The death toll from this week’s tsunami in the Samoan islands rose above 150 as Australia, New Zealand and the US airlifted help to thousands of homeless survivors in the devastated region.
The US has sent meals, generators, medical supplies and medical assistance teams to American Samoa, Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said yesterday.
Transport aircraft from Australia and New Zealand were shuttling aid to the independent island nation of Samoa and a New Zealand navy ship headed for the islands with supplies.
In Samoa, 115 people were dead and about 10,000 people, or about 6 per cent of the population, were left homeless by the tsunami, Radio New Zealand reported.
Local media reported looting in Pago Pago, the capital of the US territory of American Samoa, and Radio New Zealand said swathes of the town were washed away.
The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake – the world’s largest in two years – that struck south of Samoa on September 29th.
The waves reached at least 6m (20ft) high in parts of American Samoa and swept 0.8km inland, the radio station said.
“The whole island, the north shores, the one that was hit the most, the village of Pago Pago, all the stores, some homes, some business, they’ve all been destroyed. They are not there anymore. They’ve been washed out by the waves,” the US department of homeland security’s local director, Mike Sala, told the radio station.
The death toll reached nine in Tonga, Radio New Zealand reported, citing local officials.
A total of 31 deaths were confirmed in American Samoa, its governor, Togiola Tulafono, said at a news conference yesterday, the website samoanews.com reported.
The death toll there could reach 50, David Bouslough, a local doctor, told Radio New Zealand. – (Bloomberg)