JUST ASKING: Is the tsunami siren warning system even working?

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — When the American Samoa community woke up to the ‘shake shake shake’ from an earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 7.4 occurring about 176 miles southwest of Savaii island in Samoa around 5:02a.m. yesterday, Wednesday, May 10, many residents said they “were all waiting for the siren to evacuate to higher grounds”.

Samoa News staffers were also among those that ‘waited’ for the siren. It was only after the event that Samoa News begged the question from the American Samoa Department of Homeland Security (ASDHS):  Is the American Samoa tsunami siren warning system even working?

The last time the community heard about the system was in January 2022. Samoa News ran a story about the tsunami siren warning system finally getting attention, as it had been out of commission since late 2020 and media was told that the ASDHS was working with an off-island contractor to get it fixed.

At the time, it was a Facebook photo post during the last week of January 2022, on the American Samoa Power Authority (ASPA) site that showed crews from ASPA and the local Homeland Security Department/ TEMCO checking out the outdoor siren warning system sites.

Samoa News reported on Jan. 25, 2022 that in an advisory, dated Wednesday, Jan. 19, 2022, ASDHS and ASPA announced multiple siren tests at different sites on Tutuila from Thursday, Jan. 20 to Sunday, Jan. 23. Crews from the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority (ASTCA) it advised also joined the testing.

These crews would be making their way to Aunu’u island and the Manu’a island group in the near future, according to a separate ASPA posting on its Facebook page.

RESPONSE:

Samoa News called the ASDHS yesterday to ask about the siren warning system and were told that the appropriate person who could answer the question was currently in a meeting and they would get back to Samoa News.

On the call back from ASDHS, a gentleman by the name of Vanu told Samoa News that "the siren system is working, but they are working on upgrades that the alert system still needs for it to be in optimal condition.” Nothing else was added.

So, is it working, meaning the sirens will go off warning the community if or when needed?  We still can’t answer with certainty.