After days of uncertainty, the devastation caused by a tsunami and volcanic eruption over the islands of Tonga It begins to be known this Tuesday through aerial images, while communications continue to be cut off.
(Read here: This is how the eruption of the submarine volcano in Tonga was seen from space)
At least two people have lost their lives, according to official data, amid difficulties in assessing the damage in this remote South Pacific island nation after more than three days of the natural disaster that has left it practically incommunicado.
(You may be interested: How did the Tonga eruption spread across the Pacific?)
The territory of Tonga, made up of 169 islands and with 105,000 inhabitants, remains covered by a dense layer of ash and with the coasts devastated by the onslaught of the waves, according to aerial images taken this Tuesday by reconnaissance flights.
The photos published by New Zealand Air Force They show a lunar landscape, where the ash covers the entire terrain and significant damage to the buildings located on the island of Tongacapu, where the capital, Nuku’alofa, is located.
Other islands such as Uoleva, Nomuka and Uiha show a similar scenario, with severe flooding and accumulation of ash, according to images from the United Nations Satellite Center (Unosat).
distress signals
The United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (Ocha) stressed that there is still no contact with the inhabitants of the Ha’pai islands and specified that the concerns are mainly focused on Mango and Fonoi.
These two islands, inhabited by 36 and 69 people, respectively, according to the official census, are practically at sea level and distress signals have been issued from them.
(See here: Hunga Tonga submarine volcano eruption felt around the world)
New Zealand and Australia send aid
Two New Zealand Navy ships set sail on Tuesday loaded with humanitarian aid bound for Tonga, where they are scheduled to arrive this Friday, while Australia has another ship ready with emergency aid.
Both nations also plan to send planes C-130 Hercules with more supplies once the thick layer of volcanic ash littering the runway in the Tongan capital has been cleared.
“Water is one of the main priorities for Tonga right now,” New Zealand Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta said in a statement, specifying that its ships carry 250,000 liters of drinking water and a desalination plant with the capacity to produce 70,000 litres.
According to Professor Amelia Faotusia, from the Department of Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University, there is concern that the ash fallout has “contaminated” aquifers.
The Red Cross calculates that some 80,000 people, of the total of the 105,000 inhabitants of the country, have been affected by this natural catastrophe, while the experts do not rule out other incidents of volcanic activity.
(In other news: Minor Tsunami hit the West Coast of the United States and Canada)
Weeks to fix communications
Information about the situation in Tonga is beginning to spread slowly because the submarine cable through which all telephone and internet communications with the country are connected has broken some 37 kilometers away from the coast.
A spokesman for the company responsible for this link remarked, in statements to the Radio New Zealand station, the enormous difficulty of the repair work given the situation of uncertainty due to the activity of the volcano and that it will take at least weeks until it can reach the zone the person in charge for these tasks.
“This massive volcanic eruption highlights the importance of telecommunications and internet access to and from Pacific island nations,” researcher Gemma Malungahu of the Australian National University said in a statement, calling for a plan to establish other systems. communication in emergency.
The submerged volcano after the eruption
The thunderous eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai, which could be heard hundreds of kilometers away and clearly seen from space, also caused the volcano to disappear from the sea surface.
The Unosat images reveal that as a result of the eruption only two small portions of land remain above sea level, while a few days earlier these two surviving portions – part of the submarine volcano’s cone – were much larger and joined by a tongue of land 1.2 kilometers wide.
The disappearance of the volcano makes it difficult for experts to control the activity of the submarine volcano, with a long history of eruptions and whose explosion on Saturday is one of the most violent that has been recorded in the last thirty years on the planet.
EFE
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