Aid Rushed to Tsunami-Ravaged Samoas
Last Updated at 8:50 p.m. EDT
Police in green reflective vests searched a ghastly landscape of mud-strewn streets, pulverized homes and bodies scattered in a swamp Wednesday as dazed survivors emerged from the muck and mire of an earthquake and tsunami that killed at least 119 in the South Pacific.
Military transports flew medical personnel, food, water and medicine to Samoa and American Samoa, both devastated by a tsunami triggered by an undersea earthquake. A cargo plane from New Zealand brought in a temporary morgue and a body identification team.
Officials expect the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.
View photos of the tsunami aftermath
The international response has been swift, reports CBS News correspondent Bill Whitaker. FEMA and the Coast Guard flew in supplies overnight. New Zealand and Australia are sending aid.
Samoans in Southern California are helping and hurting, reports Whitaker.
"My husband lost his brother-in-law along with eight children," said Elesa Tofi.
Survivors fled to higher ground on the islands after the magnitude 8.0 quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time Tuesday. The residents then were engulfed by four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet high that reached up to a mile inland.
The waves splintered houses and left cars and boats — many battered and upside down — scattered about the coastline. Debris as small as a spoon and as large as a piece of masonry weighing several tons were strewn in the mud.
Survivors told harrowing tales of encountering the deadly tsunami.
"I was scared. I was shocked," said Didi Afuafi, 28, who was on a bus when the giant waves came ashore on American Samoa. "All the people on the bus were screaming, crying and trying to call their homes. We couldn't get on cell phones. The phones just died on us. It was just crazy."
With the water approaching fast, the bus driver sped to the top of a nearby mountain, where 300 to 500 people were gathered, including patients evacuated from the main hospital. Among them were newborns with IVs, crying children and frightened elderly people.
A family atop the mountain provided food and water, while clergymen led prayers. Afuafi said people are still on edge and feared another quake.
"This is going to be talked about for generations," said Afuafi, who lives just outside the village of Leone, one of the hardest hit areas.
On Samoa, the two-hour drive from the Apia airport to the heavily damaged southeast coast initially showed no sign of damage before becoming little more than a link between one flattened village after another. Mattresses hung from trees, and utility poles were bent at awkward angles.
It was clear that tourists were among the casualties, but figures were impossible to ascertain immediately with officials saying they had no solid head count on the number of visitors in the area.
"There's not a single house up, it's total devastation (in) the most popular place for tourists," Dr. Ben Makalavea from Apia's main hospital told New Zealand's National Radio Thursday. He said some couples can't find their children, and fear they may have been washed out to sea.
"One woman we saw was so confused that she doesn't even know where she comes from," he said.
Makalavea added that the hospital needs nurses, doctors, surgeons and blood to treat the increasing numbers of casualties with broken bones and cuts.
At Sale Ataga village, more than 50 police, some wearing masks to filter out some of the growing stench of decay in the steamy conditions, searched for bodies underneath uprooted trees and palms piled up at the foot of a mountain.
Tony Fauena, a 29-year-old taro farmer, said the bodies of his 35-year-old niece and her 6-month-old son were found Tuesday but four other family members were still missing. "We don't know if the rest are under there or released out to sea," he said.
Suavai Ioane of Voutosi first endured the violent earthquake that shook his village of 600 people.
"After the shaking finished, about five or 10 minutes after, the wave very quickly came over us," said Ioane, who was carried by a wave about 80 yards inland.
The bodies of eight people were found in a nearby swamp, Ioane said.
Some islanders had enough warning to flee the tsunami. But a warning system run by the Global Security and Crisis Management Unit failed to evaluate the tsunami's impact in real time because of a hardware failure.
Another strong underwater earthquake rocked western Indonesia on Wednesday, less than 24 hours after the Samoan quake, briefly triggering a tsunami alert for countries along the Indian Ocean. The 7.6-magnitude quake toppled buildings, cut power and triggered a landslide on Sumatra island, and at least 75 people were reported killed. Experts said the seismic events were not related.
The quake was centered about 120 miles south of the islands of Samoa, which has about 220,000 people, and American Samoa, a U.S. territory of 65,000. Military transports ferried medical personnel, food, water, medicines and other supplies to the stricken islands.
President Barack Obama declared a major disaster for American Samoa.
Acting New Zealand Prime Minister Bill English said tents, stretchers, the temporary morgue and a body identification team were sent to Samoa on a Hercules transport plane after a "specific request" from local officials, who are "are very concerned about the growing death toll."
A Coast Guard C-130 plane loaded with aid and Federal Emergency Management Agency officials flew from Hawaii to American Samoa's capital of Pago Pago, where debris had been cleared from runways to allow for emergency planes to land.
In Pago Pago, the streets and fields were filled with debris, mud, overturned cars and several boats. Several buildings in the city - just a few feet above sea level - were flattened. Power was expected to be out in some areas for up to a month.
Water service has been restored to many villages, but power is still out in most areas. More than 1,000 people spent the night in 15 emergency shelters.
Hundreds of people asked American Samoa's radio stations to announce the names of their missing loved ones. Broadcasters urged listeners to contact their families immediately.
Samoa National Disaster Management committee member Filomina Nelson told New Zealand's National Radio the number of dead in her country had reached 83 - mostly elderly and young children. At least 30 people were killed on American Samoa, Gov. Togiola Tulafono said.
The overall death toll was expected to rise as more stricken areas are searched.
Authorities in Tonga, southwest of the Samoas, confirmed at least six dead and four missing, according to English.
"It was the most intense earthquake I have ever experienced," Cummings told "The Early Show" co-anchor Harry Smith on the phone. "It just kept going, and just wouldn't stop."
Tsunami Survivor Speaks to "Early Show"
A New Zealand P3 Orion maritime surveillance plane searched for survivors off the coast of Samoa.
In Carson, California, High Chief Loa Pele Faletogo, president of the Samoan Federation of America, comforted Samoans in the U.S. who came to him seeking news of their relatives. The chief said he learned the body of one of his cousins, in her 60s, was found floating along the shore.
All 65 employees at the National Park of American Samoa were accounted for, said Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the U.S. National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, California. The park service has 13 permanent workers and between 30 and 50 volunteers, depending on the time of year.
The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs said three Australians were among the dead. The British Foreign Office said one Briton was missing and presumed dead.
"So much has gone. So many people are gone," said a visibly shaken Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi as he flew from New Zealand to Apia. "I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss."
Lepa, a village of 172 people, was all but washed away, reports Whitaker. They're looking for survivors.
The earthquake and tsunami were not on the same scale as the 2004 disaster in the Indian Ocean that killed more than 230,000 in a dozen countries across Asia.
Although the quakes in the Samoas and Indonesia struck within 24 hours of each other, experts said there was no link between them.