Tonga underwater volcanic eruption that triggered tsunami captured by space satellite
Three people are confirmed dead in Tonga - including one British national - and all homes on one island have been destroyed, says the government after an underwater volcanic eruption and tsunami on Saturday devastated the Polynesian country.
Telecommunication bosses say the islands could be cut off from the world for weeks, after an undersea cable was severed and the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha‘apai volcano left the country covered in ash.
Fears of a possible humanitarian crisis developing in Tonga are growing as details of the damage of Saturday’s natural disaster are learned.
Samiuela Fonua, the chairperson of the state-owned Tonga Cable Ltd which owns and operates the cable, told the Guardian that repair operations to fix the damage could take two weeks but warned of the threat of continuing volcanic activity to efforts, which would need to enter the Tongatapu waters close to the site of the eruption.
New Zealand and Australia have conducted surveillance flights to assess the damage with images revealing Tonga covered in a blanket of ash, hampering relief efforts as the nation’s airport runways are also compromised.
New Zealand’s Acting High Commissioner to Tonga, Peter Lund, said the local government had declared a state of emergency.
