The fatal shore
Sydney Morning Herald
Thursday October 1, 2009
THE search for bodies resumes today as hundreds of people are feared dead in Samoa and American Samoa after towering tsunami waves swept across low-lying southern coastlines yesterday.The Pacific tsunami hit at the peak of the tourist season, wiping out villages and leaving unknown numbers missing.Last night there was an 7.9 magnitude earthquake in southern Sumatra, with a tsunami expected to follow.In the Pacific, nine-metre waves started pouring in soon after breakfast and although warnings had alerted thousands to flee to higher ground many people were swept out to sea.Three Australians were among the dead, with grave fears for another. Six more Australians were unaccounted for. At least eight more were injured and another seven admitted to hospital.Maree Blacker, the wife of the Tasmanian racehorse trainer John Blacker, died in her husband's arms. The couple, from Longford, south of Launceston, were celebrating Maree's 50th birthday.A six-year-old girl and a Victorian school teacher who was due to fly home today, Vivien Hodgins, 55 also died. A New Zealander who lived in Australia was also among the dead.The Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, offered his condolences to Samoa €“ part of what he called the Pacific family."This is a tragic day for the people of Samoa but also tragic for the Australian families affected as well," Mr Rudd said.Throughout the day rescue attempts were hampered by power cuts and communication problems, with the mobile phone network collapsing. Movement was made even harder because boulders loosened by the earthquake had fallen down mountain slopes onto coastal plains.Makeshift camps were established on higher ground, with up to 40 people to a camp and what supplies there were of fresh water, food and blankets made available.On the two islands of Samoa, Savai'i and Upolu, up to 15,000 people have been made homeless and some 50 villages strung along the south and south-east coasts have been destroyed.American Samoa has been similarly devastated and the US President, Barack Obama, declared the island a "major disaster" and ordered federal aid for the area.In neighbouring Tonga, six people were confirmed dead, with fears 10 more had died on the island of Niuatoputapu.Aurelia Balpe, head of the Pacific office of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, said an urgent humanitarian crisis was in the making: "Reports from our volunteers who have been to the area is that it is a scene of total devastation. In some of the villages, not a house has been left standing."Australian aircraft carrying medical teams, disaster specialists and emergency supplies left for Samoa last night. Two RAAF Hercules transport planes were on standby at Richmond Air Base to carry in more supplies.Mrs Hodgins had been staying in a beach hut on at Taufua in the heavily hit area of Lalomanu on the eastern tip of Upolu.An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of about 20 victims in a hospital at Lalomanu, and said the surrounding tourist coast had been flattened, with the dead including those who hesitated to leave right after the quake.In New Zealand, Faletolu Senara Tiatia said 30 family members were either dead or missing in Lalomanu. (See story, page 7).Samoa and American Samoa sit in the heart of the Pacific Ocean, midway between New Zealand and Hawaii, and within range of the Pacific "Ring of Fire" infamous for frequent earthquakes and tsunami activity.A Melbourne man, Ray Hunt, a financial controller at TTM Hospital in Apia,described scenes of "hell on Earth" as bodies and survivors arrived."It's just total chaos at the hospital," he said."We really have no idea how many people have been killed. They are still digging bodies out of the wreckage of the buildings that have fallen down."
© 2009 Sydney Morning Herald