Volcanic ash delays aid to Tonga’s shoreline, and crossed the Pacific, causing minor damage from New Zealand to Santa Cruz, California.
A general view from a New Zealand Defense Force P-3K2 Orion surveillance flight shows heavy ash fall over Nomuka in Tonga after the Pacific island nation was hit by a tsunami triggered by an undersea volcanic eruption, January 17, 2022. /CFP
Speaker of the national assembly of Tonga Fatafehi Fakafanua said on Wednesday that “all agriculture is ruined” in the country after the devastating volcano eruptions.
“It’s very sad to hear, so on top of the water that we need in Tonga, it seems that we’ll be facing a food shortage,” he told the Pacific Media Network.
Tonga on Wednesday finished removing a thick coat of ash from an international runway after days of painstaking effort, clearing the way for desperately needed emergency aid to arrive in the isolated and disaster-stricken nation.
Tonga could receive much-stalled flights from Australia and New Zealand from Thursday, UN crisis coordinator Jonathan Veitch told AFP.
New Zealand’s military is sending much-needed drinking water and other supplies, but said the ash on the runway will delay the flight at least a day. A towering ash cloud since Saturday’s eruption had prevented earlier flights. New Zealand also sent a navy ship to Tonga Tuesday with another planned to leave later in the day and pledged an initial 1 million New Zealand dollars ($680,000) toward recovery efforts.
Australia sent a navy ship from Sydney to Brisbane to prepare for a support mission if needed.
Communications with Tonga have been extremely limited, but New Zealand and Australia sent military surveillance flights to assess the damage on Monday, with aerial photos showing the vibrant Tongan landscape transformed by the ash into a gray moonscape.
U.N. humanitarian officials and Tonga’s government “report significant infrastructural damage around Tongatapu,” U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric said.
“There has been no contact from the Ha’apai Group of islands, and we are particularly concerned about two small low-lying islands — Mango and Fonoi — following surveillance flights confirming substantial property damage,” Dujarric said.
New Zealand’s High Commission in Tonga also reported “significant damage” along the western coast of the main island of Tongatapu, including to resorts and along the waterfront area. The commission said Tonga police had confirmed two deaths from the tsunami, including one who was a British national.
