Joey Cummings works for the radio station 93KHJ in Pago Pago, American Samoa. He was presenting the morning show Samoan Sunrise when the first tsunami wave hit.
The tsunami hit the harbour, and people fled to the hills. My colleague John Raynar called in sick this morning, and I'm so glad he did because otherwise I would have been on the road to work when it hit.
I was sitting in for him on the morning radio show on 93KHJ when the earthquake hit, at about 7:50am. It lasted several minutes.
We immediately sent out an earthquake warning on air, to tell everyone to stay away from possible landslide areas. We also asked schools to initiate their tsunami plans to get kids up the mountains.
We sent a tsunami warning 10 minutes later as we saw the first rising water.
Our building, Pago Plaza, is located in the middle of the harbour, practically at sea level.
We stayed on the air as the water reached three or four feet in the parking lot.
The water stayed at that level for a few minutes, but then it surged to around 15 feet.
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