Fears of potentially deadly outbreaks of disease in tsunami-battered Samoa increased on Saturday, as frightened survivors seeking shelter on higher ground refused to go back to their beachfront villages.
As roads and beaches were cleared of debris and rebuilding began, planeloads of medical supplies were rushed to the Pacific island nation which was pounded by massive waves following a magnitude 8 undersea quake on Tuesday.
The number of people confirmed dead from the tragedy in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga reached 176 on Saturday with grave fears for 12 others still missing and officials warned the toll would rise.
Limbo Fiu, a manager with the National Health Service in Samoa, said a second wave of deaths was looming as the injured continued to trickle into hospitals.
“In a few weeks, we will see many people sick with gastroenteritis and diarrhea. That will affect the young and the elderly. Deaths are inevitable,” he told reporters.
Tautala Mauala, secretary general of the Samoa Red Cross, said health officials had met in Apia on Saturday to coordinate a health strategy, with epidemic disease becoming a growing concern.
“There are concerns with sanitation, and clean water is much needed,” she said.
“We are already hearing some news of gastroenteritis and diarrhea outbreaks, and there is a high potential likelihood of emerging diseases,” she said.
Mauala estimated up to 3,000 people lost their homes in the tsunami, with most now living with family and friends, many overcrowding existing houses.
Others are camping out in school buildings or living in crude homes under tarpaulins or tents in plantations and refusing to return to their traditional coastal settlements, Rosemarie North of the Samoa Red Cross said.
In the worst-hit areas along the southern coast of the main Samoan island of Upolu, families have abandoned their wiped-out villages and moved inland, posing problems for relief workers trying to bring them water and supplies.
North said that some villagers were too scared to return and in many cases the tsunami had changed the landscape and scoured away the land on which their homes and gardens once stood.
Paneta Sagale Lauiliu, who lost his mother in the tragedy, said his family would abandon its seaside home in favor of higher ground.
“We have no intention of moving back down,” he said from a camp an hour’s walk from the coast. “There’s no way we’re going back to the beach and I don’t think anyone else in our village will do that.”
Lauiliu, whose four-year-old son Sepi was swept up by the tsunami and survived by clinging to a banana tree, said his family was considering abandoning its beach hut rental business.
There are hopes that Thursday’s mass burial of the victims will help Samoans put the disaster behind them.
“Trauma has been seen as an issue, a lot of these people went very far inland because of fear and are afraid to return,” Mauala said.
“People are still in trauma and a lot of them don’t want to answer questions or talk about what they’ve been through,” she said.
The earthquake and resulting tsunami, which left 135 dead and eight missing in Samoa, 32 dead in neighboring American Samoa and nine dead in the Pacific island nation of Tonga, has prompted an international aid effort.
Australia has sent 88 medical and search personnel to assist in recovery efforts while a New Zealand Air Force Boeing 757 landed in Samoa on Saturday carrying police dog search teams and medical experts.
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