trying to find their loves ones. Some of the sisters from our ward made chicken soup and they put them all together into two big coolers. We also had hot dogs, bread, cookies and water. We would drive along until we saw workmen or other people and wave them to the cars. They would come and we would give them a hand full of food. They have been given some food like rice and other subsistence food but it’s hard for them to prepare things living in the hills. So they would come running to the trucks and they were so thankful.
What a day!! It all started off with me jogging. At 6:50 AM I was rounding a corner of the Pesega School complex and I hear this loud noise like a jet plane was going to land on my head. I looked up and could see nothing and then the ground started to move. The signs were swaying back and forth and I had to stop running because I thought I would fall down. It lasted about 3 minutes. After it stopped I ran home to find Paul at the computer checking to see how bad it was.
Paul said that when the earthquake hit, he was walking down the hall and hanging on to both sides trying to save the pictures. So gratefully we only lost a few pictures, a clock and some water storage bottles fell off the shelve. There was very little damage around Apia except Angel Moroni did drop his horn and his thumb and the stake center behind us, had a crooked steeple, which has now been removed.
I got into the tub and was washing my hair when Paul came running in and said we had to go because there was a tsunami warning. The sirens were going off so I jumped out of the tub and put my tennie runners on, just in case I had to run. We grabbed some water and granola bars and then picked up the couple from across the street, who didn’t have a car and took off for the hills. When we were about 5 minutes out, Paul said “Shoot I forgot to get some Coke Zero.”
It was an amazing thing to see so many people heading for the hills. Whole families were walking with back packs clogging the streets.
We decided to go to our friend Sua’s home up the hill. He lives in American Samoa but is building a home here. He had been trying since the earthquake to get a hold of his family but unable to.
We stayed there for an hour and then decided to go back to our home. We called the Squires and I felt bad that we hadn’t checked on them before we left. They don’t have a car so they had started to walk up the hill when some other members saw them and put them in the back of their truck and dropped them off at the golf course.
We stopped at the golf course on our way home to pick them up. Our phone finally started working and we saw a rather worried email from Jodi. We quickly answered it and then loaded the 6 of us in a car built for 4 and headed for home. We went back to our house and made bacon, eggs and hash browns while watching the international news.
We could get CNN which had some coverage and the local news was in Samoan, so after a while we decided to go to the other side of the island to see the damage for ourselves. We had heard that a tsunami had hit and that some people been washed away but we weren’t sure where or how bad it was.
We took the first cross island road to the other side of the island and when we came down the mountain and turned on the beach road we could immediately see where the wave had hit the town of Poutasi. It was very interesting what was gone and what was still standing. All the cute Samoan Fale’s were gone and some of the homes were damaged and you could see standing water. This was now about six hours after the wave had hit.
As we continued eastward you could see a little more damage here and there. We wanted to see if Tafatafa was seriously damaged. It is a beautiful long beach with little fale’s all along the beach front. What we could see of it was that the fale’s were gone but the homes weren’t too bad. Some members live right behind the beach fale’s and their home was still intact so we asked them how they were doing and they gave us thumbs up sign.
We continued on our trek east and the next place we wanted to see was Vavau. Unfortunately it was chained off so we couldn’t go down that road. That was one of favorite places; the people there have always been so nice to us and hoped it’s not totally destroyed. Just down the road we came to what had been our favorite restaurant, called the Sea Breeze. As we drove down the steep road we could see that it was totally gone. It had been in a beautiful cove with little islands in the bay. The restaurant had great food and we had hoped to take anyone who came here to visit to this little paradise.
The top picture is the before and the bottom picture is the after. Notice that the whole resturant is totally gone on the right.
The rest of the trip was difficult because the road was now so cluttered that the traffic was down to one lane, bumper to bumper with devastation on both sides of the road. The road was washed out or undercut in several places causing us to drive through the actual villages to continue on. At this point we kind of wished that we had not come because we felt like we were intruding on their grief and could do nothing for them. It was hard to see these poor people sitting on what was left of the foundations of their homes or sitting in the trees staring into space.
There was so much debris in the water that it looked like someone had dynamited a city and threw it in the ocean. The water was all brown close to the shore because of all the dirt and debris and the land that had bordered the road was simply gone. There were huge boulders and coral head scattered from the beach inland to the base of the mountain with many on top of people’s homes. There were cars in the trees, in the ocean and smashed on top of the people’s homes.
We had been to this side of the island so many times but now we couldn’t tell where we had been. We thought we were at one of our favorite places but when we got there we weren’t sure if it was the right place. We knew we were close because of the little island in front but since all the homes were gone we just couldn’t tell where we had been. There was no trace of a little pink house that we used to park in front of. We kept wondering if the family from this home made it out with their five little children.
As we turned up the east end of the island going north at Lalomanu you could see that it was the worst of the worst. There was nothing left. There were boats in trees, cars smashed everywhere and the road was mostly gone.
We found the brand new stake center and at first we thought that it had survived. But as we got closer we could see that all the windows were gone and part of the roof was collapsed or missing. It was obvious the building is a total loss.
Our drive had taken us three hours to get to this point, a distance that should have taken us 45 minute. And what was amazing was as soon as we rounded the next corner there was no damage at all.
We headed home and as we got closer to Apia we saw people that looked like they were in a panic. They had back packs on and were all in a hurry. Cars were passing us and honking at us and we couldn’t figure out what was going on. We were about out of gas and hadn’t eaten since breakfast so we were trying to find a place to eat. When we tried to go toward the beach in Apia the police stopped us and said that there was another tsunami warning and told us to head for higher ground.
These poor people didn’t need this at all. As it turned out it was a false alarm and we were able to go home after an hour or so.
When we got home we made some dinner and watched the news. They didn’t seem to do a very good job with the national news but we were able to get a local channel and see what was going on.
It was a very long day for us and an even longer night. Things kept going through my mind all night. “What if it had happened on this side of the island?” What if it happened in the night?” What if we had been out snorkeling? It was a very long night.
There are several stories that we heard that night from another senior couple. Their mission is to take care of all the missionaries’ fale’s. So the president asked them to take a van out to the Elders. They had grabbed tons of water and took off for the other side.
They were down by the stake center that had been destroyed and were asked to go up to the encampment up the hill and hand out water. They returned just a few minutes later and the area that had once been crowded with tons of people was completely empty. They looked around and saw some people running down the road. They drove to them and were told that another tsunami was on its way. The fifteen people jumped in the van and they took off. Poor Sister Eves kept a steady eye on the ocean for the wave to hit them. But thanks goodness it was a false alarm and nothing came.
I just can’t imagine after seeing all the devastation that had just happened to these poor people, to see them running and to be worried that it was going to come again and that you might be swept out to sea with them. Poor Sister Eves was still shaking hours after they got home.
There is a story about the two missionaries who barely got out of their fale and saw the wave coming right at them. They took off running and up to high ground came upon three little children so they picked them up under their arms and just kept running. When they saw the wave was about to hit them and knew that they would not make it they decided to climb a tree. They got the children in the tree and climbed as fast as they could. The first wave hit and they were praying that the tree would hold and that they were high enough. The second one hit and it came further up the tree and they continued to pray. When the third wave hit it came up to their feet and then subsided. They had made it, the tree had held and their prayers were answered.
Another story was that an Elder got a call to get out of his fale and jumped into his van just as the wave hit him. It took his van inland totally destroying it and he walked away.
Two other Elders were in their fale (home) and it was hit by the wave and taken inland totally destroying it and they walked out of it ok.
The mission president has asked all the Missionaries to write about their experiences and submit them to him. He asked them to do it soon so that they wouldn’t forget how things happened to them. It will be interesting to read the accounts of all of them.
By the evening of the earthquake and tsunami, the Church had already loaded three big trucks with food, water and tents and had them on the way to a rescue site. The call went out at 9pm for our stake to bring clothing to the stake center. By 8am the next morning, there was enough clothing, sheets and blankets to fill about 300 large garbage bags and it took three large trucks to haul it all across the island. Later that day another stake had a similar amount and that plus two more trucks of food went out. Most of the islanders were still in shock and the church had already responded with tons of food and clothing. It was an amazing thing to behold and be part of. The rest of the week was meeting after meeting trying to coordinate with Salt Lake on the needs of the people. There is a lot of work and coordinating that has to be done to able to receive outside help.
We have also been trying to get Media releases done, stories written and we have been inundated with 1000 emails. One guy from the U.S. wanted me to find his family and see if they were ok. They lived in Apia so I just told him that Apia wasn’t damaged and so I thought his family would be fine.
Oct 2 2009
Today we went with a small group of members to the other side of the island to help feed the workers and those that were still there trying to find their loves ones. Some of the sisters from our ward made chicken soup and they put them all together into two big coolers. We also had hot dogs, bread, cookies and water. We would drive along until we saw workmen or other people and wave them to the cars. They would come and we would give them a hand full of food. They have been given some food like rice and other subsistence food but it’s hard for them to prepare things living in the hills. So they would come running to the trucks and they were so thankful.
Paul could see some ladies sitting in a fale off in the distance and wondered if they couldn’t make it to the truck so he delivered food to them. One cute lady said “I love you” and she wanted to give him a kiss to thank him. So he puckered up for a big Samoan kiss. I just wished that I could have caught it with the camera.
We couldn’t believe how much work they have done since Tuesday just three days ago. Most of the roads were passable now. They were working on the power lines and the telephone company was there trying to restore communication. People were still there with sticks looking for the missing and picking up belongings. I am so amazed at some of the people picking up wood and stacking it in piles to use to rebuild their homes.
October 6, 2009
Last night a whole group of our ward members assembled hygiene kits. It was a great assembly line of men women and children, packing shampoo, combs, elastics, deodorant, pads and hand wipes. I was just looking around at how the saints just rally around and jump in with both feet and do service. What a great opportunity it is for us to be here so that we serve. We were able to make about 500 kits from the material we had.
We delivered the kits to the Red Cross today and they were so grateful and appreciative. The director came over to us; hugged and kissed u
s expressed her appreciation for the “gifts for the women”. She said these were sorely needed.We couldn’t believe how much work they have done since Tuesday just three days ago. Most of the roads were passable now. They were working on the power lines and the telephone company was there trying to restore communication. People were still there with sticks looking for the missing and picking up belongings. I am so amazed at some of the people picking up wood and stacking it in piles to use to rebuild their homes.
October 6, 2009
Last night a whole group of our ward members assembled hygiene kits. It was a great assembly line of men women and children, packing shampoo, combs, elastics, deodorant, pads and hand wipes. I was just looking around at how the saints just rally around and jump in with both feet and do service. What a great opportunity it is for us to be here so that we serve. We were able to make about 500 kits from the material we had.
We delivered the kits to the Red Cross today and they were so grateful and appreciative. The director came over to us; hugged and kissed u
Tonight the big airplane from Salt Lake arrives with something like 60 tons of everything imaginable for the aid of those in need. Paul spotted 100 cases of pork and beans on the list and is already wondering what he can trade for some of them. I can’t wait to have some beans in our little home. What a treat. There will be two media people on the plane from Salt Lake that hope to film stories for the Church. We’ve been asked to escort them around the island for a few days and help them in any way we can. That should be fun and interesting.
2 comments:
We are so gald you are ok and it was great to see you on the computer yesterday!!
You guys are AMAZING! We are so glad you are well and safe. What a horrific experience. Many students here at BYUH in Laie lost family and friends....many prayers have been offerred up. I'm sure you have been a great comfort to many.
It is really fun to see your pictures and the similarities of our islands. All these island people are so easy to love aren't they?? Bless you for all your efforts. We look forward to being with you again. Talufa and Aloha
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