Coastalsurvey

Just 48 hours after a tsunami slammed into the south shore of the Samoas, the death toll is approaching 200.

Roughly 10 minutes after an 8.1 magnitude earthquake rocked the Samoas Wednesday morning, a tidal wave inundated the south shores of the islands. Pago Pago in American Samoa sustained heavy damage, but Upolu in Western Samoa may have got the worst of it.

George Daneillis, who owns Samoa’s Salani Surf resort, on Upolu’s south shore, said,  “Our resort in Samoa has been totally destroyed, but the guests and staff were evacuated just in time”.

Further west, on Savai’i, surfers out for the dawn patrol rode out a succession of tidal waves before making it to shore, the Guardian (UK) reported.