Senators hear details of the ASDHS Interim Tsunami Plan

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — With American Samoa’s outdoor siren warning system not operational, local Homeland Security director Samana Semo Ve’ave’a told Senators that ASDHS already has a plan in place in times of disaster to get the message out to the community — and this includes communication methods with village pulenu’u and first responders.

The Senate Homeland Security/ Public Safety held a hearing last week based on a Senate resolution, to discuss the issues that surfaced during the Mar. 4th tsunami warning, which was the result of an 8.1 quake off the Kermadec Island region, near New Zealand.

Samana shared with senators a five-page bullet-point summary of ASDHS Interim Tsunami Plan. He explained that senators concerns were similar to those raised by the governor following the tsunami warning.

Samana, who was accompanied to the hearing by Police Commission Lefiti Falelauli’i Pese, expressed appreciation to the Senate for the opportunity share the interim plan and other information so that the community will get this information as well.

For the outdoor siren warning system, the ASDHS director said the truth of the matter is and be honest, the system is not working and he doesn’t know when it will be operational again. However ASDHS has a plan, which was also verbally shared in summary.

Samana explained that there are two types of tsunami warnings. The first one is what “we call, local — anywhere from 7 to 12 minutes” before the first wave hits the islands, while the other one, is a “distance tsunami” — such as the Mar. 4th one — where it takes anywhere from three to 12 hours before the first wave is expected to reach the islands.

Samana brought with him equipment used by ASDHS to communicate with first responders and others. He held up the first example, which is the NOAA weather radio and has a siren, that goes off once a warning is issued and can be kept inside a person’s home or office.

He explained that the radio sends out an alert signal, which goes to everyone with such an alert radio, including local broadcasters. It also comes with a verbal announcement of what’s expected to occur.

Holding up again the box with the weather radio inside, Samana said this siren should be in “your homes.” He said new radios are on order and will be distributed accordingly once the order arrives — while two senators suggested that senators also be included in the next distribution of these weather radios.

He went on to explain other methods ASDHS uses to communicate with broadcasters in times of disasters. For example, a two-way radio — as he was holding it up for visual example. He said radio stations have the two-way radios, which becomes even more important when telephone lines are down and main electricity is off.

Another new piece of equipment, held up for visual display, is the iPhone for the FirstNet Program, which is the “primary method of communication to all first and secondary responders”. (See Samoa News online Mar. 11th for details.)

Another “alert system” in times of pending disasters is through text messages sent through cell phones from the American Samoa TeleCommunications Authority and Bluesky Communications.

According to Samana the other method is through social media, which many are using.

Sen. Tuiagamoa Tavai voiced his concern with alerts — using the methods displayed by Samana — for not reaching villages and village mayors. 

Samana responded that when a disaster happens, the information and alert is sent out “simultaneously” to village mayors, broadcasters and first responders — such as police.

“It takes us 10 seconds to send out the information,” he said, adding that when a person feels the ground shaking due to a quake the first action to take is to head to higher ground.

Also mentioned in the interim tsunami plan is tolling village bells by mayors to alert villages (which is what Samoa News observed during the Mar. 4th warning).

Responding to another issue raised by the committee, Samana said that people started to worry and became concerned during Mar. 4th tsunami alert, especially in areas where schools are located.

He said residents should not panic or worry as schools already have evacuation plans and the community should already know by now, areas considered “safe zones”.

For example, Samana said both Tafuna High and Tafuna Elementary schools — “they are in a safe zone”, and there’s no need for any of them to get on the road. He said action to be taken, based on the evacuation plan, is remain on the school campus, while schools account for all students.

He said parents were worried — but all schools have evacuation plans already reviewed by ASDHS. He urged the community not to worry or panic, to “trust the Department of Education” which already has an emergency plan, that will be activated if such a situation occurs.

Lefiti told senators that DPS is looking at an evacuation site for the Fono in the event of another warning. For example, using a Fale Samoa at the top of the Government Housing at Mauga o Ali’i or available space behind the DPS building in Fagatogo.

In the end the Senate committee opted to give DPS additional time for their plan and the committee can convene in the future for further discussions, when the Fono returns in July for the start of the Second Regular Session.