Rescue and medical teams from Australia and New Zealand flew into Samoa as local authorities and survivors began the grim tasks of recovering bodies and clearing debris caused by the devastating Pacific earthquake and tsunami.

Photos: Tsunami strikes Samoa

An Australian plane carrying search-and-rescue and medical experts flew into the Samoan capital of Apia to join the search for missing locals and tourists and to help treat the injured.

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36 hours of catastrophe

Death toll expected to rise

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A cargo plane from New Zealand on Wednesday brought in a temporary morgue and a body identification team.

Deaths from the 8.1 magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami which struck Samoa and nearby American Samoa early on Tuesday morning (Wednesday morning AEST) were expected to climb beyond the official toll of at least 149, which included four Australians and two New Zealanders, one with Australian residency.

"There is a search and rescue operation underway right now and we are trying to recover those who are unfortunately still under the rubble or in the sea," a Samoan disaster management official said.

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At the national hospital in Apia, two Australian doctors stopped work on the US reality show Survivor to tend to the wounded.

Bodies continued to pile up in the town's morgues, with the hospital manager Dr Lemalu Fiu relieved to hear an Australian Defence Force plane had arrived with more supplies.

"Thank you Australia," Dr Lemalu said.

"We need all the help we can get right now. Anything at all."

On the Samoan tourist strip, Coconuts Resort, famed by Australians for its great cocktails and luxury waterfront villas, was a scene of devastation.

A dive boat used to take tourists to the reef was washed-up on the restaurant 200 metres from where it was moored.

A Toyota Hilux was tossed like cardboard onto a nearby house.

Eighteen couples were checked in when the first wave hit and most were injured when their huts were pummelled with water.

But one, Tasmanian horse trainer Maree Blacker, 50, lost her life.

Her luxury thatched-roof hut was hit hard, the airconditioning ripped from the wall, the four-posted bed up-ended.

A policeman said she didn't make it out of her room alive.

Foreign affairs officials confirmed a 15-month-old boy was among the Australian dead, along with a six-year-old girl, Ballarat teacher Vivien Hodgins, and a New Zealand toddler with permanent Australian residency.

Authorities appear to have accounted for all other Australians for whom there were concerns, but Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said a few more days would be needed to confirm no other Australians were missing.

Six injured Australians were expected to be flown back to Brisbane.

Australian owners of the Sea Breeze Resort, Chris and Wendy Booth, were critical of the natural disaster early warning system.

Despite several successful trials, the text message warning of an impending tsunami didn't arrive this time, with fatal consequences.

"The procedures were working great on paper but they've let us down and it's killed people," Wendy Booth said.

"We didn't get the text so we told the guests everything was fine. But when the water disappeared we knew it wasn't," Chris Booth said.

The couple was pummelled by four huge waves in quick succession.

"We just clung to the side of our house," Chris said.

"I told Wendy `whatever you bloody do don't let go'. You can still see the fingerprints where we were holding on for dear life."

The couple's 27 New Zealand guests survived.

Amateur video footage showed other villages that had been completely obliterated by waves as high as seven metres in some parts, homes reduced to shards of metal and wood, while cars were stuck in treetops where they had been hurled by the tsunami's force.

"It's not paradise any more - it's hell on earth," one survivor told Sky News.

While many people remained missing, survivors described seeing truckloads of bodies.

"We've seen pick-up trucks carrying the dead... back to town," tourist Fotu Becerra told local radio on her return to New Zealand.

"We were shocked when we saw the first one but after three hours, it seemed normal."

Witnesses in American Samoa said cars were swept out to sea and buildings were destroyed.

Looters roamed the US territory almost unimpeded, pillaging battered shops, as police were kept occupied searching for bodies, officials said.

Pago Pago, the heart of American Samoa, bore the brunt of the tsunami with most shops and ground floor businesses destroyed, and looters were taking advantage of the chaos, said homeland security spokeswoman Betty Ahsoon.

"Looting is a problem as a lot of stores and merchants have been destroyed. We have limited people to police the area as our first responders, including the police, are out assisting people affected," she said.

Ahsoon said the priority of emergency personnel, in addition to recovering bodies and searching for survivors, was to restore supplies of clean drinking water and electricity.

Tonga reported significant damage on the small island of Niuatoputapu with at least seven dead and three missing. However, other countries saw only large waves at worst despite a brief, Pacific-wide tsunami warning.

The US Geological Survey (USGS) continued to report dozens of moderate aftershocks in the vicinity of the major quake, including a 5.2-magnitude quake that struck almost exactly 24 hours after the first.

Australians with concerns for family or friends in Samoa, American Samoa or Tonga should first try to contact them directly. If they are unable to be contacted or you hold fears for their safety, you can call the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade's Consular Emergency Centre on 1300 555 135.