The death toll from a massive South Pacific earthquake and tsunami has risen to at least 36 and is expected to rise significantly, officials said.
There were 22 confirmed dead in American Samoa and 14 in Samoa with unconfirmed reports of scores more missing feared dead following the 8.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
"We have 22 confirmed dead and it could go much higher," Michael Sala, Homeland Security director in American Samoa, told AFP."It could take a week or so before we know the full extent."The eastern part of American Samoa was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which struck at 6:48 am (1748 GMT).
Sala said it was the wall of water, which he estimated at 25-feet (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.
Red Cross officials in Samoa put the initial death toll at 14 but said it would probably rise as communications were re-established with outlying areas where villages were flattened by the tsunami.
Meanwhile, Samoa deputy prime minister Misa Telefoni told Australian Associated Press that a Samoan resort area popular with foreign tourists was "devastated" by the tsunami that ripped through the Pacific island nation.
Telefoni said residents and visitors had little time to brace for the disastrous waves.
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 by the tsunami.
"We've heard that most of the resorts are totally devastated on that side of the island," he said. "We've had a pretty grim picture painted of all that coast," he added.
Telefoni said his cousin Joe Annandale, the owner of the upmarket Sinalei resort, was in a critical condition and that Annandale's wife Tui had drowned. "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," he said.
In an earlier Associated Press report, the powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake spawned towering tsunami waves that swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa early Tuesday, flattening villages, killing dozens of people and leaving several workers missing at devastated National Park Service facilities.
Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later. Signs of devastation were everywhere, with a giant boat getting washed ashore and coming to rest on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.
The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn about 20 miles (32 kilometers) below the ocean floor, 120 miles (190 kilometers) from American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.Hampered by power and communications outages, officials hours later struggled to assess the damage and casualties.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of about 20 victims in a hospital at Lalomanu town on the south coast of the main island of Upolu, and said the surrounding tourist coast had been devastated. At least three villages were flattened.
An unspecified number of fatalities and injuries were reported in the Samoan village of Talamoa.
American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono said at least 50 were injured, in addition to the deaths.
Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) high roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) inland. Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, California, said Reynolds spoke to officials from under a coconut tree uphill from Pago Pago Harbor and reported that the park's visitor center and offices appeared to have been destroyed.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a general alert from American Samoa to New Zealand; Tonga suffered some coastal damage from 13-foot (4-meter) waves.
New Zealander Graeme Ansell said the beach village of Sau Sau Beach Fale was leveled. ''It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out,'' Ansell told New Zealand's 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.''
The Samoan capital was virtually deserted with schools and businesses closed.
There were 22 confirmed dead in American Samoa and 14 in Samoa with unconfirmed reports of scores more missing feared dead following the 8.0 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.
"We have 22 confirmed dead and it could go much higher," Michael Sala, Homeland Security director in American Samoa, told AFP."It could take a week or so before we know the full extent."The eastern part of American Samoa was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which struck at 6:48 am (1748 GMT).
Sala said it was the wall of water, which he estimated at 25-feet (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.
Red Cross officials in Samoa put the initial death toll at 14 but said it would probably rise as communications were re-established with outlying areas where villages were flattened by the tsunami.
Meanwhile, Samoa deputy prime minister Misa Telefoni told Australian Associated Press that a Samoan resort area popular with foreign tourists was "devastated" by the tsunami that ripped through the Pacific island nation.
Telefoni said residents and visitors had little time to brace for the disastrous waves.
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 by the tsunami.
"We've heard that most of the resorts are totally devastated on that side of the island," he said. "We've had a pretty grim picture painted of all that coast," he added.
Telefoni said his cousin Joe Annandale, the owner of the upmarket Sinalei resort, was in a critical condition and that Annandale's wife Tui had drowned. "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," he said.
In an earlier Associated Press report, the powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake spawned towering tsunami waves that swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa early Tuesday, flattening villages, killing dozens of people and leaving several workers missing at devastated National Park Service facilities.
Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later. Signs of devastation were everywhere, with a giant boat getting washed ashore and coming to rest on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.
The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn about 20 miles (32 kilometers) below the ocean floor, 120 miles (190 kilometers) from American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.Hampered by power and communications outages, officials hours later struggled to assess the damage and casualties.
An Associated Press reporter saw the bodies of about 20 victims in a hospital at Lalomanu town on the south coast of the main island of Upolu, and said the surrounding tourist coast had been devastated. At least three villages were flattened.
An unspecified number of fatalities and injuries were reported in the Samoan village of Talamoa.
American Samoa Gov. Togiola Tulafono said at least 50 were injured, in addition to the deaths.
Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4.5 to 6 meters) high roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile (1.6 kilometers) inland. Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, California, said Reynolds spoke to officials from under a coconut tree uphill from Pago Pago Harbor and reported that the park's visitor center and offices appeared to have been destroyed.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a general alert from American Samoa to New Zealand; Tonga suffered some coastal damage from 13-foot (4-meter) waves.
New Zealander Graeme Ansell said the beach village of Sau Sau Beach Fale was leveled. ''It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out,'' Ansell told New Zealand's 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.''
The Samoan capital was virtually deserted with schools and businesses closed.
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