Tsunami Scientists in Samoa

Hi all

Well we have been rather quiet in the last week which has been because of hard work and late nights working with the international scientists who are currently visiting Samoa to investigate and research the Tsunami. Adam has just written the following which we will share for now until we have a moment to write you more about our experience. I should get back to the report for Governement I am meant to be finishing right now!!

We have both been flat out working with a team of international scientists studying the tsunami. UNESCO had assembled the team, which had people from all around the world - NZ, Australia, USA, Japan. Italy, Brazil. They were being hosted at USP and there were a few USP professors from other campuses involved. Anyway, we heard about this and turned up to their first meeting to find out what they would be doing and a couple of hours later I was out in the field with them! We both ended up working with them all of last week and through the weekend. My part of the team flew out on Monday night, so I am back to normal work now but Angela's team is still here and desperately trying to deliver their report by the end of the day!

I joined up with a team that was measuring how far and how high the tsunami had travelled as well as maximum water depths where this could be found. We were also surveying building damage, recording the extent and nature of damage to various building types. We had some long days in the field, but collected a lot of good data and have already produced a report with our preliminary findings.

Angela got involved with the 'Social Impacts' group. They have been interviewing the survivors to record their experiences - what they felt and saw, how they survived, how they reacted, what are their future plans etc. She ended up working with a guy from Hawaii who videos these stories and they use them at the tsunami museum. They also take these stories and use them in some of the 'how to survive a tsunami' education materials that are produced. She enjoyed it, but found some of it quite hard. After a few long days in the field and listening to some heartbreaking stories she was pretty drained, but has bounced back now. Now she just needs to get her group to deliver their report and she can relax!

That's all for now folks but will be back in touch soon.