American Samoans comment on Tuesday’s 6.1 earthquake

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — An earthquake with a preliminary magnitude of 6.1 occurred about 134 miles Southwest of Tutuila at 5:06 a.m yesterday The Hawaii-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a statement a few minutes later saying that, “based on all available data, there is no tsunami threat to American Samoa from this earthquake.”

“Some areas may have experienced very strong shaking,” it says, adding that this was the only advisory statement at the time.

Some residents informed Samoa News via social media that they felt the quake as they were just getting out of bed to prepare for the day’s events. There were no reports of damage from local officials as of press time.

The quake occurred about two hours after the refueling was completed for the cruise ship, Norwegian Jewel with more than 2,000 passengers onboard — they were not allowed to disembarked. The cruise ship departed the territory around 8a.m yesterday.

“I hate to think what would happen if the quake was very strong, followed by a tsunami and this cruise ship was in port,” said one local resident, who contacted Samoa News. “We are all safe.”

Those who felt the quake contacted others about it and with social media, they were able to get the latest update of no tsunami message posted on the Facebook page of the National Weather Service office at Tafuna.

The last major earthquake, followed by the devastating tsunami, which greatly impacted American Samoa was on Sept. 30, 2009. Since that time, local residents remain alert when they feel the shaking and others are known to immediately movd away from the shoreline and head to higher ground.