24 Nov 2015

American Samoans urged to listen to local radio

1:19 pm on 24 November 2015

American Samoans are being told to listen to local radio stations for disaster information, rather than relying on Samoa's 2AP station.

The Samoa Met Service classifies watches and warnings for hurricanes in a different way to that of American Samoa's Weather Service, which forecasters say causes confusion for local residents.

For example, where the national weather service would issue a watch for winds of 39 to 73 miles per hour, the Samoa Met Service would issue a warning.

However, in some areas like Manu'a, the Samoa station Radio 2AP is the only radio signal they receive.

The Director of Homeland Security, Iuniasolua Savusa, says he's made approaches to the Samoa 2AP station to include information from the national weather service in their bulletins during disasters.

"Since Samoa is not moving, they're not willing to change their thresholds and their terminology, me as an emergency manager for our territory, I will have to find ways in order to inform our people in a timely manner."