After days of uncertainty, The Government of Tonga described this Tuesday as “an unprecedented disaster” the tsunami and the volcanic eruption suffered by this South Pacific archipelago where the death of three people has been confirmed.
In its first official statement since the natural disaster that occurred on Saturday, the Government describes how the eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai caused a tsunami with waves up to 15 meters high that hit several islands of the 169 of this archipelago.
The three confirmed fatalities are a Briton, a 65-year-old woman from Mango Island and a 49-year-old man from Nomuka Island.
The government statement, which was delayed by the cut in communications in the archipelago, describes how the catastrophe caused the destruction of all the houses in Mango, populated by 36 people, while only two were left standing on Fonoifua Island, the two most affected along with Nomuka.
The Executive has ordered the deployment of two military ships to bring humanitarian aid to some of the most affected areas in difficult conditions due to the destruction on the coasts and the dense layer of ash that has covered this territory.
One of the most serious problems pointed out by the Executive is shortage of drinking water, which it tries to correct with the collaboration of other nations, such as New Zealand and Australia.
Two New Zealand Navy ships set sail today loaded with humanitarian aid bound for Tonga, where they are scheduled to arrive this Friday, while Australia has another ship ready with emergency aid, including 250,000 liters of drinking water and a desalination plant. with a capacity to produce 70,000 litres.
Both nations also plan send C-130 Hercules aircraft with more supply once the dense layer of volcanic ash that litters the runway in the Tongan capital has been cleaned.
The Red Cross estimates that some 80,000 people, of the 105,000 inhabitants of the country, have been affected by this natural disaster, and experts do not rule out other incidents of volcanic activity.
Aerial images taken Tuesday by New Zealand Air Force reconnaissance flights showed a lunar landscape, where ash covers the entire terrain and significant damage to the buildings located on the island of Tongatapu, where the capital Nuku’alofa is located.
[Fotos] Stunning Aerial Images Show Devastation After Tonga Tsunami #CooperativeWithYou https://t.co/JHUEleJ4DV pic.twitter.com/rYdrAUp39m
– Cooperative (@Cooperative) January 18, 2022
Other islands such as Uoleva and Uiha, in addition to Nomuka, show a similar scenario, with severe flooding and ash accumulation, according to images from the United Nations Satellite Center (UNOSAT).
The country has remained virtually incommunicado because the submarine cable through which all telephone and internet communications are connected it has broken up about 37 kilometers away from the coast.
According to the Government, telephone lines only work on the islands of Tongatapu and the USA, while the two telecommunications companies try to restore service in some points with satellite technology, with priority for international calls and email.
A spokesman for the company responsible for the submarine cable stressed, in statements to the Radio New Zealand station, the enormous difficulty of the repair work given the situation of uncertainty due to the activity of the volcano and that at least it will take weeks until the person in charge of these tasks can reach the area.
The thunderous eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai, which could be heard hundreds of kilometers away and clearly seen from space, too caused the volcano to disappear from the sea surface.
UNOSAT images reveal that as a result of the eruption only two small portions of land remain above sea level, while a few days earlier these two surviving portions – part of the submarine volcano’s cone – were much larger and joined by a 1.2-kilometre-wide tongue of land.
The disappearance of the volcano makes it difficult for experts to control its underwater activity, with a long history of eruptions and that made Saturday’s one of the most violent that have been recorded in the last 30 years on the planet.
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