LIHU‘E — Excuse Julia Hall if her exhale of relief was slightly louder and longer than others after the tsunami watch was canceled Wednesday. It’s just that there are 80 American Red Cross volunteers on the ground in American Samoa,
LIHU‘E — Excuse Julia Hall if her exhale of relief was slightly louder and longer than others after the tsunami watch was canceled Wednesday.
It’s just that there are 80 American Red Cross volunteers on the ground in American Samoa, including 17 from Hawai‘i, plus 13 from the American Samoa chapter, who were evacuated to higher ground Wednesday after two earthquakes struck in nearby Vanuatu, she said.
“They’re fine,” said Hall, Kaua‘i County ARC director. They are moving back to their tsunami-relief efforts closer to the ravaged shoreline areas after Wednesday’s threat was judged to have passed.
There are still two Kaua‘i residents (down from three) ready to go to American Samoa as ARC volunteers, Hall said. They won’t be named until and less they’re deployed.
No deployment has been announced for this week, she added.
Health and mental-health services volunteers are the ones most in need in American Samoa now, three having left Honolulu for American Samoa on Monday, Hall said.
Hall said Kaua‘i Mayor Bernard Carvalho Jr. wrote to ARC Hawai‘i State Chapter Chief Executive Officer Coralie Chun Matayoshi, asking her why no Kauaians have been deployed to help.
The answer is that the one person who was previously available to go from Kaua‘i had his or her circumstances change so he or she was unable to leave when his or her name was called, Hall said.
Additionally, there are several trained volunteers willing and able to go from Kaua‘i, on what is normally a three-week deployment, Hall said.
“It’s an extreme hardship deployment,” where volunteers arrive unsure about where they will be housed and how they will get to impacted areas, and have difficult working conditions in extreme heat, Hall said.
American Red Cross volunteers on the ground now in American Samoa are conducting damage assessments, and providing “mass care,” or getting lots of people housing, food and water, erecting temporary housing and portable toilets, and distributing goods including coolers, tarps, cooking kits, cots, work gloves, flashlights and more, according to an ARC Hawai‘i State Chapter e-mail.
As of Wednesday, over 4,700 meals and snacks have been served, and nine pallets of local food like Spam, rice and saimin shipped by the ARC in Hawai‘i arrived in American Samoa Wednesday, according to the e-mail.
