THE European Union has sent a recovery expert to Samoa with $300,000 to kickstart immediate relief.
EU director for Pacific relations Roger Moore told TVNZ that the expert would be guided by Samoans on what the recovery needs were.
He said the expert had "$300,000 in his pocket to get things started in Samoa yes, water, medical supplies this sort of thing.
"We're mobilising another three million dollars ready to go once we discover what's really needed there".
Mr Moore expected that in the next few months the needs would be "purely humanitarian, the huge amount of suffering, people are dreadfully injured, people have lost their livelihoods, people have lost their homes, they need shelter, they need water".
"As we move on then they're going to have to think how are we going to rebuild this, are we going to rebuild it where it was or are we going to rebuild it somewhere else."
Mr Moore, who was originally a construction engineer, told TVNZ that at present he had "as much knowledge as anybody else from watching the television footage at the moment".