A powerful tsunami generated by an undersea earthquake on Tuesday has killed at least 89 people and wiped out several villages on the tropical islands of American Samoa and Samoa, according to government officials, the police and local residents.

On Wednesday morning, the Japan Meteorological Agency issued a tsunami advisory for the entire eastern coast of Japan. The advisory carried warnings of high waves, but by early evening the agency scaled back the advisory to parts of southern Japan, Okinawa and northern Hokkaido.

Tremors in Singapore after Indonesian Earthquake

The earthquake, with a magnitude of 8.0, struck around dawn on Tuesday, as many residents were preparing for work and getting their children ready for school. Over the next 12 hours, 15 smaller quakes rumbled through the Samoan islands region, and 14 more were recorded near Tonga, to the south, according to the United States Geological Survey.

At least 24 people were killed in American Samoa, according to officials there, and the territory’s governor, Togiola T. A. Tulafono, said in a news conference that the worst damage had been caused by the second and third waves in a series of four. There was also widespread devastation reported in the territory’s capital, Pago Pago.  Read more here

Tsunami in American Samoa VIDEO PHOTOS

Amateur video that appears to show the devastation caused by the tsunami waves.  American Samoa and was on the air when the first wave hit, shot this footage of the second tsunami wave flooding the harbor there. Video showing American Samoa in the aftermath of the tsunami was published in raw form by the BBC and used by The Associated Press to produce this report: Read more here

POSTED BY:  BBParks

Tags: american samoa, american samoa tsunami, earthquake indonesia, earthquake malaysia, earthquake today, samoa tsunami video, samoan islands, samoan islands earthquake, samoan islands map, samoas tsunami, singapore earthquake, sumatera, sumatera earthquake, sumatra earthquake 2009, today s tsunami, tsunami, world map

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 30th, 2009 at 9:58 am and is filed under Behind Blondie Park. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.