TIDAL WAVE HITS THE SAMOAN ISLAND! MORE THAN 100 PEOPLE DEAD!

A massive undersea earthquake in the Pacific generated a tidal wave that hit Samoa yesterday, destroying tourist resorts and killing up to 100 people.
There were unconfirmed reports of large numbers of casualties in at least three obliterated villages, as well as numerous missing fishermen.

The wave hit the island chain, which includes American Samoa and Independent Samoa, when people were heading to work and kids were walking to school.

"The whole southeast coast has been wiped out, just completely wiped out - there's not a building standing," tourist Graeme Ansell told Radio New Zealand. "There will be people in a great lot of need around here. It's flattened, it's just flattened."

School buildings were said to have been hit, and children were among the dead, according to officials relaying sketchy reports from the hardest hit areas.

The tsunami was caused by an 8.3-magnitude quake centered about 120 miles southwest of American Samoa.

Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific Region, said four waves, each 15 to 20 feet high, swept inland for up to a mile.

Erica Wales, a Peace Corps volunteer in the village of Salesatele, said the earthquake woke her up early yesterday morning.

"A minute or two after it, the Peace Corps medical officer called me and told me to go inland," Wales, 23, told the Daily News. "I was about 30 feet up the road . . . when the tsunami hit," she said. "I started running then, as did everyone else. I could hear the nearby river surging with water as it tore down trees."

Derek Webb, the general manager of the Tradewinds Hotel, said he was sheltering his guests and listening to radio bulletins when the wave apparently hit the radio station.

"I was listening to the radio and then all you hear is, 'Oh my God, oh my God, there's water everywhere!' They shut down," Webb recounted later on Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand braced for the wave, sending navy boats out to sea and helicopters to buzz beaches and urge beachgoers to get to higher ground. But, there were no reports of damage or injury there.

In 2004, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 in the Indian Ocean generated a monster tsunami that killed tens of thousands in Asia.