Saleapaga: Search teams combed the jumble of smashed houses and ripped foliage Monday in their search for human remains nearly a week after a tsunami devastated Samoa and neighbouring islands.
Eight people remain missing in Samoa and another two in neighbouring American Samoa following Tuesday`s tsunami which crashed into the South Pacific islands following an 8.3-magnitude earthquake.
A total of 135 people are confirmed dead in Samoa, another 32 in American Samoa and nine in the northernmost islands of Tonga.
Samoan, Australian and New Zealand searchers with specially trained dogs searched on the south of Samoa`s main island Upolu in Saleapaga village and surrounding areas, where seven people remain missing following the disaster.
The head of the Australian team Steve Smith said they were combing the area for a final time before his team pulled out of the search.
"Basically we are just finishing off some searching in this particular area where people still aren`t accounted for," Smith told AFP.
"If we can`t find (the missing) in these areas that we have searched, the assumption is that they`ve been washed out to sea," he said.
Smith said his party had recovered five bodies since Wednesday and recent discoveries were mostly just body parts "because of the sheer forces involved" in the tsunami.
The Samoan government is organising a mass funeral for up to 100 victims at a sports complex in the capital Apia on Thursday.
But many families are following the local tradition of burying their dead in family plots near their homes, even now when those homes have been swept away by the tsunami.
In Lalomanu village, So`o Lefale`s family is preparing to bury nine members of their extended family in the family plot, including seven children aged under five.
"This is my home, my family has always been here. We want to bury our family here with our relatives," she told AFP.
Lefale said she was still struggling to come to terms with the scale of the disaster and feared for the future.
"So many have died, I just can`t count them. No one is safe," she said.
She said she planned to rebuild the family home near the beach, despite her fear and the desire of most people in the village not to remain near the sea.
"When I live here will there be another wave? I just can`t sleep at night."
Samoan Red Cross spokeswoman Rosemarie North said the vast majority of those who had fled as much as three or four kilometres inland after the tsunami did not want to return to the coast.
She said the relief effort was concentrating on ensuring those who had moved inland were supplied with shelter, clean water and sanitation.
"We`re making sure people have bush knives, hammers and nails and spades so can build latrines and temporary shelters," she said.
Bureau Report
