At 6:48am NZT on 30 September (29 September in Samoa, across the dateline) a large 8.3 magnitude earthquake occurred 18-30 km under the sea, with its epicentre located about 125 miles southwest of Samoa. The earthquake generated a regional tsunami of three main waves, with heights of up to 6m reported. As reports of casualties and destruction came in from Samoa, the NZDF quickly swung into action.
New Zealand’s first response was an RNZAF Orion, which arrived in Samoa the next day, tasked to provide imagery of the tsunami affected areas to the Government of Samoa, as well as to search for missing people, possibly swept out to sea. Fortunately Samoa’s main airfield was not damaged by the earthquake; subsequently RNZAF and RAAF C-130 Hercules flew to Samoa, carrying NZ Aid and Red Cross staff along with NZDF personnel, medical and relief supplies.
The tsunami’s damage in Samoa was all along the south coast; Apia and its port were not damaged. New Zealand’s aid response was coordinated by MFAT and NZ Aid; commercial flights played their part, but it was NZDF personnel and RNZAF transport aircraft and helicopters which undertook the heavy hauling. The RNZAF Orion continued with aerial searches and assessing the extent of the damage. It also flew over Nuiatoputapu, the island in Northern Tonga that had suffered tsunami damage and casualties.
At Devonport, VTF and fleet maintenance personnel worked long hours through the subsequent weekend to bring CANTERBURY out of a maintenance period and to 8 hours notice for sea. Army personnel from Linton Camp were placed on standby to sail in CANTERBURY.
By 2 October, the NZDF had deployed 15 medics, 14 engineers, a 3-person Aero Medical evacuation team, 2 environmental health officers, and 26 air and maintenance crew from No.3 Sqn RNZAF with a UH-1H Iroquois. A second Kiwi Iroquois was also airlifted to Samoa by the RAAF. By 8 October the two helos had flown 41 hrs on disaster relief tasks.
Our Army personnel assisted the injured and worked among the often bewildered survivors in the devastated communities, while NZ Police Search and Rescue dogs and handlers were also deployed to assist in finding bodies among the debris.
On Sunday 4 October a group of Navy Divers flew up to Samoa, bringing the overall total of NZDF personnel deployed to 105. At 1900 the previous evening, the RNZN had been directed to deploy a six-person Diving Team to Samoa, in an RNZAF aircraft which was programmed to depart Whenuapai at 0230 that morning.
The activation came at a time when the Operational Diving Team (ODT) was already committed to a significant contribution to Exercise Bersama Lima 09 (in Singapore). Thus the team for Operation Samoan Tsunami was made up of LTCDR Andrew McMillan, the CO ODT, with five divers drawn from among ODT personnel not deployed to the Exercise, Navy Diving School staff and other Divers attached to RNZN ships.
The team arrived in Samoa at 0630 on Sunday morning NZ time (Saturday in Samoa) and immediately set to work on their primary task of restoring the underwater pipeline which provided fresh water to 800 residents of Manono Island, situated 1.5nm to the North West of Upolo, the main island of Samoa.
The water pipeline had been fractured by the earthquake and the subsequent tsunami, leaving about 800 people without fresh water. The Diving Team also had to assess the state of the linking underwater power cable.
The Navy Divers found that in places, the pipeline had been covered in sand and debris that had shifted during the quake. After clearing away the debris they found four fractures along its length and began the task of repairing the PVC line.
“The biggest challenge was removing the debris from the pipeline. Once we were able to see the extent of the problem it was a relatively simple job to repair the PVC pipe and get the water flowing again,” said LTCDR McMillan.
The Diving team completed the job the next day; and by 1700 that Sunday the water flow had been restored. A local engineer, accompanied by NZDF personnel and NZAID staff, then assessed the water quality and the safety of the storage tank on Manono island.
The Navy Divers relocated to Lalomanu, to undertake similar tasks while working with Samoan NZ Police divers:
• Identification of breaks and repairs to the water pipe supplying water to Namua Island
• Reef searches for bodies along the Southern Coast of Upolo
• Identification of hazards such as vehicles and trees that have been swept into the sea along the southern coast.
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