Transcript:  Kenneth R. Tingman, Oct. 20, 2009

Kenneth R. Tingman, Federal Coordinating Officer, American Samoa.  Pago Pago, AS, October 20, 2009.
 
Today we���re in Pago Pago, American Samoa, and it���s been about three weeks since we���ve  arrived, and
 
the earthquake and tsunami devastated this territory. We���re here today doing a housing inspection with

the Housing Inspection Services. And the house behind us was completely destroyed. We���ve got people 

from the homes doing debris removal. We���ve got local government doing debris removal. We���ve got 

Coast Guard in the bay across the street from us doing debris removal. And the recovery effort is well
 
Underway. Inspection services is part of our Individual Assistance program. The number of houses 

Inspected is one of our litmus tests to see how we���re doing. We also have a Disaster Recovery Center

open not too far from here. And the number of registrations is also one of our indicators as to how well
 
we���re doing. We���ve got over 3,000 people registered and about $1.5 million of money that is actually 

out on the street to the citizens of American Samoa. We also have an infrastructure effort going on,
 
number one, that���s going to be restoring the power to the island. The power plant was destroyed. And

we���ve got one of the powerplants is back up on line and we put about 36 emergency generators around
 
the island and they���re all operational as of today. We���re also putting in more with extra transformers
 
and we should have about 42 transformers and generators online as of tomorrow this time. Overall,
 
everything is going quite well. There are situations like the family behind us that we know things will 

never be the same. But as always, we promise that we will be here until the job gets done, and that���s
 
providing hope to the people of American Samoa. One of our largest remaining challenges is to find 

adequate housing for the survivors who have lost their homes in the tsunami. We���ve got tents 

distributed to all the villages that had requirements for tents. And now we need to come up with an 

interim emergency sheltering plan and then a long-term plan. Those efforts and those plans are still
 
being built and that probably will be a very long time before all the disaster survivors are in permanent
 
homes. But the work has begun and we���re doing it in concert with the American Samoan Government
 
and we feel very confident about the efforts that we���re taking on. www.fema.gov.