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Meeting the immediate needs of the displaced residents of American Samoa involved three stages.
First, the local government utilized their existing stocks that they had set aside specifically for disaster response.
This included quantities of food and water as well as planning with the Department of Education to serve meals at the shelters that were opened in the immediate aftermath of the tsunami.
Second, the federal government came in.
To date, we have provided hundreds of commodities to include tents, blankets, cots, cooking kits, portable tents for emergency sheltering as well as generator support which we are using restore the power grid here on American Samoa.
The third element of this response is what you see right here, the private sector.
Stores are open, shelves are well stocked and residents are able to come and purchase whatever they need for the immediate needs of their family.
This demonstrates a good partnership between the federal government and localgovernment to enable the citizens of American Samoa to restore their lives to a more normal state.