Quake, tsunami slam American Samoa

PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — A 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 below the ocean floor, west of American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.

Hampered by power and communications failures, officials hours later struggled to assess the damage and casualties.

Mase Akapo, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in American Samoa,reported at least 19 people were killed in four villages on the main island of Tutuila. He had no additional details.

In neighboring Samoa, the bodies of about 20 people were in a hospital at Lalomanu town on the south coast of the main island of Upolu. 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 50were injured, in addition to the deaths.

American Samoa is home to a U.S. national park that appeared to be especially hardhit. Holly Bundock, spokesman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, Calif., said the superintendent of the park and another staff member had been able to locate only 20 percent of the park's 13-15 employees and 30-50 volunteers.

Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying four tsunami waves 15- to 20-feet high roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile inland. Bundock 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.

Residents in Samoa and American Samoa reported being shaken awake by the quake, which lasted two to three minutes. The initial quake was followed by at least three aftershocks of at least 5.6 magnitude.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a general alert from American Samoa to New Zealand. Tonga suffered some coastal damage from 13-foot 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 around here."

The Samoan capital was virtually deserted with schools and businesses closed.

Local media said they had reports of landslides in the Solosolo region of the main Samoan island of Upolu and damage to plantations in the countryside outside Apia.

Rescue workers found a scene of destruction and debris with cars overturned or stuck in mud, and rockslides hit some roads. Several students were seen ransacking a gas station-convenience store.

Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa as a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House, said he had talked to people by telephone who said Pago Pago - just a few feet above sea level - was leveled. Several hundred people had their homes destroyed, although getting more concrete information has been difficult, he said.

Chicken of the Sea's tuna packing plant in American Samoa was closed after the tsunami hit, although the facility wasn't damaged, the San Diego-based company said in a statement. Tuna canneries are American Samoa's dominant industry, accounting for nearly 60 percent of all economic activity.

Before the tsunami, Chicken of the Sea had announced plans to close the plant today, laying off more than 2,100 workers.

Rear Adm. Manson Brown, Coast Guard commander for the Pacific region, said the Coast Guard is in the early stages of assessing what resources to send to American Samoa.

Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen said a C-130 was being dispatched today to deliver aid, assess damage and take the governor back home. A New Zealand air force P3 Orion maritime search airplane also was being sent.

One of the runways at Pago Pago International Airport was being cleared of debris for emergency use, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in Los Angeles.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was deploying teams to American Samoa to provide support and assess damage.

"Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of American Samoa and all those in the region who have been affected by these natural disasters," Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said.

The ramifications of the tsunami could be felt thousands of miles away, with federal officials saying strong currents and dangerous waves were forecast from California to Washington state. No majorflooding was expected, however.

In Los Angeles, lifeguards said they would clear beaches about 8 p.m. in response to a tsunami advisory for possible dangerous currents.

Japan's MeteorologicalAgency also issued a tsunami warning all along that country's eastern coast.

While the earthquake and tsunami were big, they were not on the same scale of the 2004 Indonesian tsunami that killed more than 150,000 across Asia the day after Christmas in 2004, said tsunami expert Brian Atwater of the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle.

The 2004 earthquake was at least 10 times stronger than the 8.0 to 8.3 measurements being reported for Tuesday's quake, Atwater said. It's also a different style of earthquake than the one that hit in 2004.

The tsunami hit American Samoa about 25 minutes after the quake, which is similar to the travel time in 2004, Atwater said. The big difference is there were more people in Indonesia at risk than in Samoa.

Information for this article was contributed by Keni Lesa, Ray Lilley, Jaymes Song, Seth Borenstein and Michele Salcedo of The Associated Press.