Tonga, a country in Oceania, is calling for “immediate aid”, with an urgent need for fresh water and food, as it assesses the damage caused by the eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai which began on Saturday, January 15, 2022.
Experts say it’s the biggest since Pinatubo in the Philippines in 1991, triggering a tsunami and blanketing the Pacific Island nation in volcanic ash.
“Communications remain down and the full extent of the harm to lives and property is currently unknown. What we do know is that Tonga needs immediate assistance to provide its citizens with fresh drinking water and food,” Parliament Speaker Lord Fakafanua said in a statement.
The appeal for aid came as experts detected another eruption at Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai.
The eruption has covered the Pacific islands in ash, cut power and severed communications.
The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC), headed by Katie Greenwood told the media that “it suspects there could be up to 80,000 people throughout Tonga affected by either the eruption itself or from the tsunami wave and inundation as a result of the eruption. That was a shock to people, so we do hold some concerns for those outer islands and we’re very keen to hear from people.”
The Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre said the volcano erupted at 22:10 GMT on Sunday, with the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre saying it had detected large waves in the area: “This might be from another explosion of Tonga volcano. There are no known earthquakes of significant size to generate this wave.”
Australia and New Zealand sends flight to assess Tonga damage
Australia and New Zealand on Monday, January 17, 2022, sent surveillance flights to assess the damage in Tonga and said they were coordinating with the United States, France and other countries on the humanitarian response.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tsunami had wreaked “significant damage”.
By far, no deaths have been reported yet.
Australia’s Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, said initial reports suggested there had been no mass casualties and that the airport “appears to be in relatively good condition”, but there was “significant damage” to roads and bridges.
The Red Cross has offered its assistance and the Pacific Islands Forum said it was ready to assist in what it described as a “once in a millennium natural disaster”.
“In the coming hours and days we will get a clearer picture of the situation in Tonga, as well as the rest of the Blue Pacific Continent,” Secretary General Henry Puna said in a statement.
New Zealand’s Acting High Commissioner in Tonga, Peter Lund has said the island nation looks “like a moonscape” after it was coated in a layer of volcanic ash.
The dust was reportedly contaminating water supplies and making fresh water a vital need, Ms Ardern said on Sunday.
Aid charities said the ash had prompted authorities to tell people to drink bottled water and wear face masks to protect their lungs.
As the sky darkened with ash, videos showed traffic jams as people fled low-lying areas by car. Hours later, Tonga’s internet and phone lines went down, making the island’s 105,000 residents almost entirely unreachable.
Prior to the largest eruption, the volcano had been erupting for several days. The Tonga Meteorological Agency had warned that the smell of sulphur and ammonia was being reported in some areas.
New Zealand’s Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern said power was being restored to some parts of the island and mobile phones were slowly starting to work again. But the situation in some coastal areas remained unknown.
Unable to speak to their friends and family, many Tongans in Australia and New Zealand have grown concerned for their safety.
Fatima said she had not heard anything from her colleague who runs a seafront restaurant in Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa.
“It’s all very sad, we are hoping for the best,” she told the media. “This will hit them so hard as they have been in lockdown a long time with no tourists visiting and now this.”
