Wellington, Sept 30 NZPA - One of Samoa's richest women, resort owner Anna Tui Annandale -- who was educated up in New Zealand -- drowned during the tsunami while trying to rescue children, according to Samoa's deputy prime minister Misa Telefoni.

Tui Annandale, who went to Hamilton Girls' High School and Auckland University in the 1960s, owned a popular resort with her husband Joe on the south coast of Upolu.

Mr Telefoni said today that resorts along that coast including the Annandales' upmarket Sinalei Reef Resort, had been devastated.

"We've had very heavy damage all along the coast and most of the tourist resorts have been wiped out," he told Associated Press.

He said Joe Annandale had been critically injured while his wife was believed to have been killed trying to save children in the village of Poutasi.

"I know these people well and these are not the sort of people who run away when children are in trouble," said Mr Telefoni, who is a cousin of Mr Annandale.