WASHINGTON - A powerful 8.0 magnitude earthquake generated Pacific tsunami on Wednesday, killing an unknown number of people in the Samoa islands and sending others fleeing for higher ground, officials said.
An official in American Samoa said there had been at least 14 deaths there. A local police spokeswoman in nearby Samoa said the tsunami had killed an unknown number of people there.
"I can confirm there is damage, I can confirm there are deaths and I can confirm there are casualties," the police spokeswoman said by phone. "I cannot say any more at the moment.
A tsunami was observed at Apia, Samoa, and at Pago Pago, American Samoa, according to the West Coast/Alaska Tsunami Warning Center, a branch of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
In Samoa, 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 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."
Schools and businesses were closed, with the Samoan capital virtually deserted with thousands of people reportedly clustered on nearby hills.
"Our house has been taken by the tsunami and we have lost everything," Teresa Sulili Dusi told National Radio, adding that "everything dropped on the floor and we thought the house was going to go down as well. Thank God, it didn't." Along with neighbors, they fled to high ground.
The Pacific Western Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii issued a tsunami warning for New Zealand, American Samoa and other small Pacific islands, but it was later canceled.
American Samoa is a tiny U.S. territory that lies about halfway between Hawaii and New Zealand. It is home to about 65,000 people. Samoa is a sovereign nation west of American Samoa.
In 2004, a 9.0 quake in the Indian Ocean generated a powerful tsunami that killed tens of thousands people in Asia.
‘We're alarmed’
Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, Calif., said "I would say we're alarmed," adding the service had heard from Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa.
Reynolds told a dispatch operator that four tsunami waves, each 15 to 20 feet high, reached half-mile to mile inland on island of Tutuila, where Pago Pago is.
"The National Park of American Samoa visitor center and its offices appear to be destroyed completely," Bundock said.
Reynolds reported deaths but had no confirmation of numbers, she said. "He's completely cut off from the rest of the island," Bundock said.
In Fagatogo, water reached the waterfront town's meeting field and covered portions of the main highway, which also was hit by rock slides.
In the island nation of Samoa, some residents told Radio New Zealand they had felt a big jolt and were recommended by authorities to move to higher ground.
The epicenter of the quake was located 120 miles southwest of American Samoa, a remote Pacific island, the U.S. Geological Survey. The USGS earlier said the quake measured 7.9 magnitude. It struck at a depth of 11.2 miles.
‘Cars were seen floating’
The representative from American Samoa to the U.S. Congress, Eni Faleomavaega, told NBC News that quake hit between the North Marianas Islands and American Samoa, creating 10 to 15- foot waves in populated low-lying areas like Pago Pago Bay.
"Cars were seen floating," the congressman said of Pago Pago Bay.
He said there will likely need to be mass evacuations of low-lying areas and there will be requests for assistance from Federal Emergency Management Agency and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
He said he didn't have any reports on injuries.....................
