As Tonga’s recovery from the recent volcanic eruption and tsunami ramps up there is growing concern for the psychological and emotional wellbeing of survivors.

According to the government, 84 percent of the population has been impacted, with assessments of the widespread destruction still being conducted.

Two Tongans and a British national were killed during the disaster.

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RNZ Pacific’s Tonga correspondent Kalafi Moala said that while the recovery was building up steam a lot of people were still visibly shaken.

“For example near here, where there were homes in the waterfront that were destroyed, when you go over to inspect the place you see people that are just staring,” he said.

“With looks in their faces not only of disappointment, but it is a look of hurt,” he added.

French aid
A French Navy ship is to take relief supplies to Tonga following the volcanic eruption and tsunami.

The Red Cross in Noumea has readied 21 pallets which the patrol boat La Glorieuse will deliver to Nuku’alofa.

The 10 tonnes of goods include tents for about 100 families, hygiene kits, solar-powered lights as well as masks.

A coordinator, Vincent Lepley, has told the local broadcaster that as Tonga was covid-19 free, no staff would be sent.

He said the delivery would be made within the French partnership with New Zealand and Australia as well as Tonga’s Red Cross.

Help from Fiji on the way

The first contingent of 51 Fiji soldiers are still awaiting approval from the Tongan government to assist New Zealand and Australia in their relief efforts in the kingdom.

The Fijians arrived in Brisbane last Saturday to join Australia’s Defence Force deployment to Tonga.

Fiji army commander Major-General Ro Jone Kalouniwai said the group consisted of engineers, medics and other specialists.

He said they would carry out rehabilitation and further assessments in Tonga.

The Fiji military said the soldiers had completed covid-19 tests and isolation requirements before heading to Australia.

“Looking at the damage and the things that happened in Tonga so far, we are going engineer heavy so we taking a lot of plant operators, we are looking at construction workers, civil engineers and also medical staff. The rest are all part of the manpower that can assist these specialists’ engineers in the work they are doing,” he said.

Volunteers needed
Twelve shipping containers bound for Tonga have been fully packed with food and water by Aotearoa Tonga Relief Committee volunteers.

Thirteen additional containers are being sent to Auckland’s Mount Smart Stadium today.

The drop off points for the public remain closed as the hundreds of drums already onsite need loading.

Committee co-chair Jenny Salesa said volunteers worked until 10pm last night.

But she said more people power was needed for the final push today, with packers expected to work until midnight.

All volunteers must be fully vaccinated.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

The second day of a drive to receive emergency supplies in Aotearoa New Zealand to be sent to Tonga has started in Auckland this morning.

Hundreds queued for hours at Mount Smart Stadium in Penrose yesterday to deliver emergency goods that will be sent to their families in Tonga.

Almost six shipping containers were filled yesterday and organisers say at one point queues of more than 400 cars stretched three kilometres.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘I’m 100 percent confident that none of our deployed forces have Covid’ – NZDF Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour (duration 8′:27″)
• READ MORE:  Tonga’s King Tupou VI offers hope to families who lost relatives in deadly tsunami
• Safety at Tonga port being checked for arrival of more humanitarian supplies
• Tonga eruption: Airport runway cleared of ash, says WHO official
• Tonga eruption: Images appear to show most of Atatā island wiped out
• Scientists warn Tonga eruption may damage environment for years
• Gallery: What the NZ air crew saw at Tonga’s Nomuka – a choking carpet of volcanic ash
• Other Asia Pacific Report coverage of Tonga

Aotearoa Tonga relief committee secretary Pakilau Manase Lua said it had been heartening to see the support and today was expected to see an even bigger turn out.

He said only vaccinated people can enter the stadium but donations from unvaccinated people can be dropped off at the stadium gates from 9am to 8pm.

Mepa Vuni said it was a long wait yesterday and many people had taken the day off work to make their deliveries for Tonga to the stadium.

“I haven’t spoken to my Mum since the eruption on Saturday. We are all doing this for the time being. We have been queing here for more than two hours. People have been queuing since 7 o’clock,” she said last evening.

Pasifika doctors ready
The Pasifika Medical Association is ready to mobilise the necessary support for Tonga, following the devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami.

PMA’s Medical Assistance Team is ready to send an experienced and specialised team of doctors, nurses and technical support workers.

Watch today’s report on Tagata Pasifika. Video: Tagata Pasifika

The medical team has previously been deployed to Tonga to help with the measles outbreak and Cyclone Gita.

PMA chief executive Debbie Sorensen said they are prepared and are on standby.

She said the volcanic ash is a major concern for people with asthma or respiratory conditions, who will require extra health assistance.

Concerns about covid threat
Tonga’s Minister of Trade and Economic Development is reassuring the public there is minimal threat of covid-19 being imported into the kingdom via the international emergency response to last week’s volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Emergency assistance from the international community is ramping up with navy vessels and flights arriving into the kingdom from Australia, New Zealand and other countries.

Tonga has had a strict border closure in place since the start of the pandemic and has so far had no community transmission of covid.

Ulu’alo Po’uhila, editor and publisher of the Tongan newspaper Kakalu O Tonga, is in New Zealand and said he managed to speak with minister Viliame Latu and put to him concerns raised by the public about covid-19 protocols around the international relief effort.

“I was asking because there is a concern throug these [emergency] aid and these people going to Tonga it might take the virus, covid virus, to Tonga.

“And I was told that they, all they do is just, it is a contact-less delivery,” he said.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

• More on the Mt Smart Stadium collection for Tonga

A World Health Organisation representative in Tonga says the international airport has been cleared of volcanic ash which will allow humanitarian aid flights to arrive.

Hundreds of volunteers, workers and Tongan Defence Force personnel have been clearing the debris from the runway by hand.

WHO liaison officer in Tonga Dr Yutaro Setoya, who is in the capital Nuku’alofa on the main island Tongatapu, said there had been a thick layer of ash on the runway preventing planes from landing.

• READ MORE: Tonga eruption: Images appear to show most of Atatā island wiped out
• Scientists warn Tonga eruption may damage environment for years
• Gallery: What the NZ air crew saw at Tonga’s Nomuka – a choking carpet of volcanic ash
• Other Asia Pacific Report coverage of Tonga

“The runway, I understand, was cleared to be able to be used from outside [the country]. I understand humanitarian flights are coming in,” Dr Setoya told RNZ by satellite phone.

A New Zealand Defence Force C-130 Hercules is on standby and will be able to to take off once the all clear has been given, bringing supplies of water, hygiene kits and other goods.

Two Australian Air Force Hercules are also ready to depart.

One of Tonga’s main communications providers, Digicel, said it had restored international calls to Tonga via satellite.

Undersea communications cable delay
But until the undersea communications cable is restored its network services will not be fully operational, it said.

It is expected to take at least a month to complete repairs on the cable that carries the bulk of internet and phone communications to Tonga.

Digicel Tonga is giving out free sim cards from Thursday morning, with the company saying it knows how desperate family and friends overseas are to connect with relatives.

Three people are confirmed to have died after Saturday’s massive volcanic eruption and tsunami.

Houses on the island of Mango in the Ha’apai group were destroyed, and the majority of structures on Atatā on Tongatapu, about 6km north Nuku’alofa, were all but wiped out by the tsunami.

There has been extensive damage to Fonoifua and Nomuka Islands. Evacuations of residents are underway.

Western parts of the main island of Tongatapu are also badly hit, with dozens of houses destroyed.

New Zealand Defence Force ships HMNZS Wellington and HMNZS Aotearoa are due to arrive in Tonga on Friday, carrying water and other immediate supplies, as well as engineers and helicopters.

‘Contactless’ aid
Their first task is to offload desperately needed water, but distributing supplies will be complicated by the need to maintain covid-19 protocols.

Tonga is free of the virus, and Tongan and New Zealand officials are still working out how foreign assistance can be done in a contactless way.

A second New Zealand Defence Force P3 Orion surveillance flight was carried out on Wednesday and also included Fiji’s southern Lau Islands, at the request of the government of Fiji.

The Tongan government has begun a huge cleanup operation in the capital.

Dr Setoya said Tonga needed access to emergency funding and immediate humanitarian supplies from overseas, but he believed most of the response to the devastating volcanic eruption could be handled domestically.

He said people affected by the volcanic eruption were resilient and strong and were helping others clean up.

“Tongan people are strong and very quick to react,” he said.

“People are cleaning ashes from the ground and the roof … hand in hand, cleaning the houses together. So I think there’s a good energy in Tonga.”

He said Tonga needed rain to wash away the ash.

“Because ash is everywhere and has to be washed away before we get clean water [from roofs] … many people depend on rain water in Tonga.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

An RNZAF P-3K2 Orion aircraft flies over the small Tongan island of Nomuka showing the heavy ash fall from last Saturday’s volcanic eruption on Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai.

Five Squadron crew worked on board while flying overhead to gather vital information to send back to New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) and other government agencies.

• READ MORE: Asia Pacific Report’s other images and stories on the volcanic eruption and tsunami

Images: Taken on board the Royal New Zealand Air Force Orion on Monday 17 January 2022/Licensed under Creative Commons BY-4.0

RNZDF Orion surveillance flight images

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It could be weeks before Tonga’s crucial undersea communications cable – which connects it to the world – is back online.

The cable carries nearly all digital information including the internet and phone communications in and out of Tonga.

It was damaged after the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption nearby on Saturday.

• LISTEN TO RNZ MORNING REPORT: ‘Water is a critical issue for the people of Ha’apai and no doubt for the people of Tonga’ – MP Jenny Salesa
• ‘There will be issues around health because of the air quality and around water supplies as well – clean water is going to be a big issue’ – Katie Greenwood
• READ MORE: Anxious Tongans in NZ await volcano news from home: ‘It’s painful, you just feel hopeless’
• Why the volcanic eruption in Tonga was so violent, and what to expect next
• Other APR reports on the tsunami

Dean Veverka is director of the International Cable Protection Committee and chief technical officer for Southern Cross Cables — which owns two other cables in the area.

The Tongan cable, which is part-owned by the Tongan government, has broken about 37km off Tonga, he said.

The repair requires a ship which is currently in Papua New Guinea, about 2500 km away, so it could be a couple of weeks before the cable is back up and running.

“It’s very serious because the satellites can only handle … a small percentage of the traffic requirements out of any country.

“These days submarine cables carry about 99 percent of all communications between countries.

Limiting Tongan communications
“It will be quite limiting the communication to Tonga for a fair while.”

It could cost anywhere from US$250,000 upwards to repair, he said.

In the meantime, satellite communications appear to be disrupted by the massive ash cloud thrown up by the volcano.

NZ Joint Forces commander Rear Admiral Jim Gilmour told RNZ News on Monday the communication problems — likely from the ash– prevented pictures taken during the reconnaissance flight being sent back to New Zealand for analysis from the air.

It had to be done once the plane landed back in New Zealand last evening.

The Tonga cable connects into Suva in Fiji, and from there to the Southern Cross cable onto New Zealand, Australia and the US.

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

While the Vanuatu government is investing its resources in tackling the coronavirus pandemic threat, it is now stretching its resources to tackle other natural disasters posing threats to the lives of the people – Cyclone Harold still moving over the country after lashing Santo and constant ash fall from Mt Yasur on Tanna.

Torba and Sanma Provinces suffered flooding and damage from the cyclone.

A lot of people were evacuated as the cyclone brought strong winds, destructive storm surges and heavy rainfall that resulted in flooding.

READ MORE: Cyclone Harold: RNZ’s Jamie Tahana reports on trail of destruction

It made landfall in the south-western coast of Santo and caused damage to infrastructure that could be costly to recover.

Buildings were damaged, communication networks and electricity have been disrupted since yesterday.

The government lifted its Covid-19 physical distancing restriction to allow mass gathering of people in evacuation centers.

Cyclone Harold was upgraded to category 5 yesterday morning and is expected to gain strength as it continues on its forecasted path towards Fiji.

Store food, water advice
People are advised to store enough food and water and those in unsafe shelters and risky areas are advised to move out to safety.

Authorities in the affected provinces have provided evacuation centres to many families. At the Torba Provincial Headquarter in Sola, Vanualava, families have taken shelter in evacuation centres for several days now.

Director of the National Disaster Management Office (NDMO), Abraham Nasak, said: “This is a very challenging time having experience Covid-19 restrictions and Cyclone Harold impacts at the same time”.

Apart from COVID-19 and Cyclone Harold, NDMO is also coordinating response to the Teouma flooding and Tanna ash fall due to the increase in its activity recently.

Secretary-General (SG) of the TAFEA Provincial Government Council (TPGC) Joe Iautim stressed that the ash fall impacts on communities at the Whitesands area in southeast and a few in north Tanna was severe.

“People in these parts of the island are exposed to volcanic ash all year around and often go without food for several months. They rely on the market to buy crops to eat,” he said.

SG Iautim conveyed that a team from NDMO led by the Senior Provincial Liaison Officer of NDMO, Philip Meto, were in Tanna for the rapid assessment, following a request from communities and the TAFEA NDMO Office.

Ash assessment
He said assessment covered other areas that usually experience ash fall and volcanic gases following the wind direction.

NDMO’s Senior Provincial Liaison Officer, Meto, said rapid assessment had been completed awaiting decision from the National Disaster Committee (NDC).

NDMO Director Nasak has assured NDC will consider relief response to the affected families once the State of Emergency (SOE) put in place for Covid-19 ends on Thursday this week.

Director of the Public Health Department Len Tarivonda said the Health Cluster partners were ready to support NDMO response plan for Cyclone Harold.

Cyclone Harold was moving in a south-southeast direction towards central Vanuatu as of yesterday. It is expected to leave Vanuatu by mid-week.

The Pacific Media Centre republishes articles by arrangement with the Vanuatu Daily Post.

• Monster TC Harold wreaks havoc in Vanuatu