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Five days since the water hit, the search for bodies continues.
Silt has turned to dust in the hot air, the salt water poisoning the ground, the land itself tinder dry and dying.
In Saleapaga, eight people have been found, eight others are still missing.
A team of 30 police
comb the rubble and rotting vegetation, stabbing at the ground with sticks to strike buried bodies. Every piece of debris is overturned, in case a friend or family member is concealed.
Suddenly, there is a shout. Someone has been found lodged under a fallen tree.
Fanned out over a hundred metres, the searchers walk in slowly and circle around the discovery.
It is a child. Machetes hack at twisted branches to free the young girl, before she is rolled into a white body bag. Four men carry the stretcher to a waiting ute, where she is gently rolled on to the deck. Afoa Fuiavailiili approaches the body and the bag is opened.
He confirms it is his granddaughter Precious Christina Aiotoafiu, 6, who died with her mother.
The village elder touches her outstretched arm, utters a blessing over her body, and thanks the searchers.
There are seven more bodies to find and searchers say they will stay until they are found.
Another of the missing becomes one of the dead.
The decaying body of a tourist who may have been catching some early waves before breakfast, is discovered on the waterfront next to a surfboard several metres underneath rubble.
The man is wearing just swimming shorts when local Electric Power Company workers in fluorescent vests digging through the wreckage in the village of Saleapaga spot his legs.
A digger removes plants, rocks and wood off from the rest of the body and at least 30 locals, wearing face masks, gather to look.
Villagers then lay at least 20 cloths or pieces of clothing - some from a navy suitcase also in the rubble - over the corpse.
Local police have been informed and minutes later they pulled up in a 4WD. The body is rolled on to a stretcher and loaded into the tray of the ute, a fraction of it hanging off the back.
The locals do not scream, cry or gasp - it's just another body to add to the growing list they've already found.
Policemen throw up outside the hospital in Lalomanu.
The body is taken to the island's main hospital in Apia, Motootua, for formal identification at the morgue.
How you can help
Pacific Cooperation Foundation
Deposits can be made at at any Westpac branch. All the money raised will go to the Samoan Government
Red Cross
- Make a secure online donation at redcross.org.nz
- Send cheques to the Samoan Red Cross Fund, PO Box 12140, Thorndon, Wellington 6144
- Call 0900 31 100 to make an automatic $20 donation
- Make a donation at any NZ Red Cross office
ANZ bank
Make a donation at any ANZ bank branch, or donate directly to the ANZ appeal account: 01 1839 0143546 00
Oxfam
- Make a secure online donation at
Oxfam.org.nz
- Phone 0800 400 666 or make an automatic $20 donation by calling 0900 600 20
