American Samoa 2009 earthquake and tsunami

In the wake of a devastating earthquake and tsunami in American Samoa, we deployed an Emergency Management Oversight Team to American Samoa in November 2009. The team's objectives were to: (1) promote accountability by instituting measures and processes to evaluate the actions of federal emergency management professionals; (2) serve as an independent entity for oversight of response and recovery activities; and (3) review the Federal Emergency Management Agency's response to the disaster. The Federal Emergency Management Agency provided disaster assistance to American Samoa. This assistance included temporary housing, grants for rebuilding efforts, construction of permanent housing, and repairs to critical infrastructure such as schools and power plants. Three issues came to the forefront during our oversight of the response and recovery activities. First, the American Samoa government has serious internal control and financial accountability problems. Short of designating the American Samoa government as a high-risk grantee, the Federal Emergency Management Agency has taken a number of other actions to help address these concerns. Second, of particular concern are the federal funds provided for restoration of the Satala Power Plant, which represents 75% of all Public Assistance funding. High cost projects such as this one should be closely monitored. Third, the agency is building permanent homes for individuals to replace homes destroyed by the tsunami. The need for better planning, the high costs of the simple homes being built, and the use of one large contractor to build all the homes raises questions about this permanent housing construction pilot program and the precedent it will set for future disasters.