First images from surveillance planes flying over the Pacific Island nation of Tonga have revealed “catastrophic” and “extensive” damage to some villages in low-lying coastal parts of the archipelago after a volcanic eruption triggered a tsunami at the weekend.
Photographs taken by the New Zealand Air Force over the tiny Tongan island of Mango showed an entire village had been destroyed, with bright tarpaulin marking higher ground where survivors had since taken shelter.
A similar picture emerged from Atata and Nomuka islands, where surveillance crews observed “a large number of buildings missing” and “multiple trees uprooted, with debris throughout.”
The first death – of 50-year-old British charity worker Angela Glover – was confirmed on Monday but overall casualty figures remain unknown in the tiny nation of about 100,000 people as communications were cut off by the volcanic explosion and roads and the airport damaged.
The eruption on the uninhabited volcanic island of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai was so powerful that its impact was felt in Fiji and New Zealand and coastlines were flooded from Japan to California. Two people drowned off a beach in northern Peru due to high waves caused by the tsunami.
It was one of the largest recorded eruptions in decades, estimated by scientists to have exerted a force equivalent to 1,000 Hiroshima nuclear bombs and exploding 30 kilometres into the air and depositing ash, gas and acid rain across a swathe of the Pacific.
Significant damage was reported along the western coast of Tonga’s main island of Tongatapu, where there are many vacation resorts, and the waterfront of the capital, Nuku’alofa. The Ha’atafu Beach Resort, 13 miles west of Nuku’alofa, was “completely wiped out”, the owners said on Facebook.
While the international airport remains standing, a thick layer of ash over the entire island has currently made the runway unusable, hampering rescue efforts. Satellite images on Tuesday showed people trying to manually clear a pathway.
The UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said there was “particular concern” about two small islands, Fonoi and Mango, where a distress signal was detected. According to the Tonga government, 36 people live on Mango and 69 on Fonoi.
“Further volcanic activity cannot be ruled out,” OCHA said, reporting only minor injuries but emphasising that formal assessments, especially of the outer islands, had yet to be determined.
New Zealand has been at the forefront of international aid efforts. On Tuesday, the country’s navy announced it had dispatched the HMNZS Wellington, carrying divers and hydrographers and a Seasprite helicopter.
It said it would be joined by the HMNZS Aotearoa, loaded with much-needed water and humanitarian aid and disaster relief supplies.
Alexander Matheou, the Red Cross’ Asia Pacific director, said water purification to remove ash contamination, providing shelter and reuniting families were the priorities in the aftermath of the disaster.
A state of emergency has been declared in Tonga, but aid efforts face further complications due to strict Covid-19 restrictions that only allow Tongan citizens and permanent residents to enter.
Curtis Tu’ihalangingie, Tonga’s deputy head of mission in Australia, said the government was concerned about the risk of the virus reaching the island through aid deliveries as it is currently Covid-free.
“We don’t want to bring in another wave — a tsunami of COVID-19,”Mr Tu’ihalangingie told Reuters.He added that it is likely that foreign personnel would not be allowed to disembark aircraft and any aid delivered would need to be quarantined.
The post Tonga volcano: ‘Catastrophic’ damage spotted in low-lying islands appeared first on The Telegraph.
