Today did not start as a normal day. Weather wise it was beautiful. You could not ask for nicer weather. I said the same thing yesterday but today was atypical of what I would expect out here. This time, I could see the island and I did take a photo. However, you really cannot see it that well to distinguish it from a distance.
I was in my stateroom making out my plan for the day when I get a phone call from the ship’s doc. He informed me that an 8.3 earthquake had struck near Samoa. I recall the last big one in that part of the world was in 2006. When I contacted L back then, it was no big deal and she said the shaking woke them up but it was no concern. I thought this one would be the same since there seems to be quite a bit of underwater volcanic activity in that area. I was not that concern until I started my daily inspections and headed to the bridge. The satellite receiving Inmarsat-C was giving out alerts several minutes apart and the printer was chattering away. My concern was the paper was feeding properly and it was printing. To my delight it was. I briefly mentioned to the captain of what I heard, I did not realize the seriousness of it until he read to me some of the reports coming out of the area and a tsunami warning was issued by NOAA.
We were at Lisianski Atoll and in the area of the warning. The skipper gave me the time that the tsunami had struck Samoa. The tsunami formed 24 minutes after the earthquake and most of the people had only a minute warning. Initial news reports put the center of the quake 120 miles north of the Samoan islands. Then another news report a few hours later put it between the two Samoas. The final news report I read put it at 125 miles south of Samoa. This raised a big concern as the wife’s family lives on the south side of the main island of Upolu. I had called the wife earlier and told her initial reports. I just happen to catch her between classes when I did. I had to correct it so I left a message telling her I will call when she is out of class and heading home. The final report mentioned the tsunami hitting the south side of the island and about the destruction in Si'umu, a village seven miles east of her family’s. When I did get a hold of her I told her she needed to call her family immediately.
Once she arrived home, I waited a bit before calling. When I called, she told me that she could not get through, as I could not either from the ship’s phones. A phone call an hour later contained the good news that her parents, sisters, and son were safe. After hearing the good news from her immediate family, I asked about her sister and her husband who has a falee next to a mangrove in the bay inlet not far from Si’umu. We tried to get through again to see if her sister and her brother in another village next to the sea were OK. It was a wait again and the wife and I talked to each other on the phone. After we finished talking, I called Samoa again from the ship and made contact with my sister-in-law. I asked about the missing sister and brother and heard they were fine but the villages they lived in were destroyed. The beautiful village of Matafaa was no more. When I talked to my stepson tonight, I could tell everyone is still in shock about the tsunami. I called my wife again and woke her to tell her the latest. My stepson told me there was damage to the neighboring village by the coast and a fisherman from the other neighboring village is missing.
It is a bit disturbing seeing photos of a place you are so familiar with from the papers and seeing a disaster of this magnitude strike. Even the pictures out of Pago Pago had an eerie feel to it, as I knew exactly where it was and what I was doing when I was last there. You realize how much of a second home the place is.
On the ship throughout the day, I was receiving e-mails from ashore that kept me abreast of what was happening in Pago Pago. This ship is due to go to there for coral reef assessment early next year. I will rotate out of there on which rotation I am not sure. However, I do have a chance to go back there on the Ka’imimoana in January if I am on the second half of the Samoan cruise on the Hi’ialakai.
I received inquiries about the family’s welfare from concerned friends, co-workers, and branch chiefs. I told them of the latest and did not think it required an emergency for the moment.
I did squeeze in quite a bit of work with all the other activities going on. Yes, I had concerns for the family but also had duties to the ship. E-mail issues and putting together a Distress Operations Binder for the radio suite. Ships no longer have a full time radio operator, so what was once done by the radio officer is now all automated under a system called GMDSS. Emergency signals sent out in digital bursts and translated by computerized radios. It is to alarm bridge personnel to respond. Radio officers used to be one of the highest paid crewmembers on the ship and technology made them replaceable.
We should be on our way to Midway tonight with a stop at Pearl and Hermes for a dive ops. It looks like we will dock at Midway day after tomorrow.
I bid you goodnight as we transit from Lisianski Island.
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