Most were shocked at the lightning speed at which the waves hit, killing at least 148 people, just minutes after the worst earthquake in 90 years rocked the archipelago early on Tuesday.

Actress Pamela Stephenson, wife of Scottish comedian Billy Connolly, lost a friend in the disaster which she described as "scary as hell".

"Huge piles of debris lay everywhere; it was clear the wave had whacked every structure with incredible might," Stephenson, who was on holiday in central Samoa, told Britain's Guardian newspaper.

"Cars teetered where they had been thrown on top of rubble from collapsed dwellings. Fridges and air conditioners floated in the sea.

"I looked along the bay and saw that a well-known jetty was missing. So were villages that once lined the shore."

She added: "I received a phone call informing me that a dear friend had been killed trying to escape the wave. Her body had been found on the beach near the missing jetty."

Villager Sauaso Tupuola told how she lost family members from three generations -- her elderly grandmother, daughter and grand-daughter.

"My husband saw the wave and jumped inside the house and grabbed my mum. She couldn't walk so my husband and myself tried, carried her back towards the road looking for something which was high," Tupuola told Australian Associated Press.

"But we couldn't make it. The waves got us. After the first wave we were all alive.

"Then the second wave came and rolled us. I thought we were all safe because I heard my husband yelling, 'run faster, run faster'. I lost three people, all the women."

Resort owner Wendy Booth said she expected a mobile phone text message warning about the wave after the massive 8.0 magnitude quake.

"We had the earthquake, which was the biggest one we've ever had since we've been here, and we grabbed our friends and waited for the text messages because we know what happens, we've done this before in drill," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, referring to tsunami preparedness training.

"Then nothing happened. So we thought everything was okay and we told the staff to tell the guests not to be frightened, everything's okay. And the next minute we could see this big wave coming.

"We're lucky we got 17 people out. There's other properties that aren't so lucky, that have lost guests and staff. One of our relations who runs a neighbouring resort at Sinalei reef resort was killed.

"Apparently she was trapped between the car and the tree and couldn't get away. So they buried her this morning at 6:00 am. It's terrible, absolutely terrible."

Meleisea Sa, a chief in Poutasi, one of the worst-hit villages, said he saw his house being swept away as he fled.

"I don't know how to describe it, it was like a mountain coming out of the sea," Sa told AFP.

"The last thing that I saw was how my house came down. We lost everything. I can still hear the fierce sound of the waves and the sea coming up."

Villager Lonnie Mai said there was no warning before the waves struck, despite repeated tsunami drills.

"No, no, no time. No bells, no siren. In one minute, right when they saw the wave, it was here," she told AFP.

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