• By DAVID J. MITCHELL
• Advocate River parishes bureau
• Published: Oct 8, 2009 - Page: 4B

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PRAIRIEVILLE — Prairieville Fire Chief Mark Stewart just returned from a 5‰-day trip halfway around the world.

Stewart, who heads Ascension Parish Fire Protection District No. 3, was sent to American Samoa to help the Pacific Ocean island and U.S. territory recover from a tsunami that struck last week.

But once he arrived in American Samoa and joined the seven other members of his disaster team, Stewart quickly learned about the Samoans’ self-reliance.

He said they did not need his group’s help, with piles of debris already placed in stacks and other clean-up and recovery work well under way.

“They’re a very hard-working people. They were not sitting around waiting for somebody to come help them,” Stewart said.

A magnitude 8.0 earthquake on Sept. 29 kicked off a tsunami that killed 170 people in the Samoan islands and Tonga, including 32 in American Samoa, Agence France-Press reported. Another 10 were unaccounted for as of Saturday and feared dead, the news agency said.

Stewart is in a national unit that is part of a federal team that offers mortuary services to communities that have been through major disasters and face fatality numbers that could overwhelm their local systems.

The Disaster Portable Morgue Unit Team sets up temporary mortuaries at major disaster sites, such as the Twin Towers, after Hurricane Katrina and at airline crash scenes.

Stewart said his DPMU team did not have to set up its portable morgue but did resupply the Samoans with equipment the unit brought along.

Stewart, who is the DPMU’s safety officer and also helps with logistics, said he arrived the night of Oct. 1 and got a chance to see some the affected areas, primarily the capital Pago Pago as well as other areas of the island.

While there were clear signs of devastation, such as boats on dry land and homes off foundations, he said some spots were already cleaned up and it was hard to tell the tsunami had gone through.