APIA, Samoa — 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 119 in the South Pacific.
Military transports flew medical personnel, food, water and medicine to the islands of Samoa and American Samoa, which were devastated by the wall of water triggered by Tuesday morning’s undersea earthquake. One cargo plane from New Zealand brought in a temporary morgue and a body-identification team — with officials expecting the death toll to rise as more areas are searched.
Cars and boats — many battered and upside down — littered 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. “
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.
The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said it issued an alert, but the waves got to the islands so quickly that residents only had about 10 minutes to respond. 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.
Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet high roared ashore on American Samoa about 15 minutes after the quake, reaching up to a mile inland, officials said.
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.
