Pago Pago,  American Samoa (CNN) -- When an earthquake-triggered tsunami cascaded into this tiny island in late September, the result was 34 lives lost and untold millions in property damage. But a CNN investigation to air on tonight's "AC 360" has uncovered an array of unsettling facts that point to a single conclusion: this natural disaster was in many ways a man-made tragedy.



Public records show that the Department of Homeland Security had awarded millions of federal dollars in grants for disaster preparedness here, including the construction of an island-wide siren warning system. But all the federal funding was frozen in early 2007 after DHS inspectors found that the local American Samoan government had been diverting millions of those dollars for its own uses.



Birdsall Alailima, director of American Samoa's territorial office of Homeland Security from 2003 through 2007, now lives in southern Illinois, not far from St. Louis, Missouri. He showed CNN on a map exactly where on the island the sirens were to have been placed. Thirty towers in all, he said, with 30 sirens that could have been activated by the push of a single button.



"You're saying that the systems should have been in place?" CNN correspondent Drew Griffin asked him.



"Absolutely," Alailima said.



"And people died as a result?"



"Yes."



He's not the only one who thinks so. Federal sources told CNN they believe that had the warning system been built, the death toll would likely have been lower.



In American Samoa, however, territorial Gov. Togiola Tulafono, told CNN that he knew of no viable plan for the siren system.



"There was a study, I believe, but never a plan for a system," the governor said. "I was trying to get verification of what happened to that system, but I could not get the definite information."



Alailima said he was fired by the governor when the federal funding was frozen, and that the governor was aware of the preparations.



"I'm not going to fault them for freezing the funds," Tulafono said. "These are federal funds that they have oversight responsibility for and they saw fit to freeze the funds."



The governor told CNN he had tried to correct the problem by firing his entire homeland security staff. But, he said, that failed to solve the problem.



"All I'm saying is we have tried to work with them and have tried to get partial releases (of the money), and so far that hasn't happened."



A federal official calls the governor's statement "nonsense." American Samoa would have access to the frozen funds if it had agreed to pay back even some of the money it misused, said the official. The government and the governor refused, and the tsunami siren system was stopped, according to the official.



A spokesman for the governor's office later declined comment on the nature of the negotiations.



American Samoan government officials said they purchased another warning system -- radios that would have triggered alarms across the island. But during the CNN interview, Tulafono conceded that the system "was not in place" when the tsunami struck.



CNN has learned that the FBI is now conducting an investigation into exactly what did happen to the federal preparedness dollars sent to American Samoa. It was launched, sources tell CNN, by the Interior Department as its Insular Affairs office has federal administrative responsibility for the island.



The FBI investigation is only the latest and most recent attempt by the federal government to try to track what one federal official told CNN was "endemic" corruption on the island.



Here are only a few instances of the alleged corruption:



• Both the current Samoan lieutenant governor and a former state senator are under federal indictment on allegations of fraud, bribery and conspiracy. A trial is pending in Washington because there are no federal courts on the island. Attorneys for both men have refuted the indictment in court filings and say their clients are innocent of all the charges.



• An inspector general's report by
what were the funds used for When is the investigation supposed to air? When are the results of the special investigation announced? What region did the storm hit? What number of people died in the tsunami? how many people died How many people died in last month's tsunami?
its own uses. tonight's "AC 360" on tonight's "AC 360" American Samoa 34 34 34
question: what were the funds used for, answer: its own uses. | question: When is the investigation supposed to air?, answer: tonight's "AC 360" | question: When are the results of the special investigation announced?, answer: on tonight's "AC 360" | question: What region did the storm hit?, answer: American Samoa | question: What number of people died in the tsunami?, answer: 34 | question: how many people died, answer: 34 | question: How many people died in last month's tsunami?, answer: 34