Tsunami Story: Doug

Tsunami Story:

Doug: Samoana High School Student, 11th Grade, Village of Faga'alu

Where was I? I was in my car dropping of my mother. After the earthquake it seemed like an ordinary day although my mother worked for the Department of Homeland Security and has outreach programs which tell people to evacuate when a earthquake of that kind of magnitude happens. So were at the intersection entering into the main road, listening to the radio. The station said they got a call from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association) saying that there are no waves from any direction. The as we were turning to the main road the water across the bay started to come over the rock wall and out the road. So we flip a u-turn and head straight home. We lived in the Deep Valley, we also live behind the hospital, to ONLY hospital on the island. So as we are driving my parents tell me to take the care up the road, because they went to help evacuate patients from the hospital. I took the car locked it, got my sister, and walked down the road. It may sound like a stupid idea, but the hospital needed all the help it can get. We went down, I was carrying supplies up the mountain with some of my village boys. I walked outside of the ER with a box of supplies, and at least 2 cars pull up with dead bodies piled in the back and as they pull up the nurses sigh and say to themselves “Another DOA.” I thought to myself what does DOA mean. Walking up thinking to myself Dead On Arrival. Now from the extent of the damage of my village I didn’t think it was that bad until I saw the bodies coming like crazy...After a few hours when everything cooled down. I went to the EOC, the Emergency Operations Center. I was helping out the IT and communications specialist. I have some knowledge of IT and computers, so I was helping out as much a I can. Phone calls after phone calls were coming in like crazy people reporting about everything. Some of the liaisons were trying to find shelters for people who lost their home, and I didn’t sleep for three days. Then I drove out the the east side to help my uncle. His house sustained a lot of water damage.