By Staff Writer
National alert has been called off on 30 coastal districts in both Upolu and Savaii at risk of a volcanic eruption of the underwater Vailulu’u Volcano closer to American Samoa.
The National Emergency Operations Centre, NEOC, has also stepped down its state of readiness for any related emergencies.
“The worst case scenarios of major concern to us were ash clouds if the Vailulu’u volcano erupts or an underwater landslide that could set off a tsunami,” CEO Lealaisalanoa Frances Brown-Reupena of the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment explained.
Selected teams organised by the MNRE from Government Ministries and emergency services, fanned out to the villages since last April in a public safety awareness drive for protection.
The national alert officially ended on the 31 of October 2022.
Samoa is 220km/137 miles from the neighbouring territory with the Aleipata district the closest point between the two islands.
The tsunami of Sept. 29, 2009, that killed 200 people including those as far as American Samoa and Tonga, were mostly from the coastal villages along the Aleipata districts.
The tsunami followed a strong morning earthquake on the day it occurred.
Vailuluʻu is an underwater mountain discovered in 1975. It rises from the sea floor to a depth of 593 meters and is located between Taʻu and Rose islands at the eastern end of the Samoa hotspot chain of mountains.
Eruptions at Vailuluʻu were recorded in 1973.