PART 2: Former Homeland Security Boss Rebutts Claims By American Samoa Governor; Hearing Cancelled Again

Part 1  yesterday

This is part of an ongoing series on American Samoa post-tsunami and its disaster preparedness.

Earlier this week,  American Samoa Government was due to hold an Emergency Preparedness hearing(scheduled a fortnight ago) but it has been cancelled at the 11th hour. This is the second time it has not gone ahead as scheduled. Each time, the Governor and his staff  have had reasons to cancel. First cancellation: a funeral to attend. This week, the Governor called a Cabinet meeting at the last minute.

Some members of the House Homeland Security Committee including chairman Rep. Maugaoali’i S. Anoai were disappointed that a hearing yesterday to discuss emergency preparedness following the Sept. 29 tsunami had to be canceled due to last minute notice from the governor’s office.

Maugaoali’i said he received a telephone call after 3 p.m. Tuesday from the Speaker’s Office that the Governor had called a 9 a.m. cabinet meeting yesterday and cabinet witnesses called to testify would not be able to attend.

Among the witnesses called were local Department of Homeland Security director Mike Sala, the Governor’s Authorized Representative Evelyn Vaitautolu Langford and American Samoa TeleCommunication Authority executive director Aleki Sene Sr.

Those due to appear as witnesses are among the key players in this story, and along with the Governor and others in the Cabinet, have yet to be held accountable.

Maugaoali’i said if funds were in fact earmarked  for the installation of a “Siren System” then this is the first Priority.

“Disappointments were also expressed by several lawmakers. We are elected officials to represent the voice of the community and for the House to be treated like this, is plain disrespectful,” the lawmaker said, and offered his apologies to the committee for the inconvenience.

Background

Last month, CNN screened an explosive investigation into American Samoa Government’s misuse of federal funds targeted for disaster preparedness. In light of the tragedy that took place on Tuesday 29^th September, when an 8.3 magnitude earthquake triggered a destructive tsunami that claimed 34 lives in American Samoa, it is not surprisingly that reporters started asking questions.  There are key organisational players in this story namely: American Samoa Government including the Governor, his Cabinet and the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority, the island’s telco.

CNN Investigation Aired October

CNN found that since 2003 Tutuila, as the islands are known to Samoans, had been receiving millions of dollars in disaster preparedness. The CNN reporting team spoke to American Samoans on the island, and abroad, off the record. They spoke to US Government officials off the record for background information. The final outcome? It all pointed to very disappointing revelations about how the American Samoa Governor’s office are under FBI investigation. That American Samoa, thanks to the Governor and his Cabinet,  have been on a high risk list for  federal funds. The biggest blow, perhaps, was the shocking revelation that there were funds targeted for a tsunami emergency siren.

But because of the Governor’s misuse of federal funds, they were asked by the US Government to repay it pending any more disaster preparedness funding being released. They never repaid a cent. And no more disaster relief funding was released. We approached the Governor’s office as soon as we heard the CNN report was due to be aired in the USA. In response, American Samoa Homeland Security Director Mike Sala eventually responded. In addition to answering some of our questions which we posted here,  Sala, who was speaking on behalf of the Governor and the Cabinet, also sent pacificEyeWitness.org a frabricated story which  Sala dishonestly claimed was written and published by Samoa News, American Samoa’s local newspaper. We verified that to be so after contacting Samoa News directly.

Despite emails, and writing about the dishonesty from American Samoa Governor’s office, we have yet to receive a direct explanation about why Sala, acting on behalf of the Governor, lied to pacificEyewitness.org.

We later received a request from the attorney acting for Lei’ataualesā Birdsall Ala’ilima, the former American Samoa Homeland Security Director. He requested a copy of the story. PacificEyeWitness.org sent him the story and asked that Ala’ilima respond to the accusations in it. Below is part 2 of the responses from the former head of American Samoa’s Homeland Security.

For the sake of clarity, the “story” sent by Sala to pacificEyeWitness.org will be named GOVERNOR/SALA with Ala’ilima’s response after. Because Sala said he was speaking on behalf of the Governor, with the Governor, and his key staff, included in all correspondence, we have bylined accordingly:

Former Homeland Security Boss Rebutts Claims By Governor’s Office

Part 1  yesterday

Part 2 Below

GOVERNOR/SALA: The Governor’s Office, Department of Public Safety,  Homeland Security, National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and Radio Stations KHJ and KULA are the six points where the 2 way hand-held radios are kept, and they are meant to be on at all times, according to Emergency Operations Center staff at American Samoa Department of Homeland Security.

Ironically, an exercise had been set up just that morning to test interoperable communications for First Responders in an emergency, and the Emergency Operations Centre was a key component of the exercise. September is nationally recognized as National Preparedness Month and American Samoa Department of Homeland Security,had a calendar full of awareness, outreach, training and education programs for the people of American Samoa.

ALA’ILIMA: The training program for the Emergency Alert System was already in place and functioning when I was terminated. It would have been extremely negligent of Mr. Sala if he had not kept that training and testing up since that was his job. I would like to note here that the program developed under my watch received United States Department of Homeland Security recognition as a “National Best Practice”.

GOVERNOR/SALA:Twenty one tsunami experts in their assessments did confirm that these awareness and training programs contributed to numerous lives being saved, said Sala, and this was reflected in articles published in Samoa News last week.

ALA’ILIMA: If the emergency training that began under my watch saved lives I am extremely grateful to the hard-working people who recognized the hazard and took appropriate action. That does not mean that more could not have been done to save lives if the siren system had been in place.

GOVERNOR/SALA:In the earthquake/tsunami situation report released by American Samoa Department of Homeland Security , for September 29,  it states that at 7:01-7:02 am: National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration/Akapo confirmed the preliminary magnitude of the earthquake at 7.9 and advised American Samoa Department of Homeland Security to issue an oral warning and activate the emergency alert system.

(Akapo Akapo is American Samoa’s resident meteorologist working with the National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration)

The report continues: American Samoa Department of Homeland Security/ Emergency Operations Center staff followed suit immediately via Emergency Alert System COM radio. 7:04 am—EOC Emergency Operations Center staff continued exchange over the Emergency Alert System COM system with National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and both LP1 (KHJ) and LP2 (KULA).

ALA’ILIMA: My office recognized that in the event of a nearby earthquake event, there may not be enough time for National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration in Hawaii to give a tsunami alert.

The system my office designed would allow both National Oceanic Atmospheric Administration and the Emergency Operations Center to activate the Emergency Alert system.

Under my watch the Center was manned 24/7 and that certified watch commanders were trained to make the immediate judgment on whether to activate the system when a large earthquake strikes.

Unfortunately, the governor and Mr. Sala terminated the trained staff of Territorial Emergency Management Coordinating Office and Territorial Office of Homeland Security.

I was not in Samoa when the earthquake struck so I cannot make a judgment on whether the Centre was manned by a certified watch commander who should have activated the emergency alert system without waiting.

I can only hope that there was someone on duty at the Centre in the early morning and that this person was trained to act rather than wait for instructions.

GOVERNOR/SALA:Meanwhile, according to the report, American Samoa Department of Homeland Security staff continued to search for additional updates online with Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, US Coast Guard, and other professional partners in Hawaii and the US mainland, including FEMA Region WatchCenter.

ALA’ILIMA: The problem here is that when an earthquake occurs, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center, does not know if a tsunami was generated until either its sensor system detects a wave or the closest island gets hit. In this case we were the closest island group. We were well aware of this problem from prior experiences. Emergency Operations Center watch commanders were trained to make the call on setting the emergency alert system into motion and not wait for off-island confirmation.

EMERGENCY ALERT SYSTEM

GOVERNOR/SALA:An emergency alert system assessment of the earthquake and tsunami disaster noted “we have long been aware of the possibility of tsunami, and have participated in multiple drills and scenarios. These ranged from international Pacific wide simulated events, to local drills to assess our own emergency plans. The main issue has become however something we had not planned or drilled for: A strong nearby earthquake of magnitude 8 or more. Noting that the epicenter of the significant quake was just 139 miles southwest of Pago Pago, the assessment states, “There is no way for a fast enough analysis to confirm the generation of a tsunami from earthquakes nearby us. The only thing that can be done by the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii, is to automatically issue an UNCONFIRMED TSUNAMI WARNING when the magnitude of the quake is considered strong enough.”

ALA’ILIMA: The emergency alert system assessment mentioned above is what prompted me to push for the siren system as a priority as well as the ability of the  Emergency Operations Center to act without waiting for the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center. Mr. Sala’s reference to it confirms that he was also aware of the problem but obviously he did not give it  priority since he did not push American Samoa Telecommunications Authority to complete the siren project.

GOVERNOR/SALA: When the NWS was issuing its warning and subsequent communications on the Emergency Alert System COM 2 way radio, there were already signs of an approaching tsunami being reported to KHJ Radio by an observer. In the absence of the siren system, the emergency alert system COM Radio back-up was activated by Homeland Security, and radio personnel at KHJ Radio Joey Cummings and Lupe Lu sent out the warning immediately, before their power was shut down by the wave.

ALA’ILIMA: Mr. Fuss of KHJ Radio contradicts this version of events. His staff reported that they activated the radio station portion of the emergency alert system on their own initiative when there was no communication from Emergency Operations Center or any other government agency. I must commend Mr. Fuss and the KHJ Radio staff for taking the initiative to press forward with the development of emergency alert system following my termination. I continued to receive the e-mail results of the emergency alert system monthly testing KHJ Radio conducted with other broadcast stations.

Tomorrow:  Who oversees and manages the federal funds firsthand in American Samoa? The Role of the Governor’s Authorized Representative, a post currently held by Evelyn Vaitautolu-Langford.

We also look at the Memorandum of Understanding signed by American Samoa Government and the American Samoa Telecommunications Authority, responsible for installing an island-wide tsunami emergency siren.

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