APIA, Samoa — Convoys of military vehicles brought food, water and medicine to the tsunami-stricken Samoas on Thursday as the death toll rose to 160 and victims wandered through what was left of their villages with tales of being trapped underwater and watching young children drown.

Samoan government minister, Fiana Naomi, asked around 400 grieving relatives for permission to hold a mass funeral next Tuesday. The grim-faced Samoans, gathered under the shade of a traditional wall-less meetinghouse just 100 yards from the ocean amid coconut trees and government offices, were largely silent.
Samoans traditionally take their loved ones and bury them near their homes, but that could be impracticable because many of their villages have been wiped out by early Tuesday’s earthquake and tsunami.
Naomi told them the burial would take place in a new cemetery in the city and that the government would also provide free coffins for the 103 bodies currently held in the city morgue. She said the other bodies had already been buried due to the advanced stage of decomposition, but did not say how many.
The reaction to the proposal was mixed, with some relatives wanting to take the bodies and have their own burials, while others wanted a mass funeral delayed for a week to allow children and grandchildren to return to the islands from overseas.
A total of 160 people are now confirmed dead, including 120 in Samoa, 31 in American Samoa and nine in Tonga. Hundreds of police and others resumed what Samoan police commander Lilo Maiava called “a painstaking search” for bodies that could continue another three weeks.
The governments of the United States, Australia and New Zealand sent in supplies and troops, including a U.S. Navy frigate carrying two helicopters that will be used in search-and-rescue efforts.
Lt. Col. Charles Anthony said the Hawaii Air National Guard and U.S. Air Force flew three cargo planes to American Samoa that carried 100 Navy and Army guard personnel and reservists.
Al Palmer returned to his home in American Samoa and saw nothing but rubble following Tuesday’s 8.0-magnitude earthquake and tsunami. The tsunami swept his wife out of their home and sent her several hundred feet inland. She survived by grabbing ahold of a pole and is now in the hospital being treated for injured fingers.
“It is unbelievable to think this was our home, and this is all that’s left,” he said.
In nearby homes, a refrigerator sat on its side on the top of a sink. In a living room, mud caked a newly-tiled floor. A bus sat parked on the front porch of a home.
The scene of mayhem stood in sharp contrast to the breathtaking scenery that Samoans are accustomed to: The islands are surrounded by majestic waters and beaches that quickly give way to lush volcano-carved mountainsides and tropical forests dotted with taro and coconut farms.
The Samoas lie about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii.
Before the disaster struck, the majority of the population in American Samoa lived below the poverty line, with tuna canneries, coconut plantations and tourism representing the bulk of the territory’s economic activity.
The canneries produce the tuna consumed in millions of American household, with Starkist and Chicken of the Sea having huge factories on American Samoa. But the local tuna industry has been in turmoil since the companies were forced to pay workers the U.S.-mandated minimum wage, something they have historically avoided.
Long before the tsunami hit, Chicken of the Sea planned to close its packing plant on the island this week and lay off more than 2,100 workers, amounting to a double-whammy for workers who lost their jobs and saw their homeland ravaged by disaster in the same week.
Samoan Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele’s own village of Lesa was washed away — like many others on Samoa and nearby American Samoa and Tonga. He described seeing complete devastation.
“In some villages absolutely no house was standing. All that was achieved within 10 minutes by the very powerful tsunami,” he said.
New Zealand school teacher Charlie Pearse choked back tears as she spoke to New Zealand’s TV One News from an Apia hospital bed in Samoa, recalling how she was trapped underwater and thought she was going to die.
She was in the back of a truck trying to outrun the tsunami with about 20 children when a wave tossed the truck and it landed on top of them.
“We all went under the water and I think a number of the children died instantly,” Pearse said.
“I asked, ’Is this my time to come home? Take me home, I’m ready,’ and I let my breath out and I took a big gulp of water ... and I don’t know, I just popped out (from under the water),” Pearse said.
Melissa Coulter said her 73-year-old disabled father survived because her brother managed to lift him up and hold up above the waves. Her mother also struggled to stay afloat.
“She doesn’t know what she hit — broken cars, buses, icebox, roofing. She was just swimming for her life,” Coulter said.
Power in Pago Pago — the capital of American Samoa — was expected to be out in some areas for up to a month, and officials said some 2,200 people were in seven shelters across the island.
Red Cross relief worker Garete Wolfe at a hilltop camp in Samoa said water was the most critical need.
“The water lines are all ... damaged, and with this water problem we face waterborne disease,” Wolfe said.
New Zealand and Australia were sending their resources to Samoa, while American government was focusing on its territory.
New Zealand provided 1 million New Zealand dollars ($710,000) in immediate aid to Samoa, Tonga and the Samoan Red Cross on Thursday. Acting Prime Minister Bill English said Prime Minister John Key is cutting short his U.S. vacation to fly to Samoa to inspect the damage.
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McGuirk reported from Apia, McAvoy from Pago Pago, American Samoa. Also contributing were Associated Press writers Fili Sagapolutele in Pago Pago, Ray Lilley in Wellington, New Zealand; Tanalee Smith in Adelaide, Australia; Jaymes Song, Mark Niesse, Herbert A. Sample in Honolulu.