Shrouded in ashes, without internet, in an electric blackout, with telephone lines interrupted and communications entrusted to some satellite: three days after the eruption of the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apa and the tsnunami, the Tonga islands remain cut off from the world.
The extent of the destruction and the victims is not yet clear,
while there is no confirmation of the new eruption of the volcano reported by the Australian Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (Vaac). The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center (Ptwc), based in Hawaii, said it had located large rogue waves in the region: "They may have been generated by another explosion of the volcano in Tonga", since "no earthquakes of size are known. significant "that may have done so.
Australia
and New Zealand have sent planes
to attempt an initial reconnaissance of the situation. According to the International Federation of the Red Cross and Red Crescent (Ifrc), up to 80,000 people could be in disadvantage and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said the tsunami caused "significant damage". The Australian Minister for the Pacific, Zed Seselja, also spoke of significant damage to homes and resorts, according to whom the airport appears to be in good condition. And
it will take at least two weeks to restore internet connections
after a submarine cable was severed by the tsunami.
Problems also on the international relief front due to
the government's fears that Covid could arrive with the aid
, from which the archipelago was spared. Tonga's deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, has asked for patience as the Tonga government decides how to organize aid. "We don't want to bring another wave - a Covid-19 tsunami," he told Reuters over the phone, explaining that any aid sent to Tonga should be quarantined and that probably no foreign personnel would be allowed to disembark from the planes.
To ask for help was
Pita Taufatofua, the flag-bearer wrestler of Tonga at three Olympics
who at the time of the eruption and the tsunami was in Australia to train and launched an appeal and a fundraiser via social media that after a few hours he had already reached the 40 thousand euros. Pita said he had no news of his father, governor of Ha'apai, one of the southernmost islands in the Pacific Ocean archipelago and closest to the eruption area. "The world help us", he said, "the money we collect will be used for the families most in need".
Meanwhile, there is news of
a first victim
.
It is a 50-year-old British citizen, Angela Glover, who was reportedly submerged by the tsunami while trying to rescue the stray dogs she was taking care of.
