The Samoan Letters

February 1, 1966

The NEW bridge at Aoa, built after the hurricane washed the old one away.

On Monday I took a ride into the studio to see what the situation was in town. The downtown area had fared pretty well, even though they had more than their share of flying roofing sheets and fallen wires. The villages along the road are in pretty bad shape. At the TV studio, part of the roof either blew off or caved in and the water had flooded much of our audio visual library. To everyone’s relief, the TV towers up on the mountain and the cable car were not destroyed. One of the engineers spent the entire storm up on the mountain because they couldn’t get him down in time before the wind became too strong for the cable car.

Reports have been trickling in from the outlying villages where the principals of the Consolidated schools live. So far we’ve heard from all except the family who lives on the island of Aunu’u, about a mile off the coast of Tutuila. At Aoa, across the mountain, Don M., who has three small children, was evacuated by the Samoans in the village just before the wall of his house was knocked down. A small creek which runs by his house had turned into a raging torrent and washed out the bridge to the road. The Samoans carried his wife and kids to safety by making a human chain and passing them along. At two other villages over the mountain, the walls were knocked down by the surf or the wind but all the principal’s famlies are safe.

Reports have been trickling in all day concerning damage about the island. The latest figure I’ve heard is about 75 hospitalized, and amazingly, only one dead. The fatality was said to have occurred on Aunu’u when a man was blown out to sea and washed up later.

Food problems will begin to show up in a week or two. About 95% of the banana trees were destroyed and these plants will take perhaps two years to recover. Most of the breadfruit trees were blown down or snapped off and will take about ten years before they bear. Bananas and breadfruit comprise the main Samoan diet. Most of the coconut trees will bear again next year, so this will help somewhat. Thousands of fales have been destroyed all over the island, but people are already at work rebuilding them, and they certainly have plenty of building materials since they use small logs and woven fronds. Sections of the island have been virtually denuded of vegetation, but most of these things will grow back in a month or so.

We got one report concerning Swains Island, a small atoll about 200 miles north of us. This is part of the American Samoan group with a population of about 100. Every building on the island was destroyed and the waves washed just about everything into the lagoon in the center of the island. The highest part of the island is about 12 feet above sea level. They radioed that they have enough food to last until Wednesday and after that, nothing! A ship left for there today, but I don’t know if it’s bringing food or evacuating the place.

Many of the new TV schools have been badly damaged. Some buildings were completely wiped out and most lost their supplies. We don’t know how long it will be before we’re back in operation. They expect the TV station to be ready for broadcasting by next week, but the school’s aren’t ready to receive. In almost every village which has a consolidated TV school, the school buildings are occupied by Samoan families who have lost their homes.

The food which was being used for the school lunch program is being distributed in the villages, but it’s not expected to last long. There’s a possibility we might not be back on the air for a month or so, but if that’s the case, we’ll probably be sent out to the villages to assist the Samoan teachers with their lessons.