WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely isolated on Sunday with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families in the Pacific Islands, when no reports of casualties had yet been received.
A underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, prompting warnings of 1.2 meter tsunami waves and evacuation orders off the coast of Tonga, as well as several South Pacific islands, where images on social media showed waves crashing against homes on the coastline.
Internet and phone lines were down by Saturday afternoon, leaving the 105,000 residents on the islands virtually cut off.
There are no official reports yet of wounded or killed in Tonga, although no contact has been made with the outermost coastal areas beyond the capital Nukuʻalofa and closer to the volcano, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said at a news conference on Sunday.
Tonga, an island nation, is 2,383 kilometers northeast of New Zealand.
“Nuku’alofa is covered in thick plumes of volcanic dust, but otherwise conditions are calm and stable,” Ardern said. “There are parts of Tonga where we don’t know yet…we just haven’t established communication.”
Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption on Saturday as the explosion sent plumes of smoke into the air as about 20 kilometers above sea level. The sky over Tonga was darkened by ash.
Concern was growing among the Tongan community in New Zealand, desperate to get in touch with their families back home. Some churches organized community prayers in Auckland and other cities.
“We pray that God will help our country in this sad time. We hope everyone is safe,” said Maikeli Atiola, secretary of the Tonga Wesleyan Church in Auckland, reported Radio New Zealand.
Ardern assured that the main cable of submarine communications was affected, probably due to a loss of power, which was being restored in some areas of the islands and local mobile phones were starting to work slowly.
Assessments Damage officials were not yet available, he said, but New Zealand’s high commission in Nukuʻalofa had told him the tsunami had had a significant impact on the beach on the north side of the capital, with boats and large rocks washed ashore. .
IMPACT ON THE PACIFIC
The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga volcano- Ha’apai has entered eru shaking regularly over the past few decades, but the one on Saturday was so strong that residents in far flung parts of Fiji and New Zealand said they heard it.
“My whole house was shaking” said Sanya Ruggiero, a communications consultant based in Suva, the capital of Fiji, some 750 kilometers from Tonga. the night, Ruggiero said. “This is the worst disaster Tonga has had in living memory and recovery will take years,” he said.
Hundreds of people were taken to evacuation centers in Suva. Fiji Airways had to cancel all its flights due to the ash clouds, which experts said could contaminate drinking water and cause respiratory problems.
Saturday’s eight-minute eruption triggered tsunami alerts and evacuations along coastlines in several countries. The eruption caused flooding in parts of the coast of Alaska and California in the United States.
In Chile, about 10,000 kilometers away, minor flooding was also reported after authorities Local authorities issued tsunami alerts and evacuated beaches in the country, in the middle of the southern summer vacation.
In addition, hundreds of thousands of Japanese citizens were advised to evacuate when waves of more than one metro hit the coastal areas. (Reporting by Praveen Menon in Wellington and Kirsty Needham in Sydney, Editing in Spanish by Manuel Farías)
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