REMEMBRANCE OF THE SAMOA TSUNAMI 14-YEARS AGO.

(Photo: Brett Phibbs / New Zealand Herald)

14-years ago, Samoa was devastated by a strong Tsunami that took 149 lives.

Tuesday, September 29th 2009 was the day and many of the victims remember the horror of the wave refraction energy. The day Samoan’s pay tribute to the lost families, friends and loved ones who would’ve been old and educated today. The residencies include Poutasi Falealili, Satalo and Salani Falealili. 

Families in Samoa who were directly affected by the tsunami are still picking up the pieces from that terrible Tuesday morning more than ten years later. The level of preparedness has also increased thanks to initiatives from the various government authorities, with communities, schools, and even churches increasingly playing crucial roles in earthquake-related evacuation exercises. 

Families who experienced the full force of the tsunami also made the decision to migrate and rebuild their lives away from Upolu's coastline after the natural calamity.

As of today, the scene is a night terror to the whole of Samoa.

A writing from a very good writer, poet, journalist, reporter, resort business owner, operator and a mother, Lumepa Hald of Falealili,  lost her other daughter and is still a memory loss for her in her sleep. The words from a mother losing her daughter, aches and touches the heart of every Samoan around the Globe.

She titled many of her stories and after a few months rebuilding her resort, she named the resort after her lost daughter, “Moanalei Dive'N'Surf Ltd”. 

A poem for Moanalei, Lumepa Hald 

With her in my mind

The night is a flower

And the flower when grief is done with me

Becomes the heroic knight! 

So I write like a poet’s heart is raining,

Because she lives in every pour

And every ounce of grief

Is wretched and warm

The sea too is full of holes

And the walls of the sky are scrunched

And fallen apart like a broken home

There is no bottom to the earth either

Because she is not there, 

Yet when I finally find her

She smiles knowingly at me

Her love of the ocean

Keeps me floating there.

Samoa hearts this very important occasion every year and it is one of the days our people sadly remembers