7 Oct 2009

New medical base set up at Poutasi

8:20 am on 7 October 2009

Tsunami victims in the Poutasi area on the south coast of Samoa are to get some much-needed relief from a new aid and medical base just set up in the area.

A medical centre in the village, in the Falealili district, was flattened by waves last week.

In American Samoa, the extent of the tsunami's environmental impact is still unclear.

The American military is continuing to clean up hazardous chemicals that washed over coastal areas. It says there is a lot of toxic material to deal with.

The tsunami followed a magnitude 8.0 earthquake which occurred at 1748 GMT on Tuesday at a depth of 33km, some 190km from Apia.