Casualty reports awaited from tsunami-hit Tonga with comms largely down

WELLINGTON, New Zealand – Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely uncontactable on Sunday, January 16, with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through.

There are no official reports of injuries or deaths in Tonga as yet, although communications are limited and contact has not been established with coastal areas beyond the capital Nuku’alofa, Jacinda Ardern, the Prime Minister of New Zealand, told a news conference on Sunday. Concerns were growing among the Tongan community in New Zealand, desperate to make contact with their families back home. Some churches organized community prayers in Auckland and other cities.

An Australian government spokesperson said initial assessments are still underway but Australia is ready to provide support to Tonga if requested.The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades but Saturday’s eruption was so loud that residents parts of faraway Fiji and New Zealand said they heard it.

Rumblings and eruptions from the volcano continued to be heard through the night, Ruggiero said. Hundreds of people were moved to evacuation centres in Suva. Fiji Airways had to cancel all its flights due to the ash clouds.

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