Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- The death toll from this week’s tsunami in the Samoan islands reached 155 as Australia, New Zealand and the U.S. airlifted aid for thousands of homeless survivors in the devastated region.

A New Zealand Air force Hercules transport is heading to the region today carrying a water treatment plant and medical supplies, Group Captain John Cummings told Radio New Zealand. A team of eight nurses and doctors will travel to Samoa tomorrow to support workers at the main hospital in the capital, Apia, said Ron Dunham, who is coordinating selection of volunteers from New Zealand.

It is important to “match the expertise with the need in Samoa and Tonga,” he told the broadcaster. “It’s important that it is a sustainable approach” and dozens of volunteers will likely be rotated in weeklong shifts, he said.

International aid is building in Samoa and American Samoa where the tsunami earlier this week flattened coastal villages and swept many locals and tourists to their deaths. The toll in Samoa stands at 115, while U.S. officials put the number of people killed in the neighboring territory at 31. Nine people died on Tonga’s northern-most island.

The tsunami was triggered by a magnitude-8.0 earthquake, the world’s largest in two years, that struck south of Samoa on Sept. 29, Samoan time. Waves reached at least 20 feet (6 meters) high in parts of American Samoa and swept more than a half mile (0.8 kilometer) inland.

A magnitude-6.3 earthquake hit near Tonga in the vicinity of the main quake at 2:07 p.m. Tongan time today, the U.S. Geological Survey said on its Web site.

Water, Shelter

While bodies are still being recovered, the focus of aid efforts is shifting to provision of water and shelter. About 10,000 people, 6 percent of Samoa’s population of 177,000 people, were left homeless, Radio New Zealand reported.

The U.S. sent meals, generators, medical supplies and medical assistance teams to American Samoa, Federal Emergency Management Agency Administrator Craig Fugate said yesterday. President Barack Obama declared a disaster, making the territory with a population of about 65,600 people available for immediate government funding for aid and rebuilding.

Infrastructure on Tonga’s island of Nuiatoputapu was “over 90 percent” destroyed, including the local hospital, according to Alfred Sokai of the National Disaster Office. A military patrol vessel reached the island yesterday and the survivors have sufficient food and shelter, he said.

Victim identification teams from Australia and New Zealand are helping establish mortuaries in Apia. Technicians are helping restore communications between the capital and the southern coast of Upolo, the worst-affected region, New Zealand police liaison officer Ross Arden told Radio New Zealand.

New Zealand

Three New Zealanders were killed in Samoa, with a fourth presumed dead and “grave fears” held for two others holidaying at Lalomanu when the tsunami hit, New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said today. At least 20 others were injured and some will be evacuated to New Zealand for treatment as soon as possible, the ministry said in an e-mailed statement.

Four Australians were killed in Samoa, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said yesterday.

A New Zealand Air force Iroquois helicopter arrived in Samoa late yesterday and should be operating today. The navy’s transport vessel HNZS Canterbury is loading in Auckland and may sail this weekend.

“Food, water, tarpaulins” are still urgently needed on some parts of Samoa’s southeastern coast, Radio New Zealand correspondent Leilani Momoisea said in a broadcast. “There is still so much debris strewn around and the roads are half washed away so it takes a while to get through.”

Main Road

Government officials are due to travel to Savaii, Samoa’s western island, to evaluate whether the main road there can be reopened, she said.

The United Nations said governments must ensure they improve a tsunami alert system in the region and there is greater public awareness of emergency measures.

“National authorities must maintain and constantly improve their communications and warning systems to help protect coastal populations,” Koichiro Matsuura, director-general of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, said in a statement yesterday. Unesco coordinates the alarm system.

Residents in American Samoa had no warning of the tsunami that came within minutes of the quake, David Bouslough, a local doctor, told Radio New Zealand. No sirens or alarms went off before the wave’s arrival, said Bouslough, the chief of the emergency department at the island’s LBJ Tropical Medical Center.

To contact the reporters on this story: Gavin Evans in Wellington at gavinevans@bloomberg.net; Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 1, 2009 22:06 EDT