Samoan baby gets renamed 'Tsunami' after quake escape

A male relative caring for the newborn lifted him above his head and ran for higher ground just as a wall of water hit his house in the village of Saleapaga on the southern coast on Tuesday, Australian Associated Press reported.

The man waded through surging waters and floating debris to bring the child safely to his parents Fineaso and Terri Agaalenuu.

“My uncle survived and so did our little baby,” father Fineaso said Friday.

“We were so relieved, so happy, we cried.

“We thought it was a miracle, because so many little babies didn't make it.”

The child had at first been named Narineaso but his parents decided to rename him following his lucky escape.

“So we called him Tsunami. It's a name our people can never forget,” Fineaso said.

Samoan disaster officials fear as many as 150 people, many of them children, may have died in a massive tsunami that pounded the Pacific nation and also caused deaths in American Samoa and Tonga.

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