Posted on 10/03/2009 5:11:24 PM PDT by Lorianne
It took only eight minutes after the most powerful earthquake she'd ever felt knocked her to the ground, for a wall of water to slam through the sleepy Samoan surf resort where she was staying and sweep it away.
As she fled in a van, Cristiane "Kiki" Martins said she and others screamed at villagers to escape to higher ground. But the Paia resident said she saw some families stay behind in their homes, waiting for a warning or evacuation order that wouldn't come in time.
Back home safely on Friday, but still fragile and shaky from her ordeal, Martins said she wanted to share her experience so people on Maui would not make the same mistake she saw cost some people in Samoa their lives.
"If there's an earthquake, if you're near the ocean, just run to higher ground, no matter what," she said. "Don't wait."
Martins said that the morning Tuesday at the small Saleni Surf Resort outside of Upolu, Samoa, started like any other. She woke up early to check the surf. It was Martins' first visit to the tiny South Pacific nation, and after three days she'd already fallen in love with the peaceful village located at a river's mouth, its warmhearted people and perfect waves.
"It was paradise," she said. "It's beautiful."
Then, walking back to her waterfront fale, or open-walled cottage, from an early pre-surf breakfast in the resort, Martins noticed "10 seconds of weirdness" - a horse spooked, dogs became agitated and dozens of birds took flight at once.
Then the earthquake struck.
The shaking was so strong, it knocked her to the ground. For three minutes, the earthquake, later measured at a magnitude 8.0, convulsed the seashore village, sending the resort's workers and six tourists staggering out of their fales.
When the shaking stopped, Martins' thoughts immediately turned to what likely was coming next: tsunami.
Dashing back to her fale, she grabbed her passport, green card, water and food.
"I looked at the ocean - it was just coral heads, dry," she said. "Then I knew."
While some of the tourists still were standing around in shock, Martins and the Australian manager of the hotel started running, yelling at the others to get away. They piled into a van with the hotel's two dogs and were about to hit the gas when one man tried to get out to find his passport.
"That's when we saw the wave coming," Martins said.
The group raced inland for about a mile, a "massive line of white water" roaring at their backs. The escape was chaotic. She saw people fall out of overcrowded trucks, dogs run over by cars, panicked horses galloping through the crowd, dragging the trees they'd been tied to.
Martins' group made it to some low hills that were above the reach of the first wave, and as the water receded, the hotel manager left to return to the village and look for survivors before the second wave could hit.
"That was very brave of him," she recalled. "He went back."
Then the next wave rushed in, bigger than the first. The survivors scrambled for higher ground. Martins grabbed a child and a 9-month-old baby and started to run.
Each surge was bigger than the last. The first wave was about 6 feet of clear ocean. The fourth wave was a 20-foot wall of dirty water bearing debris and floating bodies.
By the time the fourth, largest wave came, Martins was able to get a ride inland to a safe zone, where a local family opened its home to her and other survivors, giving them food and bringing them coconut water to drink.
"The community came together in a way I've never seen," she said.
When she returned to the village an hour after the last wave receded, "everything was gone."
Dead people and animals were on the ground. Bodies dangled from trees.
"A lot of kids were missing their parents. A lot of parents were missing their kids," she said.
All of Martins' things except for the bag she saved were gone. But later, a group of local children called her and proudly presented one of her surfboards, which they'd found upstream. Martins was amazed they'd not only known her name, but recognized the board as hers.
And she learned the hotel manager, who had returned to the village with his van to look for survivors after each wave, had saved 20 people. He also lived.
During the crisis, Martins said she stayed strong and kept thinking about the voice of her 6-year-old son as she fled for her life.
"I became a warrior, because I had to," she said.
It wasn't until she reached her hotel room in New Zealand that she was able to cry.
While Western Samoa conducts regular training in tsunami preparedness, Martins said she understood that much of the training teaches people to listen for warnings and evacuation orders when there's an alarm. That decision might have cost some families their lives, because they decided to stay and wait for instructions after the earthquake, rather than run for safety.
"That's way too late," she said.
The experience also made her realize the importance of agreeing on a safe place for the family to meet. Some families got separated in the escape, and returned to the village to look for one another, only to die in the next wave, she said.
"Have a plan," she said.
The native of Brazil lives with her son and boyfriend in a beachfront home in Paia, but the family has decided to move inland and is selling the house, she said. They had been contemplating the move for a while, but Martins' experience in Samoa helped with the decision, said her boyfriend, Sandy Fisher.
"It's great having a house on the ocean, but we'd rather know we're safe as a family on higher ground," he said.
Has 0bama deigned to say anything about the tragedy in AMERICAN Samoa yet?
What is a “fale”? I looked in the dictionary with no luck.
From the context it sounds like a beach hut or cottage but I’ve not seen the word before.
And, pronounced “fah-lay” not “fail”
Well, what do you want from him? He HAD to lobby for Chicago to get the Olympics! It was the most important thing to do....even more important than meeting with the General in charge of the war in Afghanistan...who flew over to Copenhagen and forced a visit with the commander in chief; certainly more important than dead and dying American citizens!
What was the critisism of Bush and Katrina?
If they had 8 minutes between the earthquake and the first wave to react and get the hell out, they were lucky. They could have had a lot less time than that.
Did we not agree to help expand the Pacific Tsunami Warning Network after the Bandar Aceh tsunami? As I recall the death toll in Indonesia spawned a great deal of action from just about every government with Pacific Ocean beachfront; how is it that Samoans were so ignorant of what happens after a big earthquake??
What does he care? They can’t vote for him.
As usual, the government instructions to wait for further government instructions got a bunch of people killed.
So true. Especially where a large percentage of the population depends on government for jobs and assistance.
FOUR waves, with the fourth the largest?
I hadn’t heard of that before — it is good to know.
That definitely is a good thing to know. Eight minutes walking will cover only half a mile a brisk pace.
The Australian hotel manager should be awarded the Congressional Gold Medal for his bravery in making repeated trips to the coast, after each wave, to rescue survivors. I like to think that I (and many FReepers) would take the same action...but he is a certifiable hero, knowingly taking the greatest risks to save others even though he couldn’t know just when the next wave would strike.
That is an outstanding account and brings to light just how fast things happen. First, the earthquake shaking and then when she saw the coral heads, she knew immediately what was coming. In tune with her surroundings.
The multiple waves, each bigger than the last is outstanding information.
Not to worry, it’s been a good 65 million years since a tsunami hit your neck of the woods...
Definitely not a surfin’ safari!
Those poles look like they might be mahogany, if so they are very expensive, they wood be in the U.S. anyway.hehe
Oh please. It was a sacrifice for he and Michell to fly to Copenhagen. You can’t expect him to be concerned about disaster in a podunk village in the middle of nowhere, even if it is American Territory.
Tsunamis can have even more waves than that. Which wave will be the largest is pretty unpredictable.
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