The eruption of the Tonga volcano caused “significant damage”, says Ardern Tsunami News

The New Zealand Prime Minister says Saturday’s volcanic eruption has damaged the capital of Tonga, but no one has been reported dead.

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa has suffered “significant” damage from a powerful volcanic eruption that has caused a tsunami, but no one has been reported injured or killed.

Ardern’s comments came on Sunday as Pacific nations and humanitarian groups struggled to establish communications with Tonga, a disaster cut off telephone and Internet connections and a day later left its 105,000 population nearly inaccessible.

Ardern said his government had contacted the New Zealand embassy in Nuku’alofa.

“The tsunami has had a devastating effect on the north coast of Nuku’alofa, bringing boats and large rocks to land,” he told reporters.

“Nuku’alofa is covered with a thick film of volcanic dust, but otherwise the conditions are calm and stable.”

But he said there was no word on the damage to the outlying islands, and the New Zealand military said it would send an air force reconnaissance aircraft “as soon as conditions allow.”

“We are working hard to see how we can help Pacific residents after the volcanic eruption near Tonga,” the New Zealand Defense Forces said in a tweet.

The Office for the Peace of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC) in Suva, Fiji, said it was monitoring the situation and had no updates on any damage or casualties.

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly in recent decades, but the eruption on Saturday was so loud that it is in places in Fiji, which is 800 km (500 miles) and in New Zealand, which is 2,300. they said they had heard miles (1,400 miles).

Satellite images received a volcanic eruption, the explosion sent smoke plumes into the air and about 20 kilometers (12 miles) above sea level.

The sky over Tonga was darkened by ashes.

An aerial view shows the ships capsized by a tsunami caused by an eruption of an underwater volcano on the South Pacific island of Tonga, Muroton, Kochi prefecture, Japan. [Kyodo/via Reuters]

A 1.2-meter wave swept ashore in the Tongan capital, and locals reported fleeing to high ground, leaving flooded houses behind, some damaged structures, and small stones and ashes falling from the sky.

“It was horrible, the ground was shaking, our house was shaking. He came in waves. My little brother thought the bombs were exploding all around, “neighbor Mere Taufa told a Stuff news website on Saturday.

He said the water filled the house minutes later and he saw the wall of a nearby house fall.

“We knew immediately that it was a tsunami. Only water enters our house … Shouts were heard everywhere, people shouting for security, all of them reaching the height of the earth.

King Tupou VI of Tonga was reportedly taken out of the Royal Palace in Nuku’alof and taken by a convoy of police to a villa far off the coast.

The U.S. Geological Survey recorded Saturday’s eruption as the equivalent of a 5.8-magnitude earthquake at zero depths.

The eruptions triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, including Samoa, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the Pacific coast of the United States.

The Japanese broadcaster NHK reported that waves of more than a meter were hitting coastal areas and that authorities had evacuated about 230,000 people living in eight prefectures.

In Chile, 1.74-meter (5.5-foot) waves were measured in the coastal town of Chanaral, and smaller waves were seen on the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico.

At 3:00 a.m. GMT on Sunday, the Hawaii Pacific Ocean Tsunami Warning Center said the threat of an eruption had been overcome.

New Zealand scientist Marco Brenna, a senior lecturer at the University of Otago’s School of Geology, described the impact of the eruption as “relatively mild” but said it could not rule out another eruption with a greater impact.