Samoas' tsunami death toll rises to 113

"There has to be more than a hundred, the last count was at 2pm (1100 AEST Wednesday) and there were 84 bodies," a worker at Samoa's Tupua Tamasese Hospital told Agence France-Presse.

Officials said 22 had died in American Samoa and another seven in Tonga.

Dozens more people were missing and feared dead but officials in the South Pacific islands said communications were down to many outlying villages.

In American Samoa, about 100 kilometres from Samoa, Homeland Security director Michael Sala said the tsunami which followed about 20 minutes after the earthquake, did most of the damage.

"We have 22 confirmed dead and it could go much higher," said Sala, who added the wall of water, which he estimated at 25-feet (7.5 metres) high, swept ashore demolishing buildings.

The eastern part of American Samoa was without power and water supplies after the devastating earthquake, which struck at 6.48am on Tuesday (0348 AEST Wednesday).

In Tonga, government officials said there were seven dead and three missing on the small island of Niuatoputapu.