A GALWAY couple who moved to Samoa just over a month ago have volunteered for the rescue effort now under way on the south Pacific islands. John Clancy and Madeleine Rabbitt, a telecommunications expert and a nurse respectively, described “chaos” and “widespread devastation” on the southern part of the main island, Upolu, in the wake of yesterday’s tsunami.
Mr Clancy, who is from Oranmore, Co Galway, works for Digicel Pacific, which is linked to the Digicel Group owned by businessman Denis O’Brien.
Mr Clancy said that he learned of the tsunami alert shortly after he arrived at his office. The couple live in the capital, Apia, on Upolu, and said that this northern area was relatively unaffected by the earthquake and subsequent series of tsunamis.
“I had just arrived at work and myself and a couple of guys travelled to the south side in jeeps with food and water, but we didn’t anticipate the devastation that we witnessed when we got there,” Mr Clancy told Galway Bay FM Radio.