When a deadly earthquake and tsunami struck the South Pacific in September, much of the attention in Hawai'i was on American Sämoa, a United States territory, even though the death toll and destruction was greater in independent Sämoa.

The tsunami killed 148 people in Sämoa, compared with 34 in American Sämoa, and hundreds lost their homes as the rushing water tore though coastal villages. Relief workers report that some displaced people in Sämoa still lack reliable access to water and sanitation.

But people in Hawai'i with connections to Sämoa have helped with relief supplies over the past two months, and the United States has pledged $1.1 million in grants to the Sämoa government and relief organizations to assist with the recovery.

Misa Telefoni Retzlaff, the deputy prime minister of Sämoa, said his nation is grateful.

"We've been extremely overwhelmed, because many of these people, we didn't ask for assistance," Retzlaff said yesterday during a stop in Honolulu on his way to New York to speak to diplomats about AIDS in the Pacific.

"This assistance, we've been very encouraged by. But most importantly, it's been a great tonic for our people, who are still recovering emotionally, if they've already recovered physically."

New Zealand and Australia have each pledged the U.S. equivalent of $4.5 million to aid the reconstruction in Sämoa.

Retzlaff estimates that it will take 230 million Samoan tala (about $92 million) to rebuild infrastructure. He said the government has promised 18,000 tala ($7,188) in building materials for each person who lost their home.

Sämoa has also sought to send a message internationally that the tsunami damage was localized and did not devastate the entire nation, an enticement for tourists at a time when the country is getting attention from the CBS reality show "Survivor: Sämoa."

Retzlaff said a New Zealand television broadcaster, who visited both Sämoa and American Sämoa after the tsunami, noted the disparity in the relief efforts.

"We were a little bit sensitive to that, because it's the first time, really, that we've been impacted by the same natural disaster," Retzlaff said. "So I guess that brought it home a little bit more."

Sämoa, a nation of about 185,000 people, became independent from New Zealand in 1962. The island nation was called Western Sämoa until 1997.

In October, Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann, who is of Samoan ancestry, assigned his brother, Gus Hannemann, to organize local fundraising and relief supplies for Sämoa.

Gus Hannemann, of the Sämoa Relief Hawai'i Committee, said he is urging people to donate cash for Sämoa through a relief fund set up at First Hawaiian Bank.

"Sämoa is one language, and one culture, and one people," he said of the relationship between the independent nation and the U.S. territory. "We all come from both Sämoas."

A local American Red Cross telethon last month raised more than $140,000 for Sämoa and the victims of typhoons in the Philippines and an earthquake in Indonesia.

A delegation from Kai-mukí Christian Church just returned from Sämoa, and parishioners plan another visit in January, when they will help build children's facilities in the village of Saleaumua.