Her father, the family's high chief, must now fly to an oceanside village to help rebuild, she said Sunday. Younger members of her Samoan Seventh-day Adventist Church, meantime, are ready to volunteer to aid relatives 5,000 miles away.
"Some of our youth members have signed up on the Red Cross list to see if they need help overseas," Fanene said. "We're ready to just drop whatever we're doing and go help out."
It's been a week of agonizing phone calls and prayer for many in Alaska's Samoan community, with the estimated death toll from Tuesday's earthquake and tsunami approaching 200 people.
Thousands of Pacific Islanders came to Anchorage in the 1990s from Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga and other states -- building a bridge of family connections between the Alaska city and island villages. A prayer service Friday night drew 20 pastors and as many as 200 people, said Pastor Matauaina "Moe" Tali of the Revival Assembly of God.
"Somehow, some way, you're either related to somebody or you know somebody that lost a life," he said.
Several aid efforts are under way. Former NFL player and East High star athlete Mao Tosi organized a fundraiser Saturday at Northway Mall that collected nearly $5,300 in four hours to aid Red Cross relief efforts, Tosi said.
'SWEPT OUT INTO THE OCEAN'
People need shelter, food and water, said Elisapeta Tagaloa, who lives in American Samoa but has been visiting her son in Anchorage. She plans to return to the village of Taputimu on Friday.
Her daughter safely escaped in a Toyota pickup to higher ground, but other relatives in the islands weren't as lucky.
"I lost some cousins. Some relatives. I know my dad's huge, big family in Lalomanu, they got swept out into the ocean. Not knowing how many of them survived," she said.
The First Samoan Body of Christ church planned to raise money for tsunami victims through a Christian music performance and bake sale Sunday night. The church is housed in a red, industrial office space along Arctic Boulevard.
At the Sunday service, about 70 people filled metal folding chairs as live snare and bass drums punched the air and the pastor invited members to the front of the room to worship.
For days, church members here and across Anchorage have placed worried calls to family in the Samoan islands.
Lisa Sooalo, who recently moved to Anchorage from California, said her mother lives in the village of Nu'uuli, along with her 13-year-old cousin. When the waves hit, a school bus driver drove kids to higher ground in the mountains, Sooalo said.
Rescuers eventually found her cousin in a tree and took him to safety by helicopter. He was in a coma until the next morning, she said. A ceiling fan fell on her mother's leg, Sooalo said. The hospitals are too crowded to go for help.
REPORTS TRICKLED IN
Val Tuiolemotu stood on the church stairs, her 4-year-old daughter at her waist, while someone strummed a guitar and Sunday school hymns began. Tuiolemotu moved to Anchorage 10 years ago.
Her two oldest children live with Tuiolemotu's parents in the American Samoa village of Malaeloa, near the front lines of the tsunami, she said.
Tuiolemotu was at the Career Academy -- she's training to be a medical assistant -- when news of the tsunami broke.
"I got several text messages that I totally ignored. They were talking about 8.0 earthquake, and I though it a hoax because it was so large," she said.
During a break she learned it was true. Though early reports only hinted at the destruction, the underwater quake would eventually kill at least 176 people in Samoa, American Samoa and Tonga.
Within minutes, Tuiolemotu and five other Samoans left the academy. Mothers picked up their kids from school.
"When something that devastating happens in the islands -- hurricanes, natural disasters, we tend to pull together in prayer," she said.
The Associated Press contributed to this report. Call Kyle Hopkins at 257-4334 or e-mail khopkins@adn.com.
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