Transcript
2009's 8.3 magnitude quake was the most powerful on the planet that year and struck shortly before seven AM, New Zealand time. (30 Sept in NZ)
The subsequent tsunami waves killed 189 people. 149 in Samoa, 31 in American Samoa and nine in Tonga.
On Samoa's south coast, Tuatagaloa Joe Anandale, a Poutasi village paramount chief and the Sinalei resort owner lost his wife Tui and his mother-in-law.
Tuatagaloa says he has focused on what has happened since and what it's all meant.
"You know there's a Samoan saying - e moe ma manu e le fati ae ala mai mala e atia'e. What that means is, you face catastrophe and drama and trauma in life but often times it's that trauma that drives you to doing good things."
He says out of the catastrophe came many blessings for Poutasi and the entire Falealili district.
Tuatagaloa referenced the help that came from overseas with the energy and generosity of figures in the business community.
He spoke of the Poutasi Memorial Hall which was largely funded by the efforts of New Zealand's Locky Mulholland.
"He went out there to Wellington, talked to his friends. They rallied, they raised money and we built the hall. The hall now represents so many different things."
Tuatagaloa says it brings the village and district together but also provides revenue as a conference venue with a community kitchen for training and catering.
He says The Warehouse's Sir Stephen Tindall kick-started a business which became the cash-cow to provide start-up finance for other projects.
"They funded our community gardens, producing salad greens for the hotel and restaurant market and today it's still going."
The local primary school has grown, in partnership with the Baptist Church, from 15 to 130 students and also provides skills training to adults.
Tuatagaloa says it's given young village men an edge when applying for New Zealand's Recognised Seasonal Employer programme and access to "serious money".
"And when I say serious, one RSE that goes away, works for six months, and he earns in that six months what an average worker here on basic wages earns in seven years."
Two hundred workers from the district participate each year and provide a huge boon to the local economy.
And Tuatagaloa says this all started with the Poutasi Memorial Hall which is where they are marking the 10th anniversary with the unveiling of plaques to each of those who died.
Further east on the Aleipata Coast, Lalomanu Beach's fale operations bore the brunt of the disaster.
Sili Apelu who with his wife Fa'afetai owns the Taufua Beach Fales, says their family lost 14 of its 28 members.
"Seven of them were kids from 11-months to... the eldest was nine-years-old, our grand-daughter. And then of course we also lost our father Taufua, he was 97."
After the death of his father-in-law and despite marrying into the family he was recently bestowed the Taufua title.
He says, soon after the disaster, their grieving family resolved to rebuild the business and by the end of January 2010, they had the restaurant rebuilt and up and running.
"We were lucky. Already we had a good reputation with the bank and the first thing we did was to go to our banker and tell them of our plans. How we know we still owe them money but we want to borrow more money from them."
The bank financed the build based on their previous history and gave them a six-month holiday on loan repayments
By the end of May 2010, just eight months after near total devastation, Taufua Beach Fales was rebuilt and busy.
Taufua says ironically the tsunami also provided some advertising for them.
In neighbouring Litia Sini's, owner and director Lydia Sini-To'omalatai didn't initially want to face the prospect of a rebuild.
However, her late mother and business namesake Litia Sini, her brothers and loyal guests disagreed.
"They were the ones who really encouraged me and my family to rebuild. This is a second home for them. It's a holiday place that they love to come back to. And almost 10-years now, I now can say that I am glad I did agree that I did agree at the very end."
A lack of insurance and no revenue stream presented challenges, which required some innovative thinking.
New Zealand engineer Dave Smith and architect Chris Hume were among the loyal guests who pitched in to help.
They collaborated on plans for the rebuild and ideas to help finance it including presold holiday packages giving Litia Sini a deposit the bank needed to finance the rest of the rebuild.
"It was a battle but I never thought at the time that I would win it because I didn't have much to rebuild from. But it's the love and support of our families and especially those from outside Samoa that has enabled us to rebuild to what Litia Sini is right now."
On 25 September 2010, just shy on a year on from the tsunami, they opened their new, improved doors.
The people of Lalomanu will be focusing their commemorations around the tsunami memorial at the village church.
In American Samoa, flags are at half-mast throughout the territory right through the weekend.
In the village of Leone where 11 people died, the focus is on the Healing Garden tsunami memorial which is tended by local lawmaker Andra Samoa and survivor Stacey Salave'a.
