The death tolls from two powerful underwater earthquakes less than a day apart were expected to continue climbing as residents of the islands of Samoa and the Indonesian island of Sumatra began to dig out from the natural disasters that tore through their cities and villages. The earthquake that struck western Indonesia on Wednesday killed at least 200 people in the coastal city of Padang alone, according to news reports. Thousands more were believed trapped in an estimated 500 buildings that toppled or were damaged in the quake, measured at magnitude 7.6. The Jakarta Post reported that roads leading to the Sumatran city of 900,000 had been cut off by debris but the local airport reopened early Thursday. At least 119 people died in Samoa and American Samoa after a magnitude 8.0 earthquake struck at dawn Tuesday sending four waves, each 15 to 20 feet high, crashing up to a mile inland, according to news reports. 'The earthquake itself was terrifying,' said John Newton, 66, of American Samoa. 'Then the tsunami came just minutes after. The force it came with was just overwhelming. It destroyed everything in its path.' Newton said a friend in a remote part of the island had died in the disaster. 'I don't think anyone here will be untouched by this,' he said. Wooden structures were toppled, and concrete buildings had their ground floor contents swept away. Cars were overturned, and roads were strewn with mud and debris. The tsunami knocked out one of two power plants on American Samoa, and there were reports that the structure would not be online for a month. Communications throughout the islands were spotty. Dennis Famui said he walked outside his hillside home immediately after the earth shook and looked out onto the bay at the center of American Samoa. 'A couple minutes after the earthquake, you could see the water draw back and expose the reef and part of the docks,' said Famui, 45. 'Then the water came back and tossed cars and container boxes and pushed them right back into the bay.' Famui said the tsunami was deceptive. It wasn't a tidal wave that could be spotted from a distance but a mass of water that rose with steady, destructive force as it moved inland. With President Barack Obama having declared a major disaster in American Samoa, a U.S. territory of 65,000 inhabitants, the Federal Emergency Management Agency began working with emergency responders in the region. FEMA said it was sending teams and supplies from Hawaii on a Coast Guard C-130 plane. The airport in the island's capital, Pago Pago, had to be cleared of debris. Residents said they were beginning to clean up, but others reported seeing people still in a state of shock. 'People are still trying to wrap their heads around this,' said Adam Leonard, 24. Leonard said the mother of a friend died when the tsunami struck a retirement home near the coast. 'It was so powerful it pushed my boss' car 150 years away,' he said. Six people were confirmed dead in Tonga, south of the Samoas, according to the Associated Press, which cited New Zealand's acting prime minister, Bill English. He said Tongan officials told him that four people were missing after the tsunami struck the northern island of Niua. The news agency also reported that all 65 employees at the National Park of American Samoa were accounted for. In Indonesia, the death toll was expected to rise significantly after the massive earthquake felled schools, hotels and hospitals in Padang, Reuters reported. It was unclear the extent of the damage and the death toll outside of Padang because telephone lines were damaged. A tsunami warning was briefly issued, sparking fears of a repeat of the 2004 tsunami that killed 232,000 people. The temblor was felt hundreds of miles away in Singapore and the Malaysian capital, Kuala Lumpur. 'Hundreds of houses have been damaged along the road. There are some fires, bridges are cut and there is extreme panic here,' said a Reuters witness in the city, who also said broken water pipes had triggered flooding. Padang is on one of the world's most active fault lines, where the Indo-Australia tectonic plate grinds against the Eurasia plate to create regular tremors and sometimes quakes. 