TSUNAMI IN SAMOA AND AMERICAN SAMOA

TSUNAMI IN SAMOA AND AMERICAN SAMOAAuthor: Stig KristoffersenA powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake hit with 15 feet high  tsunami waves that swept ashore on Samoa and American Samoa, flooding and flattening villages, killing dozens of people and leaving several workers missing at devastated National Park. A series of 5 waves, were the first two vawes measured up to 15 feet high when they hit the island made the low lands totally flooded and created destructions for miles. A Samoan reporter says tsunami victims "are everywhere" in a hospital near a hard-hit area and the dead could number up to 20. Three or four villages on the popular tourist coast near the southern town of Lalomanu on Samoa's main island of Upolu had been "wiped out" by waves that roared ashore early Wednesday. Lesa said he had visited the town's main hospital where "there are bodies everywhere," including at least one child. A Samoan reporter says tsunami victims "are everywhere" in a hospital near a hard-hit area and the dead could number up to 20. The Samoan government has not yet confirmed fatalities. Officials in neighboring American Samoa say at least 14 people have been killed there. 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. Hampered by power and communications outages, officials struggled to assess the casualties and damage.

The 8.0 quake struck around dawn about 20 miles below the ocean floor, 120 miles from American Samoa, a U.S.

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