Sydney  - Australian expatriate Sue Whitby said Wednesday she witnessed the tsunami roll into American Samoa from the balcony of her Pago Pago home.

"I do feel sorry for the people living low, just so many people have been affected," Perth-born Whitby told Australia's ABC Radio. "A lot of houses have been flooded. Businesses may not even open again. It's just a shock really."

Whitby said she felt the 8.3-magnitude earthquake for a full 3 minutes. "We knew not to go out after we heard that," she said.

Initial reports, which estimate the death toll at 100, are that American Samoa was hit harder than Samoa, which used to be called Western Samoa.

Whitby said the electricity was out, the airport closed and the hospital flooded. She said her friend's brother was driving a bus when the 4-metre wave rolled in.

"Water came in and his bus ended up being flooded," she said. "He ended up in a mango tree and four of his passengers are missing from the bus." (dpa)