Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — In her keynote address on the last day of the three-day Amerika Samoa 1st Annual Disaster Resilience Summit last week Thursday, Maria Lutz — the Regional Disaster Officer for the Pacific Islands, American Red Cross — shared the message of “community inclusion” and community involvement in preparedness in time of a disaster.

Lutz briefly told the role of the Red Cross in time of a disaster, such as helping to oversee more of the American Samoa disaster relief and helping with the process in making sure the Red Cross “does the damage assessment that’s needed.” 

“And then also helping with reporting on the sheltering population... to help and support the government in trying to get declarations and getting that information, to get more help and justify that help,” she said, adding that “we do really appreciate working with the government here.”

She expressed appreciation and acknowledged the local Red Cross personnel, who have been doing that work in getting information and documents, which is “very critical” following a disaster.

Lutz, who holds a Bachelor’s degree in Peace and Conflict Studies from the University of California-Berkeley, noted that there’s been a lot of unprecedented disasters occurring in the territory, such as the King Tides, which occurred in July. And they were in Aunu’u on Wednesday taking a look to see the damage that had occurred there from this latest disaster.

She acknowledged the delay in getting to Aunu’u, but noted “we did surveys of the homes, we collected damage assessment information, we were documenting where people were sheltering because we know that there are  a lot of non-traditional ways of sheltering,” she said.

As for local Red Cross preparedness program, she said they are focusing mainly on CPR — which was demonstrated on Wednesday during the Red Cross presentation and training session on, “Recovery Efforts, Process and Voluntary Donations.”

She also said that the Red Cross is looking at how it can help the government, as “we are aware” that there’s not that many people who can perform CPR. So the Red Cross is “teaching CPR here locally, to help save a life,” she pointed out.

Red Cross also has a program for reducing home fire risks. “We help to make 268 homes made-safer, which means providing that education for two people in their homes how to reduce the fire risk for the family,” she explained.

Red Cross also helped with installing smoke alarms within the home and as well as conducting a “safety check with them to make sure that... there’s no over-loaded extension cords and making sure that everything is working properly.”

“And if people have existing smoke alarms, we usually test the battery to make sure they’re operating appropriately,” she said.

She shared that her “main message” for the Summit is, “this is all about community inclusion. I know that especially in the territories, that most disaster relief and disaster services, is really government focused.”

Therefore the Summit is a great opportunity “to really look at how we can include more of the community into the disaster relief” and that is through volunteering and “everybody pitching in their time to help the community.”

Lutz, who currently resides in Hawaii, acknowledged the important message of “preparedness” shared during the summit, saying that this is important for American Samoa, “as you are isolated here... and it’s a challenge to get the supplies” here.

“When disaster strike here, it takes everybody to help with a solution,” she said and thanked all participates for taking part in the summit.

She acknowledged the many students from various schools who took part in the Summit sessions and presentations. “It’s wonderful seeing all the youth come in and see that new generation learning all about disaster preparedness and hopefully they can carry that message forward,” she said.

Last week Thursday, Sept. 29, was also the 13th Anniversary of the 2009 tsunami, which claimed the lives of 34 local residents. A “moment of silence” was observed at the opening service for Thursday’s program.

At the outset of her keynote address, Lutz recalled for the audience one of the Red Cross personnel in her office, who grew up in American Samoa, and wanted to travel home following the tsunami so she could be in the territory for the disaster relief operations.

Lutz said the Red Cross staffer — a female — lost 7 family members in the tsunami and couldn’t stay in Hawaii, but wanted to return home to help her family get through the disaster and “more importantly, work with the community” at such a difficult time.

“It’s just an incredible story,” said Lutz noting that the Red Cross staff member is an “incredible person”, who is the CPR and first aid instructor and also works in the office.

Office of Disaster Assistance and Petroleum Management (ODAPM) director, Lisa Tuato’o expressed great appreciation to the American Red Cross for their assistance following the 2009 tsunami and other disasters faced by American Samoa.

And because the theme of the Summit — which was hosted by ODPAM and its local partners — was “Bridging Between Government and Communities, we wanted to make sure that, we capture everybody who played a critical role in responding to and recovering from all disasters,” said Tuato’o, who also thanked all participants — including local and federal partners — for taking part in this important event.

“Our collaboration during these three days strengthens our preparedness response and recovery efforts in ensuring the people of American Samoa remain safe and resilient in all hazard disasters,” Tuato’o said in the official statement printed in the Summit program. “We work together, We win together!

“Have a safe journey home to our federal partners who traveled thousands of miles to be here and warmest regards to those who supported from afar, God's abundant blessings on everyone,” she said.

ODAPM and the government hosted an appreciation dinner on Wednesday night for FEMA officials and other off-island delegates, who returned to the U.S on last Thursday night’s flight to Honolulu.

And while on island, the FEMA team, which included FEMA Region IX Recovery Division director, Robert Pesapane, conducted site visits of various locations on island including government projects.