Coastal Solutions

Tuesday began with a trip to the airport area, west of Pago Pago, to visit the National Park Service (NPS). We had no official business there, but our driver for the week, Jay, had an appointment with NPS. We were unable to secure a rental car during our visit (American Samoa is not a big tourist destination, and all the cars had been rented to residents and relief workers) so we relied on the kindness of others to get around. Jay (a neighbor of Tisa, the owner of our hotel) was a big help to us—he knew the area, and it seemed like he knew or had a connection to everyone on the island.

As it turns out, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Joint Field Office (JFO) had been established in the same building as the NPS, and while we were there we saw a DHS employee we knew. DHS is overseeing the recovery efforts and have asked that all the teams coming through American Samoa check in with the Governor’s Authorized Representative to identify the purposes of their visit. The employee arranged an impromptu meeting for us with the Governor’s Authorized Representative—who was pleased that ASCE had sent in a team—to explain our mission and discuss the tsunami recovery efforts that were underway. We were also able to secure a ride with some DHS employees to the village of Paloa, which is located at the western end of the island. Paloa was reportedly one of the hardest hit areas on the island and the road there was among the steepest on the island. Jay’s truck could not make it to Paloa, so catching a ride was a blessing.

It was evident as soon as we descended into the small village of Paloa that the tsunami had inflicted catastrophic damage there. We do not use that term casually or often. There were only a couple of homes standing, at least a dozen had been totally destroyed, and both churches had been damaged. The school, which was reported to have been rebuilt a few years previously following damage from a tropical cyclone, had sustained heavy damage. Its concrete columns and beams, and the upper part of the roof, were intact, but the walls were gone and the interior had been swept clean by the waves. More than 14 feet above the floor slab we saw school books that had been caught in a broken rafter.

Fortunately, the school had been safely evacuated; however, sadly, one village resident died during the tsunami.

– ASCE/COPRI tsunami assessment team

Lesley Ewing, P.E., Team Leader, Coastal Engineer, California Coastal Commission

Jennifer L. Irish, Ph.D., P.E.; Assistant Professor, Texas A&M University

Christopher P. Jones, P.E.; Senior Engineer, Christopher P. Jones & Associates

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