Marysville resident and Catholic lay chaplain Tim Serban first arrived in American Samoa Oct. 2, in the wake of a Sept. 29 earthquake and tsunami that killed dozens and destroyed hundreds of homes on the Pacific island.
Serban’s blog on the Snohomish County Red Cross Web site has since chronicled the grief counseling he’s provided, much of it to young children, but he has enough work left that he’s been asked to extend his stay.
During Oct. 17 — “Day 15” of his time there, which has yet to be posted to his blog — Serban wrote from the perspective of a boat captain who was in the the harbor when the earthquake and tsunami hit, shortly after 7 a.m. local time
“You quickly go below decks and pull up recent earthquakes on the computer,” Serban thumb-typed from his iPod. “There it is, already registered; a major quake, 150 miles southwest […] Quickly running a calculation in your head, you know that tsunamis can travel 500 miles an hour. That means you have less than 18 minutes to get ready.”
Serban described the frantic preparations of the yachtsmen, as all the water in Pago Bay drained out, just prior to a series of 25-foot-high tsunami waves lifting their boats to eye-level with the 20-foot light pole on the dock.
Serban’s account was inspired by visiting the sailboat community of Pago Harbor that day. Compared to others on the island, they were relatively fortunate, but even as Serban paid home visits to the villages of Leone and Asilii, he noticed that “more and more young people are out playing any variety of sporting games. All of this is a good sign following a disaster.”
On Oct. 21 — “Day 19,” the most recent of his messages received by the Snohomish County Red Cross — Serban visited American Samoan Community College counseling classes, where more than 60 students received support from their teachers in dealing with the aftermath of the earthquake and tsunami. After discussing disaster preparedness plans and ways of coping after the fact, Serban was reunited with a woman he’d met the previous day, who had locked herself in her room for a week after losing her mother to the tsunami.
“I happened to be walking by the place where she worked,” Serban wrote. “She noticed me and said, ‘Tim?’ I said yes, not recognizing her, and she said, ‘It’s me, from yesterday. You came to my house.’ I nearly hit the floor. She was just finishing her first full day at work since the tsunami, and she looked like a completely different person. She said, ‘Thanks for helping me get the strength to leave my house.’”
To read Serban’s blog, log onto http://snohomishcounty.redcross.org/index.php?pr=American_Samoa. To donate to the American Red Cross, call 800-733-2767 or log onto www.redcross.org.
