LOCAL MAN REPORTS 'NIGHTMARE' IN SAMOA

October 1, 2009 12:35 am

Benjamin Harding, 27, of Mount Holly served two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa and now works for the organization in Apia, the capital of that country. Here's an e-mail he sent after the tsunami struck the island nation:

"For me, all it was was a big earthquake this morning. I didn't even realize until a few hours ago that it was such a bad tsunami. All of the Peace Corps [volunteers] are fine. Some villages are destroyed. We've confirmed 35 dead, but it could be in the hundreds. A volunteer just got here and said a lot of people are dead in some areas. This is turning in to a nightmare. The south coast of Upolu is destroyed."

For more on the situation in Samoa, A5.