American Samoa natural disasters

The territory's storm and disaster record · population 49,727 · 5 counties and county equivalents

NOAA's Storm Events Database records 634 storm events in American Samoa since 1950, 634 of them since 1996 when every event type began to be recorded. The most frequent records are floods and flash floods (180). In NOAA's storm record since 1950, the deadliest event in American Samoa is the September 29, 2009 tsunami in Manu'a District: 32 deaths, 148 injuries and $111 million in damage in 2025 dollars. FEMA has made 17 declarations for American Samoa since 1966, 15 for natural hazards; 15 were major disasters.

The record, 1950 to 2026

Storm events recorded in American Samoa each year (2026 to June 30, 2026). Before 1996 NOAA recorded only tornadoes (from 1950), thunderstorm wind and hail (from 1955).

recorded, no damage figure
under $1 million
$1 million or more
$10 million or more
$100 million or more, or 10 deaths
$1 billion or more, or 100 deaths
a year's colour: its recorded damage or deaths
a year with a death
1955: wind and hail recorded from 1955
1996: all 48 event types from 1996

Storm events recorded: 6341950 to June 30, 2026
Deaths recorded: 57190 injuries
Damage, 2025 dollars: $409Mas filed (scale steps before 1993)
FEMA declarations: 1715 major disasters

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records through June 30, 2026 (file revision 20260918); tornado count: NOAA Storm Prediction Center, 1950-2025; damage in 2025 dollars (BLS CPI-U). Search the record at NCEI.

What natural disasters happen in American Samoa?

By NOAA's records, American Samoa's most frequent hazards are floods and flash floods (180), rip current and surf records (172), heavy rain records (126); the deadliest are rip current and surf records (51 deaths). Each hazard is counted over the years NOAA has recorded it everywhere: tornadoes since 1950, hail and thunderstorm wind since 1955, everything else since 1996. Open a hazard for its years, months, counties and worst events.

American Samoa: records by hazard to June 30, 2026
Hazard	Records	Last 10 years	Killed	Injured	Damage	Counties
Floods	180	105	5	9	$108M	2 of 5
Rip currents and high surf	172	44	51	159	$119M	5 of 5
Heavy rain	126	67	0	0	$2.1M	0 of 5
High wind and dust storms	83	53	0	0	$11M	5 of 5
Hurricanes and tropical storms	28	1	0	20	$167M	5 of 5
Drought	17	1	0	0	$48K	5 of 5
Severe thunderstorm wind	11	11	0	0	$555K	0 of 5
Lightning	8	4	1	2	$280K	0 of 5
Heat	4	3	0	0	–	1 of 5
Landslides and avalanches	3	0	0	0	$111K	2 of 5
Fog, smoke and funnel clouds	2	1	0	0	–	0 of 5

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: every record counted once in the state; "last 10 years" is 2017-2026 (2026 to June 30, 2026).

What were the deadliest disasters in American Samoa?

The storms with the most deaths since 1950, from the National Weather Service's own entries. NOAA files one storm as several records when it crosses forecast zones and counties or changes type, and groups them under one episode; each row here is an episode, with its totals and the narrative of its deadliest record. Before 1996 tornado records carry no episode and stand alone. The narrative says what happened: some deaths the National Weather Service files under a weather type had another cause beside the weather.

American Samoa: the 10 storm episodes with the most deaths
Date	Record	Killed	Injured	Damage
2009-09-29	TsunamiManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila A 7.9 earthquake occurred about 120 miles southwest of Pago Pago and it shook the entire Samoan and Tongan region. The earthquake occurred around 648 am Samoan local time, and it took within 15 minutes for the tsunami waves to reach the Samoan Islands.	32	148	$111M
2003-05-19	Flash FloodCountywide A flash flood occurred across Tutuila from Nuuuli Uta to Pago Pago many communities near mountains and valleys. The main stream in Pago Pago rapidly overflow and flooded many homes and businesses along the stream and all of lower Pago Pago. A major landslide buried and killed 3 young men from the age of 18 to 23 years ...	4	6	$82M
2007-02-17	Rip CurrentManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila After 10:00 am Sunday 18 February 2007, 2 bodies were found and 1 lost at sea along the mouth of Aoa village harbor which lies to the north to northeast of Tutuila Island of American Samoa. The youngest of the deceased was seen alive Saturday afternoon as he was yelling for help in the ocean while swimming. 2 ...	3	0	–
2020-09-28	Rip CurrentManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila NWS Employee from the village of Amouli and friend of one of the fishermen who lost his life reported the tragic event. Strong rip currents swept two fishermen at the edge of the reef when surfs were transitioning from high to low tide.	2	0	–
2020-06-15	High SurfManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila Observations from the PacIOOS buoy reported surfs over 16 feet with steep wave heights near 12 to 15 feet. This combination along with strong winds caused a small craft to capsize near the auasi port of entry. 15 passengers were onboard and had drifted to sea for nearly 2 hours until help was found. Unfortunately 2 ...	2	0	$23K
2019-12-24	High SurfManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila One storm episode: 2 records, 2019-12-24 to 2019-12-25; the totals are the episode's. Wind generated waves associated with an active trough and thunderstorms in the vicinity, have caused seas to reach 10 to 14 feet throughout this period. Two fatalities in the north west and north east shores were reported within a few days apart; both were veteran fishermen.	2	0	–
2019-08-17	High SurfManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila News from the talanei reported two boys swept out to sea during high surf conditions due to strong rip currents.	2	0	–
2025-07-26	Flash FloodPago Pago One storm episode: 11 records; the totals are the episode's. An extreme rainfall event occurred over American Samoa from July 23rd to 27th, as a trough over the islands converged with a strong ridge from the south. The system dropped 13.62 inches of rain at WSO Pago Pago during this time, including 3.6 inches from 2:50 AM to 6:50 AM on July 26th. This weather event triggered ...	1	3	$400K
2011-06-01	Rip CurrentManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila On a late Saturday afternoon 4th of June, an incident occurred at the village of Amouli. Two young teenage girls were swimming close to the beach and were dragged out to the deep sea due to strong rip currents. One girl was rescued with minor injuries while the other girl’s body was never found. Rescue Team ended ...	1	1	–
2025-08-12	High SurfManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila According to KHJ News, a 15-year-old boy died on the afternoon of the 12th after being swept away by high surf while swimming at the Leala Sliding Rocks shoreline on Tutuila island, near the villages of Vailoatai and Taputimu.	1	1	–

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: deaths direct and indirect, as filed in this state, summed over the records of each episode (EPISODE_ID); a forecast-zone record counts the zone's deaths once. A tornado's whole-track deaths (SPC), on the state's tornado page, can be higher when the track crossed a state line. Storm names from the titles of FEMA declarations that name the storm's counties.

The costliest records in American Samoa

American Samoa: the 8 records with the most damage since 1993, 2025 dollars
Date	Record	Killed	Injured	Damage
2009-09-29	TsunamiManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila	32	148	$111M
2003-05-19	Flash FloodCountywide	4	6	$82M
2004-01-04	Hurricane (Typhoon)Manu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila	0	20	$78M
2018-02-09	Tropical StormManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila	0	0	$61M
2015-11-27	Flash FloodPago Pago	0	0	$16M
2005-02-14	Hurricane (Typhoon)Swains Island · forecast zone Manu'a	0	0	$15M
2015-11-27	Tropical StormManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila	0	0	$12M
2003-05-17	High SurfManu'a District · forecast zone Tutuila	0	0	$5.6M

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database: property and crop damage as estimated by the National Weather Service, converted to 2025 dollars with the BLS CPI-U. BLS consumer price index.

Which counties in American Samoa have the most records?

Source: NOAA NCEI Storm Events Database, records since 1950 attributed to each county (forecast-zone records count on every county the zone covers).

Every county in American Samoa

Federal disaster declarations in American Samoa

FEMA has made 17 declarations for American Samoa since 1966: 15 major disasters, 2 emergencies and 0 fire management assistance declarations. The most common incident types are hurricane (5), typhoon (4), severe storm (3).

1960s 1
1970s 2
1980s 2
1990s 2
2000s 4
2010s 3
2020s 3

The 15 most recent declarations in American Samoa
Declared	Number	Type	Title	Areas named
2022-09-15	DR-4669	Severe Storm	High Surf, High Winds, and Flooding	1
2020-04-17	DR-4537	Biological	Covid-19 Pandemic	5
2020-03-13	EM-3465	Biological	Covid-19	5
2018-03-02	DR-4357	Hurricane	Tropical Storm Gita	5
2018-02-11	EM-3397	Hurricane	Tropical Storm Gita	5
2014-09-10	DR-4192	Severe Storm	Severe Storms, Flooding, and Landslides	5
2009-09-29	DR-1859	Earthquake	Earthquake,Tsunami, and Flooding	5
2005-02-18	DR-1582	Typhoon	Tc Olaf, Includ. High Winds and Surf and Heavy Rainfall	5
2004-01-13	DR-1506	Typhoon	High Winds, High Surf, and Heavy Rainfall Associated With Tropcial Cyclone Heta	3
2003-06-06	DR-1473	Severe Storm	Heavy Rainfall, Flooding, Landslides, and Mudslides	2
1991-12-13	DR-927	Hurricane	Hurricane Val	5
1990-02-09	DR-855	Hurricane	Hurricane Ofa	5
1987-01-24	DR-785	Hurricane	Hurricane Tusi	5
1981-03-24	DR-637	Typhoon	Typhoon Esau	5
1979-11-09	DR-610	Flood	Flooding, Mudslides & Landslides	5

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA Disaster Declarations Summaries (v2), through October 2, 2026. OpenFEMA dataset page.

Flood insurance claims in American Samoa

The National Flood Insurance Program has paid $4,743 on 8 claims in 1 American Samoa county. Claims count insured losses only.

Source: FEMA OpenFEMA NFIP Redacted Claims, as of September 8, 2026. OpenFEMA dataset page.