Updated on
Summary
A series of tsunamis hit the Pacific island nations of American and Western Samoa killing as many as 100 people, destroying villages and injuring hundreds. A Pacific-wide tsunami warning was issued after a huge 8.0 magnitude undersea quake off American Samoa, with reports of a small tsunami reaching New Zealand and rising sea levels in several South Pacific island nations. The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its warning, but Japan's Meteorological Agency issued a local tsunami warning for the country's eastern coast, warning of a possible tsunami of 50 cm (2 feet). The Indian Ocean tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004 killed about 230,000 people across 11 countries. Shortly after local radio tsunami warnings were issued in American and Western Samoa, waves started crashing into the capital of American Samoa, Pago Pago, and villages and resorts on the southern coasts of the tiny island nations, witnesses said. In American Samoa, a US territory, the death toll was officially 14, but could rise, officials said. The tsunami caused waves of 1.5 metres above normal sea level off American Samoa, according to the Pacific Western Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii. But there were unconfirmed reports of waves taller than 4 metres. Hundreds of people, including tourists, fled coastal homes and resorts to higher ground in both nations.
