Governor Lemanu Peleti Mauga used his remarks at the opening of the Amerika Samoa 3rd Annual Summit on Disaster Resilience, yesterday, to remind federal officials of American Samoa’s request in reviewing disaster related requests from the territory.
These are to: 
- Differentiate American Samoa from the benchmarks for disaster emergency declaration for the states.
- Designate Samoan guesthouses as family homes.
- Categorize reefs as infrastructure.
- Building and maintaining seawalls and mountain roads.
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Stressing his point that American Samoa cannot be subjected to the same benchmarks for disaster declarations as in the mainland United States, Lemanu said that if it rains nonstop here for two days it is a disaster, because of flooding which impact roads, utilities, and people.
Fiji’s Ambassador to Pacific Island Countries & Territories Ratu William Toganivalu, who delivered the keynote address, said cultural and traditional knowledge should be combined with modern knowhow and technologies to meet challenges created by disasters.
He said this is the approach they are using in Fiji…
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Congresswoman Uifa’atali Amata offered her support by encouraging the focus of the summit to submit any requests to the Federal level through her office. She said, “Whatever is needed from the Federal level let me know. If you hear legislation that sounds good, through counterparts from other states or counterparts please contact our office. We are happy to examine it and if it is good for our islands and it is responsible for bipartisan legislation, we will be delighted to support it.”
