FBI Video Shows Power Of Tsunami Hitting American Samoa

The way a tsunami wave can toss heavy objects about and carry victims out to sea is readily apparent in this Federal Bureau of Investigation video the bureau has released of the Sept. 29, 2009 earthquake-induced wave that struck American Samoa and other South Pacific islands.

The video was recorded by the FBI's office in Pago Pago which is on the second floor of the building.

You can see three people walking across the parking lot. The first two walk out of the bottom of the video frame. A third person walks in the same direction as the first two, then stops and walks back towards the direction of the ocean. The person stops, apparently scanning the ocean, then turns and runs in the other direction after spotting the incoming tsunami wave. The questions that haunt the viewer are what became of these people? Did they survive?

From an FBI press release:

Charlene Thornton, Special Agent-in-Charge of the Honolulu office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), announced the release of dramatic footage of the September 29, 2009 American Samoa Tsunami striking the parking lot of the building housing the FBI office in American Samoa...

... The video was taken from a stationary security camera at the FBI Resident Agency office on the second floor of Pago Plaza in the American Samoa Village of Pago Pago. Note that the time-stamp on the video is Hawaiian Standard Time, and local time in American Samoa is one hour earlier.

Because of its second floor location, the FBI office in American Samoa suffered only minimal damage, and the FBI continues to perform its law enforcement functions...

The known death toll is at least 183 people killed -- 142 on Samoa, 32 people on American Samoa and nine on Tonga.