Samoa relief team draws on Katrina experience

• By WILLIAM TAYLOR
• Assistant People editor
• Published: Oct 17, 2009

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American Samoa has put on a look familiar to a relief worker from Louisiana.

Blue tarps and tents dot the island territory’s landscape and provide shelter to survivors of last month’s earthquake and tsunami.

“When I visited the village of Leone, I had a visceral reaction — the sights brought back a lot of unresolved feelings from Katrina,” noted Carol Spruell, of Baton Rouge, in recent e-mails from the island. “The damage was very reminiscent of that in New Orleans. Furniture upturned. Vehicles jammed into homes and trees. Buildings torn away from their foundations. Personal belongings scattered throughout the area. Lives upturned in the blink of an eye.

“The survivors ask the same questions. They are confused about the (Federal Emergency Management Agency). They ask for water, food and supplies.”

As with hurricanes Katrina, Rita, Gustav and Ike, faith-based organizations are playing an active role in the relief work, and that is why Spruell was in American Samoa this week representing Catholic Charities of the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

Catholic Charities USA gave its response team a decidedly Louisiana character to take advantage of the experience gained while responding to four hurricanes since 2005.

The four-person team sent includes two members from Catholic Charities national headquarters and two members from Louisiana. Colleen D’Aquin from Catholic Charities for the Archdiocese of New 

Orleans is the other Louisiana member.

David Aguillard, executive director for Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge, noted that since becoming the lead case management agency after Katrina, no other agency has more experience in disasters of this magnitude than the Diocese of Baton Rouge.

“Our staff is in high demand,” Aguillard said. “We anticipate that after Carol returns, others from our agency will fill in behind her.”

Spruell, who serves as communications director for Catholic Charities in Baton Rouge, said she is working in Samoa to address the shortage of mental health counselors on the island.

“Many children were in their classrooms or on their way to school when the earthquake and subsequent tsunami struck the island,” Spruell, said. “Now that school has returned in session, there is a high rate of child trauma. For example, some children do not want to open their book bag, as that was what they were doing when they saw the tsunami coming, and there is a fear that opening their book bag will cause the same thing to happen again.”

She is hoping her contacts with the National Coalition for Children in Disasters can help identify some partners to provide short-term mental health counseling to children.