As Tonga’s recovery from the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami ramps up there is growing concern for the psychological and emotional wellbeing of survivors.

According to the government, 84 percent of the population has been impacted, with assessments of the widespread destruction still being conducted.

Two Tongans and a British national were killed during the disaster.

RNZ Pacific’s Tonga correspondent Kalafi Moala said that while the recovery was building up steam a lot of people were still visibly shaken.

“For example near here, where there were homes in the waterfront that were destroyed, when you go over to inspect the place you see people that are just staring,” he said.

“With looks in their faces not only of disappointment, but it is a look of hurt,” he added.

French aid
A French Navy ship is to take relief supplies to Tonga following the volcanic eruption and tsunami.

The Red Cross in Noumea has readied 21 pallets which the patrol boat La Glorieuse will deliver to Nuku’alofa.

The 10 tonnes of goods include tents for about 100 families, hygiene kits, solar-powered lights as well as masks.

A coordinator, Vincent Lepley, has told the local broadcaster that as Tonga was covid-19 free, no staff would be sent.

He said the delivery would be made within the French partnership with New Zealand and Australia as well as Tonga’s Red Cross.

Help from Fiji on the way

The first contingent of 51 Fiji soldiers are still awaiting approval from the Tongan government to assist New Zealand and Australia in their relief efforts in the kingdom.

The Fijians arrived in Brisbane last Saturday to join Australia’s Defence Force deployment to Tonga.

Fiji army commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said the group consisted of engineers, medics and other specialists.

He said they would carry out rehabilitation and further assessments in Tonga.

The Fiji military said the soldiers had completed covid-19 tests and isolation requirements before heading to Australia.

“Looking at the damage and the things that happened in Tonga so far, we are going engineer heavy so we taking a lot of plant operators, we are looking at construction workers, civil engineers and also medical staff. The rest are all part of the manpower that can assist these specialists’ engineers in the work they are doing,” he said.

Volunteers needed
Twelve shipping containers bound for Tonga have been fully packed with food and water by Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee volunteers.

Thirteen additional containers are being sent to Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium today.

The drop off points for the public remain closed as the hundreds of drums already onsite need loading.

Committee co-chair Jenny Salesa said volunteers worked until 10pm last night.

But she said more people power was needed for the final push today, with packers expected to work until midnight.

All volunteers must be fully vaccinated.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

King Tupou VI has offered sympathy and prayers to all those who lost relatives in last weekend’s Tongan volcano eruption and tsunami disaster or are still waiting for news about their families.

He said the whole of Tonga was devastated by the tsunami and it wiped out some of the islands, homes, plantations and possessions.

His Majesty’s first speech to address the nation following last week’s volcanic eruption has been delivered in Tongan in a video clip which was shared on Facebook last night as New Zealand and international aid programmes have stepped up.

The tsunami on Saturday killed three people and injured many. Waves of up to 15 metres flattened houses and caused extensive damage to Tongatapu’s western district.

It wiped out the islands of Mango, Fonoifua and ‘Atatā.

The king mentioned some biblical texts in his attempt to encourage his people to stand together to rebuild the nation.

“Let’s start with Jehovah as Jehovah is our refuge”, the king said referring to Psalm 91 of the Bible.

Facing new challenges
He said he could not say whether the natural disaster’s damage itself was less than the damage it caused to the environment and the evacuation of the people “as there was supreme over all in nature”.

“But it is astonishing, and I am grateful that the death toll was at a minimum,” the king said.

“While we feel and sympathise with immediate families and relatives of the deceased, we have been facing new challenges,” the king said.

He said the Armed Forces’ boats which transported people from the islands were affected by the pumice stones from the volcanic eruptions.

He said the people of ‘Eua valued their wharf more than their airport. And that was because that was what they mostly used for transportation and trade.

Standing together
“In times of trouble, people stand together so they could withstand the consequences,” the king said.

“It is not who have much money or assistance from overseas but the will of the people

“It is the determination to live on top of believing in God and show love, helping each other, have patience and be self-possessed”.

“In the aftermath of the disaster, we have to all stand up and work,” he said.

“It is our nation and the place where we grew up and it is only you and me who would treasure that”.

The king congratulated people from other countries and various partnerships, churches and businesses for helping Tonga.

Aid is coming from Australia, New Zealand, Japan and the United States. New Zealand’s Defence Force continues to coordinate with its partners.

New Zealand aid stepped up
HMNZS Aotearoa berthed today at Nuku’alofa port following successful wharf and harbour inspections conducted by Navy divers and hydrographers on board HMNZS Wellington.

Hydrographers were deployed to survey approaches to Nuku’alofa after the Wellington’s arrival, with Navy divers also conducting checks on the integrity of wharf infrastructure.

Once Aotearoa arrived, Humanitarian Aid and Disaster Relief (HADR) stores, including bulk water supplies, were being offloaded as a priority and will undergo appropriate covid-19 sanitation by Tongan authorities.

Aotearoa is also able to provide continuous water supply while it is berthed.

HMNZS Canterbury was due to depart Devonport Naval Base tonight and is expected to arrive in Tonga early next week.

Supplies on board Canterbury include water, tarpaulins and milk powder. Vehicles and several containers of construction equipment are also on board.

Another C130 Hercules flight is also set to depart Auckland on Saturday with more stores on board.

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A World Health Organisation representative in Tonga says the international airport has been cleared of volcanic ash which will allow humanitarian aid flights to arrive.

Hundreds of volunteers, workers and Tongan Defence Force personnel have been clearing the debris from the runway by hand.

WHO liaison officer in Tonga Dr Yutaro Setoya, who is in the capital Nuku’alofa on the main island Tongatapu, said there had been a thick layer of ash on the runway preventing planes from landing.

“The runway, I understand, was cleared to be able to be used from outside [the country]. I understand humanitarian flights are coming in,” Dr Setoya told RNZ by satellite phone.

A New Zealand Defence Force C-130 Hercules is on standby and will be able to to take off once the all clear has been given, bringing supplies of water, hygiene kits and other goods.

Two Australian Air Force Hercules are also ready to depart.

One of Tonga’s main communications providers, Digicel, said it had restored international calls to Tonga via satellite.

Undersea communications cable delay
But until the undersea communications cable is restored its network services will not be fully operational, it said.

It is expected to take at least a month to complete repairs on the cable that carries the bulk of internet and phone communications to Tonga.

Digicel Tonga is giving out free sim cards from Thursday morning, with the company saying it knows how desperate family and friends overseas are to connect with relatives.

Three people are confirmed to have died after Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Houses on the island of Mango in the Ha’apai group were destroyed, and the majority of structures on Atatā on Tongatapu, about 6km north Nuku’alofa, were all but wiped out by the tsunami.

There has been extensive damage to Fonoifua and Nomuka Islands. Evacuations of residents are underway.

Western parts of the main island of Tongatapu are also badly hit, with dozens of houses destroyed.

New Zealand Defence Force ships HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa are due to arrive in Tonga on Friday, carrying water and other immediate supplies, as well as engineers and helicopters.

‘Contactless’ aid
Their first task is to offload desperately needed water, but distributing supplies will be complicated by the need to maintain covid-19 protocols.

Tonga is free of the virus, and Tongan and New Zealand officials are still working out how foreign assistance can be done in a contactless way.

A second New Zealand Defence Force P3 Orion surveillance flight was carried out on Wednesday and also included Fiji’s southern Lau Islands, at the request of the government of Fiji.

The Tongan government has begun a huge cleanup operation in the capital.

Dr Setoya said Tonga needed access to emergency funding and immediate humanitarian supplies from overseas, but he believed most of the response to the devastating volcanic eruption could be handled domestically.

He said people affected by the volcanic eruption were resilient and strong and were helping others clean up.

“Tongan people are strong and very quick to react,” he said.

“People are cleaning ashes from the ground and the roof … hand in hand, cleaning the houses together. So I think there’s a good energy in Tonga.”

He said Tonga needed rain to wash away the ash.

“Because ash is everywhere and has to be washed away before we get clean water [from roofs] … many people depend on rain water in Tonga.”

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New images appear to show the majority of structures on the Tongan island of Atatā have been wiped out after a volcanic eruption and tsunami last weekend.

The Tongan government has so far confirmed three deaths from Saturday’s eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, and all houses on the island of Mango were also wiped out.

The New Zealand Defence Force has described the damage to the island of Atatā as “catastrophic” in its surveillance photo, which was posted online by a resort based there.

The United Nations Institute for Training and Research (UNITAR) also released an image of Atatā island on January 18, with an assessment that 72 structures had been damaged and the entire island covered in ash.

However, it noted it was a preliminary analysis and had not yet been validated on the ground.

The Royal Sunset Island resort posted on Facebook that all residents had now been evacuated to the mainland.

The resort was fully submerged by the tsunami and it was not expected there would be much left.

Other satellite imagery circulating online also appeared to show major damage on the island.

Meanwhile, the New Zealand government today announced two naval ships with supplies had been approved for arrival in Tonga.

The ships were sent before an official request for help from the Tongan government, but the statement from Minister of Foreign Affairs Nanaia Mahuta’s office this afternoon confirmed the vessels — expected to arrive by Friday, depending on weather — had been approved.

So hard to tell what’s going on here at the Vakaloa Beach Resort… maybe this is just completely covered in ash. You can see the outline of the wall on the left, and a line along the sand where the building is/was… could conceivably be completely covered in ash. pic.twitter.com/F3ZRwAkmTr

— AI6YR (@ai6yrham) January 17, 2022

The eruption was likely the world’s largest in the past three decades, and support and aid efforts have been stymied by communications outages after the blast.

US company SubCom expected repairs to the undersea cable, which carries most of Tonga’s communications, would take at least four weeks.

A mobile network was expected to be established using the University of South Pacific’s satellite dish today, though the connection would likely be limited and patchy.

Volcanic activity and tsunami risk continues to be monitored.

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Tongan communities in New Zealand feel relieved to hear official information from the government of Tonga for the first time since Saturday’s eruption and resulting tsunami.

The Office of Tonga’s Prime Minister was able to send initial detail of search and rescue efforts and early reports of damage to the Australia High Commission in Tonga, which was then shared with the world.

Tongan-born New Zealand MP Jenny Salesa said the first information about what was happening on the ground in Tonga was a relief but also upsetting.

“It is really heartbreaking. Just reading the first official statement as well as seeing the graphic images. Tonga hasn’t yet fully recovered from some of the cyclones. On top of a pandemic, there is now this twin force of natural disaster,” Salesa said.

She had been in touch with many Tongans in Aotearoa since the latest news arrived.

“There is actually a sense of relief that there doesn’t seem to be many more deaths reported. We know as of now, three fatalities have been reported to date. We of course still don’t know the extent of the damages on the ground.

Communication hope soon
“There is some hope though that communication will be up and running pretty soon.”

Salesa said it would take years for the nation to recover.

Evacuation of people on the islands of Mango and Fonoifua to Nomuka — as well as people being evacuated from the west coast of Tongatapu and the island of Atata to Tongatapu — has been underway since Sunday with confirmation there were no houses remaining on Mango and only two houses standing on Fonoifua.

The World Health Organisation confirmed the main hospital in Tongatapu was functioning.

The WHO representative in Tonga has been providing regular updates from Nuku’alofa via satellite phone to his counterpart Sean Casey in Fiji.

“The hospital in Tongatapu is functioning and there has not been an increase in presentations. The Tonga emergency medical assistance team went out on the ship with the navy to the Ha’apai group and are able to provide immediate assistance if required there,” Casey said.

The WHO was lending its only satellite phone to Tongan government officials to use as well, he said.

Church support
The Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints in Tonga is providing shelter to many residents left homeless by Saturday’s tsunami.

LDS Church officials in New Zealand have maintained contact with their counterparts in Tonga via satellite phone.

Pacific area leader and member support manager Hatu Tiakia said the church was actively assisting people on the ground.

“On the first night, over a thousand people used our church school in liahona, but that’s just liahona. We have probably in excess of a hundred buildings or more that’s being used now by the community for shelter,” Tiakia said.

“They go there during the night to sleep because we have water in general for those facilities, and they return to their home to provide cleanup for their communities during the day.”

Tiakia also told RNZ Pacific that aid packages were being organised to be delivered to Tonga.

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The Tongan government has confirmed that all houses on the island of Mango were wiped out in the tsunami that followed Saturday’s volcanic eruption.

It confirmed that three people are now known to have died: a 65-year-old woman in Mango and a 49-year-old man in Nomuka, both in the outlying Ha’apai island group; as well as British national Angela Glover in Tongatapu.

The Tongan navy had deployed with health teams and water, food and tents to the Ha’apai islands.

One aerial image taken by the New Zealand Defence Force (NZDF) showed Mango and described the damage there as “catastrophic”.

No houses, but just a few temporary tarpaulin shelters could be seen.

The Tongan government said Mango, Atata, and Fonoifua islands were being evacuated, and that water supplies in Tonga were seriously affected. It said all houses were destroyed on Mango Island, only two houses remained on Fonoifua and extensive damage occurred on Nomuka Island.

The government also said there were multiple injuries.

First official Tongan statement
It is the first official statement the kingdom has made about the disaster to international media.

The government said parts of the western side of Tongatapu, including Kanokupolu, were being evacuated after dozens of houses were damaged, and that in the central district many houses were damaged in Kolomotu’a and on the island of ‘Eua.

A diplomat, Tonga’s deputy head of mission in Australia, Curtis Tu’ihalangingie, earlier described the images taken by the NZDF reconnaissance flight as “alarming”, saying they showed numerous buildings missing on Atata island as well.

“People panic, people run and get injuries,” Tu’ihalangingie told Reuters. “Possibly there will be more deaths and we just pray that is not the case.”

With communications in the South Pacific island nation cut, the true extent of casualties is still not clear.

Glover, 50, was the first known death in the tsunami, swept away as she tried to rescue the dogs she cared for at a shelter.

Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said conditions on other outer islands were “very tough, we understand, with many houses being destroyed in the tsunami”.

UN report of distress signal
The United Nations had earlier reported a distress signal was detected in Ha’apai, where Mango is located.

The Tongan navy reported the area was hit by waves estimated to be 5m-10m high, said the UN Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

Atata and Mango are between 50km and 70km from the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2300km away in New Zealand when it erupted on Saturday.

Atata has a population of about 100 people and Mango about 50 people.

“It is very alarming to see the wave possibly went through Atata from one end to the other,” Tu’ihalangingie said.

Workers on airport runway
The NZDF images were posted unofficially on a Facebook site and confirmed by Tu’ihalangingie.

Taken from a P-3K2 Orion plane, they also showed workers on the runway clearing volcanic ash at Fua’amotu International Airport, the country’s main airfield.

One caption described the runway as “unserviceable” because of the layer of ash on it, meaning aircraft cannot land there.

It said the clearance operation was being done with shovels and wheelbarrows, and that “no heavy excavation machinery was observed”.

The Tongan government said wharves were also damaged in the eruption.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz