By Martha Taumata Fa’avae
A tsunami warning close to 9.00am on Friday morning created enough scare to move people into higher grounds, closed schools early and canceled some of the organised sporting events around Samoa.
The Met Office issued a tsunami watch after an earthquake of magnitude 8.0 in the Kermadec Islands, 1808.89 km (1123.99 miles) South South-West of Apia at a depth of about 10.0 km.
The warning was canceled a few hours later at just after 1.00pm in the afternoon.
By then many of the schools were closed already with classrooms left empty by 11.00am in the morning.
The Ministry of Education allowed for children to be released from school to worried parents who hurried to pick them up.
Parents who rushed to collect their children from class surprised some of the teachers unaware of the tsunami warning.
Eyewitness report from as far away from Apia as Pu’apu’a in Savaii said people in the village were moving into higher grounds once they heard the warning.
“Many of the villagers live on low grounds so they were forced to move further inland to plantation homes for safety,” a Pu’apu’a village spokesperson told Newsline Samoa.
Repeated awareness programme on public media made the reaction easier for many in low-lying villages.
The Met Office Acting CEO Fuimaono Talia Lameko confirmed 10milimeter ripples created by the earthquake that swept out from the south up towards the north.
By just after mid-afternoon Samoa was out of danger enough to cancel the tsunami warning after the waves passed through.
