Devastating Samoa Tsunami Kills 110

The realities of the vulnerability of the region that we live in has just struck quite close to home when a massive undersea earthquake triggered a tsunami that has devastated Samoa and Tonga and taken may lives with it.

At the time of writing this article, some 110 people have died and many more injured. Watching the footage on the news tonight has really struck me with how close to home this all is, in more ways than one. The remnants of the Tsunami tidal wave did hit NZ without any damage, but there’s many Samoan and Tongan families who live here in NZ and lost loved ones.

The pictures of the once beautiful Island are devastating. Whole villages wiped out. Peoples homes and possessions taken a lifetime to build, all gone. When you look the photo below, it’s quite clear that this wasn’t that far from home.

For the first time that I can recall in the 10 years that I’ve lived in here, the magnitude 8.0 quake resulted in a ‘National Warning Tsunami Threat to NZ’. A bit scary.

My heart goes out to all those in the region who have lost loved ones and are now picking up the pieces and trying to rebuild their lives.