Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) chief Craig Fugate said two disaster recovery teams arrived Wednesday and that initial assistance carried on through the night into Thursday on the small South Pacific island.

"We have over 140 people on the ground... coordinating and supporting the government's emergency response," including members of the US Coast Guard, the Hawaii National Guard and FEMA, Fugate told reporters on a conference call.

He said the US agencies had begun distributing food and water, power generators, medical supplies and other emergency aid.

Three C-17 military transport planes had departed the Pacific island US state of Hawaii on Wednesday and Thursday morning carrying aid teams -- including a search and rescue crew -- and supplies, while a fourth aid flight was scheduled to take off at 1900 GMT Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman told reporters.

American Samoa Governor Togiola Tulafono has asked for power generators, shelter supplies, bedding, blankets, food and other items to help about 70,000 people affected by the disaster, Whitman added.

Fugate would not give casualty figures for the US territory which President Barack Obama declared a major disaster zone, but Samoan officials said regional deaths had reached 148, including 31 on American Samoa.

The toll was expected to rise dramatically after the islands' worst quake in nearly a century unleashed walls of water that pounded the Samoan coastlines, echoing Asia's deadly 2004 tsunami that killed more than 220,000 people.

Despite scenes of devastation across the US territory and its capital Pago Pago, Fugate stressed that the LBJ hospital there "is operational" and that some 130 people with tsunami- and earthquake-related injuries had been treated there. The 75 patients who had been evacuated after the earthquake returned to the facility, he added.

FEMA, along with former president George W. Bush, was lambasted for its tardy response to Hurricane Katrina which inundated New Orleans in August 2005.

Fugate commended FEMA's response in American Samoa, saying "our teams went from no-notice to fully activated and deploying staff" on the island less than 40 hours after the disaster.

The FEMA chief said his agency was also closely monitoring the disaster in Indonesia, where officials fear thousands have died after massive earthquakes struck Sumatra, but that any initial US response will be made through the US Agency for International Development.

"We're very aware of the devastation there, and that the casualties will go up," Fugate said.

"We are going to continue to focus our response right now into American Samoa, but we are again ready to assist (in Indonesia) if we are requested to by USAID."

earlier related report
Aid groups struggle to help Indonesia quake victims
Aid groups and Indonesia's government on Thursday launched a huge rescue operation to help thousands of quake victims, hampered by transport blockages and poor communications.

Humanitarian organisations and rescue teams were racing against the clock, as the first 72 hours are considered crucial to victims' survival.

Most aid efforts "have had difficulties accessing the area because of transport issues. It's very hard to get flights to Padang at the moment," Laksmita Noviera of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (UNOCHA) told AFP.

Padang's airport did however resume operations on Thursday, after it was shut down on Wednesday due to earthquake damage.

"Our team arrived late this afternoon, and they're still getting set up. They're looking for somewhere to stay and are finding fuel," Noviera said.

A situation report released by UNOCHA named non-government organisations on the ground as World Vision, Surfaid, Hope Worldwide, Jaica and Mercy Corps., which has a Padang office.

But rescue efforts were complicated by landslides, a total breakdown in power distribution and overloaded mobile phone networks.

"There are some places (outside Padang) that have been badly affected by the earthquake," said Enda Balina, a World Vision disaster response worker in Padang.

"From the information I have got, in some hilly areas there are landslides and also main roads have collapsed."

The European Union released three million euros (4.4 million dollars) worth of humanitarian aid for victims of the earthquake, which has killed more than 700 people.

"The survivors lack everything, from shelter to fresh water. Our funding will allow us to provide relief quickly to the thousands who are in dire need of assistance," EU Humanitarian Aid Commissioner Karel De Gucht said in Brussels.

Germany has pledged one million euros (1.5 million dollars) in addition to search-and-rescue resources and water purification plants.

Switzerland, a non-EU member, is sending a team of 127 experts, the foreign ministry there said.

An international search-and-rescue team from Japan is also en route to the affected area.

Indonesia's government has approved 26 million dollars in cash aid to help victims of the quake.

Finance Minister Sri Mulyani Indrawati said the allocation would be enough for two months of relief operations in the area of Wednesday's quake, which caused devastation in the coastal city of Padang and its surrounds.

The 7.6-magnitude quake would likely hurt the domestic economy and affect Indonesia's state budget, Indrawati said.

"It will certainly have an effect as Padang and the surrounding areas are areas that have potential to contribute to the economy and the budget," she added.

earlier related report
Disaster-hit Asia counts the dead
Dazed Asian countries reeled from the full force of nature's fury on Thursday with thousands feared dead in a rapid-fire onslaught of earthquakes, tsunamis and typhoons.

Rescuers picked through rubble after a huge quake struck Indonesia and a towering tsunami deluged the Samoan islands, while millions of flood-hit storm survivors in Southeast Asia braced for a new super-typhoon.

Fresh panic hit the Indonesian island of Sumatra, where another powerful quake hit the day after Wednesday's 7.6-magnitude disaster, sending traumatised residents fleeing their homes.

Officials said 529 were confirmed dead on Sumatra. But as rescue workers dug with their bare hands to reach those trapped alive in collapsed buildings, the number was expected to soar.

"Our prediction is that thousands have died," Health Ministry crisis centre head Rustam Pakaya said.

The first flights laden with aid and body bags began arriving in the devastated coastal city of Padang, home to nearly a million people, where Wednesday's quake sparked fires and caused buildings to crumble.

"I've been waiting here since yesterday. I haven't been home yet and keep praying to God my daughter is alive," 49-year-old mother Andriana said police searched a collapsed school where dozens of children were believed trapped.

Authorities said they were suffering from a desperate shortage of heavy machinery, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono urged officials to "flood" the city with aid and medical relief.

It was the second quake in hours on the Pacific Ocean's volatile "Ring of Fire", coming after the massive 8.0-magnitude tremor that spawned a deadly tsunami in the Samoan islands.

At least 148 people died and scores more missing after waves of up to 7.5 meters (25 feet) obliterated island villages, in the South Pacific archipelago's worst quake in nearly a century.

Survivors saw truckloads of bodies in the once-idyllic holiday destination, in a grim echo of Asia's Boxing Day tsunami in 2004. Four Australians, two Koreans, a New Zealander and a British toddler were among the dead.

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

Pristine white beaches that once wooed bathers were strewn with the mangled wreckage of buildings, cars, luggage and poignant personal items.

Aid planes arrived in Samoa from Australia and New Zealand, presenting rescuers with horrifying scenes.

"For Samoa this is just real devastation, I have never seen anything like this before," said aid worker Tony Hill.

Meanwhile Southeast Asia faced a new menace from the skies as the death toll from floods and landslides caused by Typhoon Ketsana climbed on Thursday to 383 in the Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos.

The latest threat, Typhoon Parma, churned towards the Philippines packing gusts of up to 185 kilometres per hour (115 miles per hour) and was expected to become a super-typhoon before it makes landfall on Saturday.

"We are dealing with a very strong typhoon, so we should be at the highest level of preparedness," state weather bureau spokesman Nathaniel Cruz said as nearly 700,000 people remained in government-run shelters.

Authorities warned it could lash areas still reeling from Ketsana, which at the weekend dumped the heaviest rains in more than four decades on Manila and submerged most of the capital.

Vietnam on Thursday intensified efforts to get food and water to stranded victims but many complained that help had been slow to be arrive. Around 200,000 people have fled their homes in the country.

In Cambodia, people sifted through the wreckage of smashed wooden houses, with thousands left homeless. The storm also flooded swathes of Siem Reap province, home to the famed Angkor Wat temples.

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