Samoa (AP):

Disaster officials rushed food, medicine and a temporary morgue to the Samoas yesterday after a powerful earthquake unleashed a tsunami that flattened villages and swept cars and people out to sea. At least 99 people were killed.

Survivors fled to higher ground on the South Pacific islands after the magnitude 8.0 quake struck at 6:48 a.m. local time (1:48 p.m. EDT; 1748 GMT) Tuesday.

Four tsunami waves 15 to 20 feet (four to six meters) high roared ashore on American Samoa about 15 minutes after the quake, reaching up to a mile (1.5 kilometers) inland, Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying by a parks service spokeswoman.

Military transports carrying medical personnel, food, water, medicines and other supplies were headed to the stricken islands.

"Right now, we're focused on bringing in the assistance for people who have been injured, and for the immediate needs of the tens of thousands of survivors down there," Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said.

A Coastguard C-130 plane loaded with aid and carrying FEMA officials was headed from Hawaii to American Samoa's capital of Pago Pago, where debris had been cleared from runways to allow for emergency planes to land.

Earthquake

It's not immediately clear what kind of warning people in the two islands had once the earthquake hit and set off the tsunami. Some people had enough warning to flee the tsunami. But a warning system run by the Global Security and Crisis Management Unit failed to evaluate the tsunami's impact in real time because of a hardware failure.