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A naked 84-year-old Lemafa Atia'e wasn't afraid as he clung for his life to his neighbour's steel house post while waves crashed over him.
The oldest person in Utulaelae, on the southeast coast of Upolo, had sat in his waterfront fale as the earthquake shook while his family begged him to follow them to higher ground. But Mr Atia'e, who uses a piece of wood to help him walk, knew his brittle bones would prevent him from escaping a possible tsunami.
Within minutes he was swept more than 150m from his home, hitting a power pole and a grapefruit tree before his journey was broken by a steel house post which he clung to as the sea and debris knocked him around and ripped off his lavalava - the only piece of clothing he had on.
After the waves had passed over the village, two of Mr Atia'e's sons came back down the hill to look for their father, wrapped another lavalava around him, and took him to safety.
He escaped with a few cuts and bruises. His is perhaps one of the most extraordinary survival tales from an island devastated by Wednesday's earthquake and resulting tsunami.
Mr Atia'e, who only speaks Samoan, said through his next-door neighbour Eva Tupusela: "I wasn't afraid but I was shocked at what the water could do."
Mrs Tupusela, the wife of the village pastor for the local Methodist church, said that when the earth started to shake, she and others pleaded with Mr Atia'e to move.
"We were yelling at him 'Go up'. His family was saying 'Go up', but he just sat there. He didn't move. The wave carried him."
Mrs Tupusela, whose home was destroyed during the tsunami, said she knew a tsunami would follow the earthquake so as soon as the ground started shaking she and her husband then gathered their two young children and drove up the hill, picking up two elderly ladies on the way.
"I was doing the ironing and my husband told me to look out at the sea, it was going out. So we jumped in the car and just drove up."
Mr Atia'e's missing lavalava has become the joke of Utulaelae, bringing some humour to a desperate situation for its fewer than 100 villagers, who all escaped with their lives.
Mrs Tupusela said residents had been praying for those who had lost friends and family.
How you can help
Pacific Cooperation Foundation
Deposits can be made at at any Westpac branch. All the money raised will go to the Samoan Government
Red Cross
- Make a secure online donation at redcross.org.nz
- Send cheques to the Samoan Red Cross Fund, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
- Call 0900 31 100 to make an automatic $20 donation
- Make a donation at any NZ Red Cross office
ANZ bank
Make a donation at any ANZ bank branch, or donate directly to the ANZ appeal account: 01 1839 0143546 00
Oxfam
- Make a secure online donation at
Oxfam.org.nz
- Phone 0800 400 666 or make an automatic $20 donation by calling 0900 600 20
