Military flights assess Tonga damage after volcanic eruption
The Associated Press
Australia and New Zealand sent military surveillance flights to Tonga in mid-January 2022 to assess the damage caused by a huge undersea volcanic eruption that killed at least three people in the Pacific island nation.
A towering ash cloud from the January 15 eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand sent essential supplies, including drinking water, on a military transport plane. (Pictured: A New Zealand Defence Force Orion aircraft prepares to depart Auckland, New Zealand, for Tonga on January 17, 2022.)
The U.S. Embassy said in a statement that the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance was working to address emergency shelter needs and was providing safe drinking water, hygiene kits and other necessities to Tongans. The U.S. also approved U.S. $200,000 in immediate assistance to help residents affected by the ash fall and floods.
Communications with Tonga remained extremely limited. The company that owns the single underwater fiber-optic cable that connects the island nation to the rest of the world said it likely was severed in the eruption and that repairs could take weeks.
Most Tongans were unable to use the internet or make phone calls abroad. Those able to get messages out described their country as looking like a moonscape as they began cleaning up from the tsunami waves and volcanic ash fall.
Tsunami waves of about 80 centimeters crashed into Tonga’s shoreline, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described damage to boats and shops on Tonga’s shoreline. The waves crossed the Pacific Ocean, drowning two people in Peru and causing minor damage ranging from New Zealand to Santa Cruz, California.
Satellite images showed a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a giant mushroom above the South Pacific waters.
A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska and sent pressure shockwaves around the planet twice, altering atmospheric pressure that may have briefly helped clear fog in Seattle, according to the United States National Weather Service. Large waves were detected as far away as the Caribbean due to pressure changes generated by the eruption.
Samiuela Fonua, chairman of Tonga Cable Ltd., which owns the single cable connecting Tonga to the outside world via Fiji, said the cable appeared to have been severed about 10 minutes after the eruption. He said the cable lies atop and within coral reef, which can be sharp.
Fonua said it was unclear when it would be safe for a ship to venture near the undersea volcano to retrieve the cable and inspect the damage.
A second undersea cable that connects the islands within Tonga also appeared to have been severed, although a local phone network was working, Fonua said. But he said the lingering ash cloud was making satellite phone calls difficult.
He said Tonga, home to 105,000 people, had been in discussions with New Zealand about getting a second international fiber-optic cable to ensure a more robust network, but that the nation’s isolated location makes long-term solutions difficult.
IMAGE CREDIT: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
