Callers are flooding the American Samoa government office in Honolulu for information about today’s earthquake, but the office has little information to provide, said administrative assistant Lila Livingston.

“A lot of people from the Samoan community are calling,” Livingston said. “We’re asking them to be patient.”
Gus Hannemann, the brother of Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, said, “We can’t seem to get through to Samoa. The phone rings and rings and rings and then it says the lines are busy.”
Hannemann has called office, home and cell phones in American Samoa trying to reach cousins and aunties, government offices and the local newspaper — all with the same result.
Mayor Hannemann was named after his great grandfather, a chief who was one of the signatories of the deed of cessation that created the territory of American Samoa.
The Hannemanns' mother is buried in American Samoa near the ocean, Gus said.
“We are still very much entrenched down there and we’re very much concerned,” Gus said. “ ... American Samoa is 2 or 3 feet above sea level. Down there it’s the ocean, the roads and the villages.”