Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance planes to Tonga on Monday to assess the damage caused by a volcanic eruption that blanketed the country in ash and cut it off from the rest of the world, and
triggered a tsunami that reached as far as the California coast.
Australian Pacific Minister Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested there were no casualties from Saturday's eruption and tsunami, but Australian police who have scoured the beaches reported significant damage and "collapsed houses".
“We know that there is some significant damage, and we know that some of this is in the tourist resorts,” he said in an interview on a local radio station, adding that Tonga's airport appeared to be in relatively good condition.
Surveillance flights assess the situation on the outer islands, where
communications are completely cut off.
Eruption at the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai submarine volcano, off Tonga, on January 14, 2022. TONGA GEOLOGICAL SERVICES / via REUTERS
The deputy head of the Tongan mission in Australia, Curtis Tu'ihalangingie, asked for patience while the government decides its aid priorities.
The region is concerned about the risk of aid deliveries spreading COVID-19 to the island, which is now virus-free
"We don't want to bring another wave, a tsunami of COVID-10," he told the Reuters news agency in a phone call.
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“When people see such a big explosion they want to help,” he said, but added that Tongan diplomats are also concerned about some private fundraising efforts and urged the public to wait until a disaster relief fund is announced. .
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Any aid sent to Tonga will have to go through a quarantine period, and foreign personnel may not be allowed to land on planes, he said.
The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano caused a tsunami off the coast of Tonga and cut telephone and internet lines across the island.
International communication has been severely hampered by damage to an undersea cable, which could take more than a week to restore.
Australia and New Zealand supported help with satellite calls.
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Tonga's telephone networks have been restored, but the ash is posing a health problem by contaminating drinking water.
"Most people are not aware that the ash is toxic and they have to wear a mask," Tu'ihalangingie said.
Image of the eruption taken by Himawari-8, a Japanese weather satellite operated by the Japan Meteorological Agency NOAA/SSEC/CIMSS / NOAA/SSEC/CIMSS via REUTERS
The Ha'atafu beach resort on the Hihifo peninsula, 13 miles west of the capital Nuku'alofa, was "completely wiped out," its owners said on Facebook.
The family that runs the resort had run for their lives through the brush to escape the tsunami, he said.
"The entire western coast has been completely destroyed along with the town of Kanukupolu," the resort reported.
Among the missing is Angela Glover, a British woman who was swept away by a wave when she and her husband, James, owner of the Happy Sailor Tattoo in Nuku'alofa, had gone to look for their dogs.
The husband managed to cling to a tree, but his wife, who runs a dog rescue shelter, and their pets were swept away, New Zealand's state broadcaster TVNZ reported.
The Red Cross said it was mobilizing its network to respond to what it says is the worst volcanic eruption in the Pacific in decades.
Katie Greenwood, head of the Pacific delegation of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told Reuters that up to 80,000 people could have been affected by the tsunami.
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Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai has erupted regularly in recent decades, but the impact of Saturday's eruption was felt as far afield as Fiji, New Zealand, the United States and Japan, where two people drowned in a beach in the north of the country due to the high waves caused by the tsunami.
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More than a day after the eruption, countries thousands of miles to the west have clouds of volcanic ash hovering over them, New Zealand expert WeatherWatch said.
Early data suggests the eruption was the biggest explosion since Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines 30 years ago, New Zealand volcanologist Shane Cronin told Radio New Zealand.
"It's an eruption best seen from space," Cronin said.
