Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — As American Samoa on Friday, Apr. 17th was celebrating its 120 year relationship with the United States, US Vice President Mike Pence announced in Washington D.C. — more than 7,000 miles away from Pago Pago, that US President Donald Trump has approved a major disaster declaration for American Samoa.

Pence, who is chairman of the federal government’s COVID-19 Task Force, gave the information during a national news coronavirus update.  Pence said that with American Samoa’s disaster declaration, “now all 50 states and all territories are under major disaster declarations for the first time in American history.”

Gov. Lolo Matalasi Moliga in a letter to Trump on Monday this week, requested the federal declaration for American Samoa, which the governor acknowledged has no COVID-19 cases.

However, the governor said American Samoa needs additional federal financial resources to address the deadly coronavirus, which has “hemorrhaged our local revenues”. (Samoa News will report on Monday, Apr. 20th on details of the governor’s request for the presidential declaration.)

By Friday afternoon, the governor announced in a news release that he “received wonderful news” from Region IX FEMA Administrator Robert Fenton about Trump’s approval of American Samoa’s Major Disaster Declaration request “based on the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic triggering severe economic fallout.”

Lolo said that Fenton called him personally to announced the President’s decision and that “the timing of this awesome news is impeccable” given that on Friday, Apr. 17th, American Samoa was “celebrating this significant and transformative event in its history when the partnership evolving  and emanating out of friendship and mutual understanding was consummated.”

President Trump’s action is “symbolic of the United States unwavering commitment to stay faithful to its promises and pledges to protect and to improve the lives of Americans residing in the U.S. Territory of American Samoa,” the governor said.

Lolo expressed “gratefulness and profound gratitude” to Trump and Pence “for their bold and audacious leadership during these unprecedented and darkest times in our Nation’s history.”

“The people of the Territory of American Samoa are grateful and are beholden to the federal government for its critically needed intervention and support to buttress and embolden our actions targeting the stop of the spread and eventual eradication of this deadly disease” he said.

Lolo is also thankful and appreciative of the assistance received from the US Department of Interior, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the White House “relative to their extension of help and guidance in navigating the significant amount of financial aid which is being made available to States and Territories to energize our battles against the COVID-19 pandemic.”

As flags were raised Apr. 17th, to mark the 120 year relation with the US, “we were accorded the privilege and the honor to be called Americans, we raised with them our hopes, our gratitude, and our gratefulness, along with our collective prayers beseeching God to look, with mercy and love, over the people of the United States and to bring an end to this deadly coronavirus disease,” he concluded.

Congresswoman Aumua Amata also issued a news release Friday afternoon thanking Trump and everyone at FEMA “for their quick declaration of the major disaster in American Samoa” as requested by the governor and she has supported in comments to Fenton.

“We are blessed and pray for our islands’ continued safety, but it’s important to know the full weight of U.S. federal support is behind us,” she said.”It’s a symbolic coincidence that this strong statement of federal support came to us on our 120th Flag Day.”

As witnessed following Tropical Storm Gita, “I am confident the [federal] Administration will continue its support of American Samoa in this pandemic and it’s ongoing economic disruption,” she said and congratulated the governor, “as our people will be strengthened by this additional FEMA support.”