Cyclone Evan 2012 Samoa Post-Disaster Needs Assessment

Cyclone Evan hit Samoa in December 2012 and caused immense damage and significant losses. The value of durable physical assets across all economic and social sectors destroyed by Evan is estimated at SAT 235.7 million, equivalent to US$103.3 million. In addition, production losses and higher production costs arising from the disaster across all sectors are estimated at SAT 229.4 million, or US$100.6 million. The total effects of the disaster amount to SAT 465 million, or US$203.9 million. The total estimated damage and loss are equivalent to about 28 percent of the total value of goods and services produced in the country in 2011. The estimated value of destroyed physical assets represents 109 percent of the normal value of construction activities in Samoa, which were estimated to take between two and three years to recover and reconstruct.

The cost of overcoming the negative impacts of Cyclone Evan were estimated at SAT 470 million, equivalent to US$206 million, which includes the amounts needed to achieve socioeconomic recovery, to rebuild destroyed assets using disaster-resilient standards, and to implement disaster risk reduction schemes.