Lalomanu and beyond

For me the nightmare of the tsunami in Samoa is over but for so many it will go on for years, the last few days have been the most terrifying and the most humbling days of my life, I can't tell you how grateful I am to be alive.

I woke up at 6.25am on Tuesday 29th September in my beach front fale (hut on stilts) in Lalomanu on the South East tip of the Island of Upolu, listening to the waves lapping the shore and after washing my face and doing my teeth I decided to get packed up as I was heading off to Savaii (the other isalnd in Western Samoa) with 3 girls I had met a couple of days before - Amy and Sarah both Kiwis and Becky a Brit living in NZ - in Buttercup their bright yellow little hire car.

I'm a little unsure of what time it was but it was nearing 7am I think when suddenly the fale started to shake and I heard rumbling, my inital thought was it was a truck going past but then it went on too long and my fale was actually quite far from the road, so I went out and few other people were coming out of their fales looking confused. I asked the lady in the fale next to me what it was and she said it was an earthquake. Everything was shaking and the sand was moving side to side but it was strangely quiet and I remember watching a bottle of water shaking on the table of someones fale. It went on for what seemed like such a long time but was probably only about 30 to 40 seconds (I have since been told it was 2 minutes). As soon as it stopped we all turned to look at the sea and started talking about whether a tsunami would come or not but I thought don't be silly and went back into the fale to finish off packing as we had to be away early to get Amy to the airport.

Again I'm unsure of the exact timing but I think it was about 10 minutes later I was leaving my fale with my flip flops and bottle of water and a tea bag to make a cuppa and as i did i was aware of lots of people standing looking out to sea and seconds later the lady who owns Taufua Beach Fales started shouting for everyone to get out and to run. I immediately thought of the girls and so ran up to the road truned right and ran up the road to the fales where they were staying about 100 yards away, I hammered on their door but there was no one there and at that point I realised I could hear the wave coming, I turned and ran to the hill behind and started to run up/climb the 45 degree slope in my bare feet clutching my flip flops and the bottle of water all the time. I have never been so terrified in all my life I honestly thought I was going to die. Underfoot it was broken palms that kept slipping but luckily there were roots to grab hold of and somehow I managed to climb just high enough by the time the first wave came in, the water was just below my feet. I looked up and saw Becky and we shouted to each other and then I saw Sarah and then Amy who were all about 10ft or more above me, I was so relieved to see them I had thought they wre on the beach up until that point. I could hear a woman screaming hystercially, lots of children crying and someone shouting to find a family member.

I vaguely remember looking back at this point and it was like everything had been disappeared and I was stood at the shore line of the sea. I could see the tops of trees but I don't remember being able to see any power lines, there was debris floating and swirling around in what someone later described as 'the soup'. At this point I heard someone scream that a second wave was coming and that terror took over me again and I started climbing higher and thank god I did as the second wave swept away where I had been stood. After that I didn't look back I carried on climbing helping others up along the way its amazing the strength you suddenly have when adrenaline kicks in and it didn't even dawn on me that I was virtually mountain climbing in bare feet.


Photo 1: Top of the 'hill' we climbed looking back to the beach as tsunami is happening.

Almost at the top we all stopped, everyone was shaking and most people were crying. At this point I looked down and couldn't believe how high up we were. The sea had completely receeded and at the bottom were broken up cars, remains of the fales, bags, trees and so on it looked like a rubbish tip and I could see a couple of guys walking around trying to see if they could find anyone. After a short while a Kiwi guy in a turquoise t-shirt came through and said we should keep moving up to the top and congregate there as he believe there was a church we could shelter in a bit further on. Once at the top we realised that along with the water I had that Sarah had managed to lug 4 litres of water up with her as well which was a god send and this became my responsibility to ration out to those that needed it. Sarah and Maurice then wnet off to scout out the route to the church while we waited for the last people to come up the hill. At this point I saw a guy with not a stich of clothing on that had obviously been in the water and it looked like someone had attacked him with a fork as he had scratch marks all over his body going in every direction and someone gave him a Lavalava (sarong) to cover himself with, there were others with really bad head injuries, deep cuts in their legs and arms there was blood everywhere, I looked at myself to see if I had any injuries but other than a few minor cuts I was fine as were the other 3 girls I was with.


Photo 2: Flooding casued by tsunami beach, road and all housing has disappeared below the water.


Not sure how long we waited but it didn't seem long but we realised that Becky had a phone with her and she started ringing home to let people know what had happened and that she was ok and she offered it to others to ring or text home. She asked me but I couldn't remember a single number of anyone and at that point I started to cry but realising there were lots of young children around who needed us to be strong I got a grip and along with Becky and Amy started talking to them and making sure that they knew where their parents were and if they needed water.



Photo 3: Water resceeds leaving a virtually clean beach where fales and people's homes had been


Sarah and Maurice were back then and had found a way through so we started to follow them firstly through the forest and then over a fence and into a field growing taro (local potato like vegetable with upside down heart shaped leaves) where there was a shelter at the other side of and then someone shouted there was a van so once we were all there a Samoan guy, Jo who the girls (Amy, Sarah and Becky) has met the day before I arrived told us there was a meidcal centre up the road so a decision was made to put all the injured into the van as there was a medical centre up the road. Some people had managed to save their bags with clothes in so those that had escaped with very little clothing were give t-shirt, shorts, etc from the bags. Jo then got a couple of bottle of water from the house near by and it was at this moment I managed to come out with one of the classic comments for the day as someone came over and asked for some water and I said "of course but I'm sorry its not cold" ... the last of our worries.




Photo 4: From the back of the garden of the place we spent the day, shows how high up we were and also the extent of the wash back into the sea.

We walked out on to the road, turned left and slowly walked up to the medical centre where the enormity of the loss that people had suffered hit me the looks of devastation on peoples faces, the sounds of people in agony, the number of bodies being brought in on the backs of trucks, the blood, the crying but throughout no one was hystercial. We sat in the shade at the side of the meidcal centre there must have been about 20 or so of us sharing a bottle of coca cola for sugar, cleaning up scratches as best we could and trying to come to terms with what had happened. At this point I finally remembered a phone number in the UK for Aunty Pat and asked Becky if I could make a really quick call which of course she let me do. Poor Aunty Pat god only know what she must have thought as I had to be so quick to spare the battery for others but I very quickly said what had happened and asked her to ring Dad tell him I was ok and ask him to email Lulu as from there I thought they could contact everyone. I felt so much better for having let someone know.

At this point another Samoan guy whose name I don't know told us we should move up the hill where there was somewhere we could shelter and that they would provide us with food later, so we started walking up the road again, we had to go slowly as Amy had no shoes and also it was very hot as it was about 11am by this time. Eventually we reached where we were headed and it was a house that was in the middle of being built luckily a big house on the left hand side and if you walked to the back of the garden area you could look over the hill and see down to the beach .... I couldn't believe it everything was goen even the concrete buildings, the beach once covered in fales was completely clear and behing the beach road it was like a swamp.

Back at the house there a couple of drums with water in the the Samoan guy tried a bit of each and told us that the one in the white plastic drum was rain water that we could drink and for probably the next 20 minutes we watched people arrive wondering how much of the island had been affected, how long we would be there, how were we going to survive! We started getting a bit of information coming back from Wendy's husband, Wendy had used Becky's phone and had only shown her husband how to use caller ID the week before but he worked it out and managed to get information back to us and Becky even ended up live on New Zealand radio at one point.

Our third angel then arrived in the form of a Samoan rasta called Mika (Mikaele Maiava) who had heard what had happened and had driven from Apia (45 minute drive on a good day) and who had had UN distater training somewhere in SE Asia and he took control and started organising us, he brought more news and was in constant contact with the UN. He got us to clear the water out of the house, move piles of wood, lay plaster board down with rattan covers on top, made make shift beds for the worst injured, got the guys to nails tarp to parts of the roof that hadn't been finished, errected a temproary toilet until the long drop was completed and the rest of us collected fire wood.



Photo 5: Looking from the back garden again later in the day as traffic started to get through.

Food started arriving in the truck load at this point form the village up above us - bags of rice, eggs, tinned sardines, whole tunas, taro, water, spagetti hoops, corned beef, crackers and the first thing we were given to eat which did raise a few smiles was weetabix we were all so thirsty and I don't know if you've ever treid to eat a weetabix dry when you're thirsty but its not easy, but we needed to eat to keep our strength up. A bit later I was given the most enormous carrot to eat which again raised a few laughs.

All along stories of peoples loss kept coming out the couple who had twin boys who had lost their little girl the father was beside himself with grief, the English couple who had lost their 2 year old son who sat in the corner away from the rest of us, Andy whose wife Mary-Ann was killed who Amy and I had chatted to at dinner the night before and the brazilian girl that Amy had talked to as well the night before ... heart wrenching and we all felt so helpless.

Time took on a very strange momentum throughout the day sometimes 3 hours would disappear and then you would be looking at your watch every ten minutes. Medical staff arrived just before lunch and started doing their best to treat the injured with the limited supplies that they had, getting drips sorted for those that needed them. In our group there was a doctor and 2 nurses who helped out looking after people.

Lunch was much appreciated I don't think a boiled egg has ever tasted so good. Not long after that Malik said that vehicles were on there way to start moving people back to Apia but the injured and those with young children would be in the first vehicles but that we would all be out by the end of the day and we wouldn't be spending the night there, we were so happy as we had thought we may be there for a few days.

The rest of the day was people coming and going, making sure people were fed and watered getting people on to the vehicles and then finally just before 5pm "our man in Samoa" turned up who was as much use as a chocolate tea pot, he did a lot of bumbling, told us it wasn't his normal job and told Becky and I that it would take 2 weeks for us to get documents to get out of Samoa, not what we needed to hear!!

Shortly after this hundreds of vehicles came bombing back up the hill saying there was another warning that a tsunami was coming and we needed to get higher but we were so high up we couldn't believe the waves could get to where we were so we decided to stay with the UN but unfortunately the atmosphere at our little camp changed and we very much felt like we needed to get out as it no longer felt safe from a personal safety perspective for us to stay there as there were lots of gangs of teenage boys hanging around so we got on the first UN vehicle we could and Becky and I sat in the back with Mike or to us he was loving called Captain Underpants as he had spent all day in his pants making lists.

As the sun was setting we drove down the hill and along the east coast road through the devastation, it was unbelieveable everything flattened, on a wall I saw R.I.P and the name of some one followed by the words "life goes on" ... we were all in tears for what the Samoans had lost but also for how lucky we had been.

After an hour and half we arrived in convoy in Apia where you would never have known that anything had happened not even a plant pot was out of place it was very strange. The convoy took us straight to the pharmacy for people to get asthma medication and paracetamol, they let us use the loos and then the very sweet owner brought out a case of Vailima (local beer) and we have all never been so grateful we toasted each other and those that were lost before getting back in the vans and heading to Sebrina's Lodge where we were all staying.

After all this the following days became a blur of waiting around, lack of sleep, fear and frustration and tears as we desperately tried to get the paper work we needed to get out and get on flights out of Samoa and I can't thank my Dad, Marica and Lulu enough for sorting me out and everyone else for their offers of help and as for Jeannie and Howard who I am staying with they are fabulous and looking after me so well I may never leave ... just kidding guys ;-)

My final words have to be to Samoa ... when I left yesterday it was very emotional with mixed emotions of relief to be getting away from the place that reminded me so much of the terror I had been through but also sadness and devastation of those I was leaving behind who still had such a long emotional journey to go through. The Samoan people were amazing throughout the whole experience almost everyone I spoke to on the day it happened had lost at least 4 family members but still they were more concerned that I was ok as "you have lost everything", I had lost a bunch of very replaceable stuff, they had lost people they loved, their homes, their livelihoods and so much more. Samoa is a beautiful island and I have been truly humbled by the generosity, serenity and humanity of the Samoan people, I can't thank them enough or even begin to think how I can repay them for what they did for me and all the other tourists, other than through the disaster funds, it doesn't seem enough, but I look forward to going back and seeing them all again, they will always have a special place in my heart. I have also made 3 very dear amazing friends through this experience who have been my rocks and are still continuing to look out for me - Amy, Becky and Sarah.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KmjM733tQuM