PAGO PAGO, American Samoa — A powerful Pacific Ocean earthquake spawn-ed towering tsunami waves that swept ashore in Samoa and American Samoa yesterday, flooding and flattening villages, killing at least 99 people and leaving dozens missing.

Cars and people were swept out to sea by the fast-churning water as survivors fled to higher ground, where they remained huddled hours after the quake struck. Signs of devastation were everywhere, with a large boat washed ashore lying on the edge of a highway and floodwaters swallowing up cars and homes.

The quake, with a magnitude between 8.0 and 8.3, struck around dawn 120 miles from American Samoa, a U.S. territory that is home to 65,000 people.

Four tsunami waves roared ashore soon afterward, reaching up to a mile inland, Mike Reynolds, superintendent of the National Park of American Samoa, was quoted as saying by a parks service spokeswoman.

Hampered by power and communications failures, officials hours later struggled to determine damage and casualties.

Samoan police commissioner Lilo Maiava told the Associated Press that police there had confirmed 63 deaths, but that officials were still searching the devastated areas.

Hundreds of injured were being treated by health workers and that people are still struggling into centers seeking treatment, Maiava said.

At least 30 people were killed on American Samoa, officials there said.

"I don't think anybody is going to be spared in this disaster," said acting American Samoa Gov. Faoa A. Sunia.

Sunia declared a state of emergency in American Samoa, describing "immense and widespread damage to individual, public and commercial buildings in coastal areas" along with death and injury.

Gov. Togiola Tulafono, who was in Honolulu for a conference, said more victims could be found when rescuers reach areas that are inaccessible by roads. Tulafono said a member of his extended family was among the dead.

'THE ALARM SOUNDED'

In Washington, President Obama issued a disaster declaration, making federal funds available to victims in American Samoa.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency said it was deploying teams to American Samoa to provide support and assess damage.

Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi looked shaken today on board a flight from Auckland, New Zealand, to Apia, Samoa's capital.

"So much has gone. So many people are gone," he told reporters on board. "I'm so shocked, so saddened by all the loss."

Malielegaoi said his own village of Lepa was destroyed.

"Thankfully, the alarm sounded on the radio and gave people time to climb to higher ground," he said. "But not everyone escaped."

New Zealand's acting Prime Minister Bill English said any death tolls for the Samoas were only "guesses" so far, and that authorities in Tonga confirmed at least six people dead in the island nation west of the Samoas.

"There are a considerable number of people who've been swept out to sea and are unaccounted for," English said. "We don't have information about the full impact, and we do have some real concern that over the next 12 hours the picture could look worse rather than better."

He said a New Zealand P-3C Orion maritime surveillance plane would reach the region today to search for survivors.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd told Seven Network in Australia that two Australians had died in Samoa, including a 6-year-old girl. The other Australian victim was a 50-year-old woman.

Mase Akapo, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in American Samoa, reported at least 19 people killed in four different villages on the main island of Tutuila. Officials reported at least 50 injured.

The Samoa Red Cross said it had opened five temporary shelters and estimated that about 15,000 people were affected by the tsunami.

PARK STAFF MISSING

American Samoa is home to a U.S. national park that appeared to be especially hard hit.

Reynolds, the park superintendent, said he had been able to locate only 20 percent of the park's 40 to 50 employees and volunteers.

He spoke to park service officials from Pago Pago Harbor and reported that the visitor center and offices were destroyed, according to Holly Bundock, spokeswoman for the National Park Service's Pacific West Region in Oakland, Calif.

Residents in both Samoa and American Samoa reported being shaken awake by the quake, which lasted two to three minutes and was centered about 20 miles below the ocean floor. It was followed by at least three large aftershocks of at least 5.6 magnitude.

New Zealander Graeme Ansell said the beach village of Sau Sau Beach Fale was leveled.

"It was very quick. The whole village has been wiped out," Ansell told New Zealand's National Radio from a hill near Apia. "There's not a building standing. We've all clambered up hills, and one of our party has a broken leg. There will be people in a great lot of need 'round here."

Apia was virtually deserted, with schools and businesses closed.

Local media said they had reports of landslides in the Solosolo region of the main Samoan island of Upolu and damage to plantations in the countryside outside Apia.

Rescue workers found a scene of destruction and debris with cars overturned or stuck in mud, and rockslides hit some roads. Several students were seen ransacking a convenience store.

PAGO PAGO IN RUINS

Eni Faleomavaega, who represents American Samoa as a nonvoting delegate in the U.S. House, said he had talked to people by telephone who said that Pago Pago — just a few feet above sea level — was flattened. Several hundred people's homes were destroyed, but getting more concrete information has been difficult, he said.

U.S. Coast Guard spokesman Lt. John Titchen said a C-130 was being dispatched today to deliver aid to American Samoa, assess damage and take the governor back home.

One of the runways at Pago Pago International Airport was being cleared of debris for emergency use, Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Ian Gregor said in Los Angeles.

Tuna canneries, American Samoa's dominant industry, also were affected. Chicken of the Sea's tuna packing plant in American Samoa was forced to close although the facility wasn't damaged, the San Diego-based company said.

The effects of the tsunami could be felt thousands of miles away, with federal officials saying strong currents and dangerous waves were forecast from California to Washington state. No major flooding was expected, however.

In Los Angeles, lifeguards said they cleared beaches at about 8 p.m. in response to an advisory for possible dangerous currents.

Japan's Meteorological Agency also issued a tsunami warning all along that country's eastern coast.