Tsunami death toll reaches 150 in Samoa

SAMOANS searched flattened homes and debris-filled swamps, while dazed survivors told of being trapped underwater or flung inland by a tsunami that ravaged towns and killed at least 150 people in the South Pacific.

The day after the disaster struck, officials were expecting the death toll to rise as more areas were searched.

“To me it was like a monster – just black water coming to you. It wasn’t a wave that breaks, it was a full force of water coming straight,” said Luana Tavale, an American Samoa government employee.

Samoan prime minister Tuilaepa Sailele’s own village of Lesa was washed away, like many others on Samoa and nearby American Samoa and Tonga. Yesterday he inspected the southeast coast of the main Samoan island of Upolu, the most heavily hit area. He described seeing “complete” devastation.

“In some villages absolutely no house was standing. All that was achieved within 10 minutes by the very powerful tsunami.”

A magnitude 8.0 quake struck off Samoa on Tuesday. The islands were soon engulfed by four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (4.5-6m) high that reached up to a mile inland.

The Samoas lie about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii.

Tuilaepa said the death toll in Samoa was 110, mostly elderly and young children. At least 31 people were killed on American Samoa, GovernorTogiola Tulafono said. Officials in the island nation of Tonga said nine people had been killed.

Samoan police commander Lilo Maiava predicted the toll would rise.

“It may take a week, two weeks or even three weeks” to complete the search for the many people still missing, he said.

The quake was centred about 190 kilometres south of the nation of Samoa, formerly part of New Zealand, which has about 220,000 people, and American Samoa, a US territory of 65,000.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre in Hawaii said it issued an alert, but the waves came so quickly that residents only had about 10 minutes to respond.

New Zealand school teacher Charlie Pearse choked back tears as she spoke to New Zealand’s TV One News from an Apia hospital bed in Samoa, recalling how she was trapped underwater and thought she was going to die. She was in the back of a truck trying to outrun the tsunami with about 20 children when a wave tossed the truck and it landed on top of them.

“We all went under the water and I think a number of the children died instantly,” Pearse said.

“I asked, ‘Is this my time to come home? Take me home, I’m ready,’ and I let my breath out and I took a big gulp of water . . . and I don’t know, I just popped out (from under the water),” Pearse said.

On the island of Upolu, taro farmer Tony Fauena said he ran for the hills when the deadly tsunami thundered across the coast while his niece ran to rescue her 6-month-old son. Villagers found the bodies of the mother and son entangled in uprooted trees and debris at the foot of lush mountains 200 yards from the ocean.

In Tonga, government spokesman Lopeti Senituli said parts of an island have disappeared, with two of the island’s three villages virtually flattened.