In February of 2010, Tropical Cyclone Rene brushed past American Samoa in the South Pacific. The storm came closest to the U.S. territory on February 13.
The night before, a baby girl was born at American Samoa’s LBJ Tropical Medical Center.
The hospital’s emergency team had been camping at the hospital in preparation for the cyclone that night.
The head of the delivery department, Dr. John Ah Ching, says the mother came in with complications and having all the necessary staff present may have saved the baby’s life.
I don’t know the baby’s full name, but she was “named after Cyclone Rene,” according to my source.
P.S. The Lyndon Baines Johnson (LBJ) Tropical Medical Center, which was named after the first and only U.S. president to visit American Samoa, opened in June of 1968. “The first admitted patient was a baby about to be delivered. He received the name Lyndon.”
Sources:
- “American Samoa baby born the night of the storm is named after Cyclone Rene.” Radio New Zealand 18 Feb. 2010.
- List of United States hurricanes – Wikipedia
- LBJ Tropical Medical Center
- American Samoa – Wikipedia
Image: Adapted from Hurricane Elena by NASA (public domain)
