Samoan Disaster

A broadcast e-mail from the Commissioner of Social Security:

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: American Samoa

Yesterday’s tsunami in the South Pacific severely damaged our field office in Pago Pago, American Samoa. As you can imagine, it is extremely difficult to communicate with anyone on the island, and we have very little information.

So far, we have been able to confirm that one of our four employees on the island is safe. We are optimistic about the condition of the other three, and we are doing everything we can to reach them as well.

Please keep our American Samoan employees, and all the people they serve, in your thoughts and prayers. I will update you as soon as I can.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner

And a second broadcast e-mail:

A Message To All SSA And DDS Employees

Subject: American Samoa Update

As promised, I have an update on the situation in American Samoa. We very recently added a fifth employee to the office, and we have confirmed that a second employee is safe, so we are still waiting for good news from the other three employees.

Michael J. Astrue

Commissioner