[pima.nius] Over 100 dead in Samoa - health workers

Over 100 dead in Samoa - health workers Photos

Updated 4:28PM Wednesday Sep 30, 2009 - NZHerald

Health workers in Samoa report over 100 dead with many more missing or unaccounted for, following this morning's 8.3 magnitude earthquake and powerful tsunami.

American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono said at least 50 were injured, in addition to the deaths.

Hampered by power and communications outages, officials struggled to assess the casualties and damage. The official death toll remains at 39 but looks set to soar, with dead bodies already piling up at a hospital in Samoa.

New Zealander Scott Mulholland, a telecommunications worker in the Samoan capital of Apia, says the death toll is rising by the hour.

"The big thing is now more bodies are washing up," he told Newstalk ZB. "The last count that I heard - there's been over 100 found on the southern coast. And they are expecting more."

Samoan journalist Cherelle Jackson reported a scene of devastation as she drove around the worst affected parts of the island.

Ms Jackson drove from Apia to Poutasi - one of the villages said to be among the worst affected by the tsunami.

 

She said the peninsula village had been "totally flattened" and the road destroyed, so people were accessing it by walking through a small stream.

She said health workers had reported over 100 deaths.

"People are trying to gather their belongings. There are only a few villagers and construction workers who brought bulldozers to clear the debris," Ms Jackson said.

"It's just devastated, not even a cyclone has done this to us."
The village school had been totally destroyed as well as all the houses, barring the church minister's house, she said.
She said tourist resorts along the coast of Upolu, Samoa's main island, had been wiped out.

"Cars have been thrown into the ocean and there are fish on the ground. I've never seen anything like this before in my life. It's sad."

Towering tsunami waves spawned by the powerful earthquake swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa early today, flattening villages.

Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning waters as survivors fled to high ground, where they remained huddled hours later.

The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn about 32 kilometres below the ocean floor, 190 kilometres from American Samoa, a US territory that is home to 65,000 people, and 200 kilometres from Samoa.

Interactive map of the affected area

View Samoa earthquake in a larger map

* MFAT says New Zealanders concerned about family members in Samoa should try to make contact with them in the first instance. Those with ongoing concerns could call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade on 04 439 8000, with as many contact details as possible.

Click here to donate to the Red Cross' Samoa earthquake/tsunami appeal.

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