Pacific tsunami death toll rises to 100

Towering tsunamis sparked by an early morning earthquake have devastated the
neighbouring Pacific nations of Samoa and American Samoa killing more than 100
people, including two Australians, and leaving at least 1,000 displaced.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi said he was "shocked beyond
belief" by the devastation.
Villages were wiped out, buildings were toppled, and thousands of people fled to
higher ground after the offshore quake struck, followed by giant waves which swept
cars out to sea.
"So much has gone. So many people are gone," a distressed PM Malielegaoi said of the
"unimaginable" tragedy as he flew from Auckland to the Samoan capital of Apia.
"I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss."
The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck between Samoa and American
Samoa at 6.48am on Tuesday local time (0348 Wednesday AEST) and locals said it
lasted up to three minutes.
Eyewitnesses said that over the next 20 minutes there were four giant walls of
water, between three and nine metres high, that pounded the shore, wiping out
villages and shattering holiday resorts.
One hospital in Apia said it had received 79 bodies. At least 22 were dead in
American Samoa, six were confirmed dead in Tonga and the toll was expected to rise
with many bodies yet to be retrieved.
A Tasmanian woman, horse trainer Maree Blacker, 50, was confirmed dead along with a
six-year-old girl. Six other Australians were unaccounted for, while another eight
have been injured with three of them still in hospital.
One New Zealander has been killed and nine others were injured.
Most of the 20 villages on the southern side of the main Samoan island of Upolu have
been levelled.
Malielegaoi said his own village of Lepa had been 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.
Samoa's deputy prime minister Misa Telefoni said a resort area popular with
foreigners was "devastated" by the tsunami that followed the quake and that
residents and holidaymakers had little time to flee.
"We've heard that most of the resorts are totally devastated on that side of the
island. We've had a pretty grim picture painted of all that coast," he said.
Two of the country's most popular resorts, Sinalei Reef Resort and Coconuts Beach
Resort, off the west coast of the main island of Upolu, had been hit hard.
Joe Annandale, owner of the Sinalei Resort and regional mayor of the ravaged south
coast, lost his wife Tui. Her body was found washed up in a tree after she tried to
help some children.
"I know these people well and these are not the sort of people who run away when
children are in trouble," Telefoni said.
Authorities have said that the quake was so close and so strong it would have been
impossible to warn people of the impending danger any faster.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said waves of up to 1.57 metres had smashed into
American Samoa. It issued a tsunami alert over a vast swathe of the Pacific, as far
as Hawaii, which was later cancelled.
Telefoni said local residents had only minutes to respond to the quake and the
subsequent tsunami.
"With the location and the intensity ... I don't know (if) anything better could
have been done," he told AAP.
"People were saying that there was the shake and the ocean went out within five
minutes, so that's pretty fast and that makes it extremely difficult."
Apia was evacuated as officials scrambled to get thousands of residents to higher
ground, where they remained huddled hours after the quake.
"It could take a week or so before we know the full extent," said Michael Sala,
Homeland Security director in American Samoa, about 100 kilometres from Samoa.
Witnesses said cars were swept out to sea in American Samoa, where buildings in tha
capital of Pago Pago were destroyed in what the US territory's Congress delegate
said was a scene of "devastation".
"I don't think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster," said acting American
Samoa Governor Faoa Sunia.
Sunia declared a state of emergency in American Samoa, describing "immense and
widespread damage to individual, public and commercial buildings in coastal areas"
along with death and injury.
The eastern part of the island was without power and water supplies.
In Tonga, seven people are dead and three are missing, officials say.
"According to information gathered from Niuatoputapu so far, seven people are
confirmed dead, three missing and four with very serious injuries," acting Prime
Minister Lord Tuita said in a statement.
"It is reported that the tsunami did serious damage to the village of Hihifo, which
is like the capital of the island," he added.
"The hospital on the island is reported to have suffered major damage; telephone
communications has been cut as a result of damage to equipment and facilities on the
island; homes and government buildings have been destroyed."
Government officials chartered a plane to assess the damage but were unable to land
on the island, which was reportedly pummelled by four-metre waves destroying up to
five per cent of its buildings.
Australia, New Zealand and the United States led immediate pledges of assistance to
Samoa.
Australia's parliamentary secretary for aid Bob McMullan said Canberra would lead a
joint Pacific relief response with France and New Zealand on behalf of the
international community.
"We see our friends in Samoa as part of our Pacific family and, therefore, when
natural disaster strikes, Australia has always stood ready to assist them,"
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said.
Two military aircraft were on standby in Sydney awaiting final confirmation from
Samoan authorities, while New Zealand dispatched an Orion aircraft to join the
coastal search for survivors and help assess damage to villages, roads and
infrastructure.
In Washington, US President Barack Obama issued a disaster declaration, making
federal funds available to victims in American Samoa.
Other countries in the Pacific do not appear to have been affected.
Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said the advice was that Australians in
Pacific islands such as Niue, Fiji, Noumea, New Zealand or Nauru had not been
harmed.
Neither Vanuatu, Kiribati, New Caledonia nor the Solomon Islands had reported high
waves.