Pacific Tsunami Hit Samoa

Pacific tsunami death toll rises to 100

by Tamara McLean, AAP

September 30, 2009

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi is "shocked beyond belief" by the devastation to his Pacific nation from a giant tsunami.

The towering waves sparked by an early morning earthquake swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa, flooding and flattening villages, killing about 100 people including one Australian, with more than 1,000 displaced.

Looking shaken and distressed Malielegaoi described it as an "unimaginable" tragedy.

"So much has gone. So many people are gone," the Prime Minister said on board a flight from Auckland to the Samoan capital of Apia.

The 8.3 magnitude quake struck between Samoa and American Samoa at 6.48am on Tuesday (3.48am Wednesday AEST).

A Tasmanian woman has been reported dead with six other Australians missing and three in hospital.

One New Zealander is also dead, with the death tolls of both countries expected to rise.

Early reports suggest most of the 20 villages on the southern side of the main island, Upolu, had been levelled by the waves.

A new hospital in the village of Poutasi has been flattened, forcing the injured to make the one hour journey to Apia hospital.

Malielegaoi said his own village of Lepa was decimated.

"Thankfully the alarm sounded on the radio and gave people time to climb to higher ground," he said.

"But not everyone escaped."

Two sick children who were en route to hospital for flu treatment were swept away in floodwaters.

"Their car was just taken away," the Prime Minister said.

Deputy Samoan PM Misa Telefoni said Joe Annandale, owner of the popular Sinalei Resort and regional mayor of the ravaged south coast, had been critically injured.

Annandale also lost his wife Tui, one of Samoa's richest women, who was believed to have been killed while trying to save children in the village of Poutasi.

Her body was found washed up in a tree.

"I know these people well and these are not the sort of people who run away when children are in trouble," Telefoni said.

The village where the resort was based, Fiumu, was flattened as was the neighbouring Maninoa, home to the destroyed Coconuts Resort - a regular haunt for Australian tourists.

New Zealand tourist Graeme Ansell said the beach village of Faofao on Upolu Island was levelled.

"It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out," Ansell told National Radio from a hill near Samoa's capital, Apia.

"There's not a building standing. We've all clambered up hills, and one of our party has a broken leg. There will be people in a great lot of need 'round here."

New Zealand's acting Prime Minister Bill English said one New Zealander had died in Samoa.

"We have one reliable but as yet unconfirmed report of a New Zealand death," Acting Prime Minister Bill English told a press conference on Wednesday.

"The informed judgment we are getting is there are likely to be more New Zealand fatalities."

Early reports from American Samoa put the death toll at 22.

But the death toll was likely to increase, Michael Sala, Homeland Security director in American Samoa, told AFP.

"It could take a week or so before we know the full extent."

Sala said it was the wall of water, which he estimated at 7.5 metres high, which did most of the damage as it swept ashore about 20 minutes after the earthquake, demolishing buildings in coastal areas.

Mase Akapo, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service, said the deaths occurred in four different villages on the main island of Tutuila, with six in the western area of Leone.

American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono said at least 50 people were injured.

There were also reports of thousands of people left homeless in American Samoa.

Deaths have also been reported in Tonga.

Six people are dead and four people are missing, a government official says.

New Zealand Foreign Minister Murray McCully said the northern tip of Tonga had been impacted by the tsunami.

He said there were reports of five deaths on the northern island of Tonga.

"There are, obviously, concerns about other casualties there and until we are able to get more information from there I can't go further than that."

Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) said it was aware of reports of damage, death and injuries in the Niua islands in Tonga.

Other countries in the Pacific do not appear to have been affected, at this stage.

Australia, New Zealand and the United States are scrambling resources to help Samoa.

US President Barack Obama declared a major disaster in American Samoa, sending federal aid to help recovery efforts in the US territory.

The earthquake triggered a tsunami warning for the South Pacific region, from American Samoa to New Zealand, although Australia was excluded. That warning was later cancelled.

A few hours after the tsunami, warning sirens again blasted across Samoa but the latest alert was a false alarm, local news reporters said.

"According the met office, no official warning was issued, so the sirens were a false alarm," said Keni Lesa of the Samoa Observer.

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