News

First Person: ‘We saw people running from the tsunami, screaming’ |


“I grew up in Australia here, but I have spent the last few years living in Tonga as Pacific Director for climate action group 350.org. I returned to Australia at the beginning of the pandemic, and I haven’t been able to go home since because the border has been completely closed to the rest of the world.

No COVID

The great thing about that is that COVID hasn’t reached Tonga’s shores: one case has passed, but they caught it while the person was still in quarantine and it wasn’t being transmitted to the community.

So they were really strict about who they let in and how people got in. They want to make sure everyone is vaccinated before they even think about opening.

In fact, the first repatriation flight was scheduled to arrive on January 20, but after the tsunami over the weekend, it was cancelled. There are quite a few people from Tonga stuck here in Sydney waiting to come home.

I’m glad that in Sydney I was able to send support home, but it’s also very difficult to be separated from people at times when families usually get together, such as Christmas; but especially now, when everyone at home is facing hardship and there’s not much we can do from here.

‘Water is doing funny things’

We watched TV last weekend and watched the news about Tonga. Then we started scrolling through Facebook and watching all these stories about an eruption that happened and seeing people actually go live on Facebook because the water was doing funny things and no one knew about it. what is happening.

People were streaming from the shore, just trying to figure out what was going on, and then we watched them run away from the tsunami, and scream, before communication was completely cut off.

We can’t speak to anyone from Saturday until about Wednesday. In fact, on Saturday we were delighted with my family that Cyclone Cody just swept through Tonga last week without causing any damage.

We think we’ve gotten away with the worst, but we don’t realize that the worst is actually happening.


A beach in Tonga, before the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai eruption

Sales ADB / Eric

A beach in Tonga, before the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai eruption

‘Everybody’s crying’

Natural disasters are nothing new in the Pacific, and systems are in place to let people know what to do in the event of a tornado, but a tsunami is a completely different kind of disaster because it is unpredictable. Okay.

We don’t know how big it was or how much it affected, because communication was cut. We just didn’t know about the magnitude of the volcanic eruption, and it turned into a huge thing with everyone saying it was some kind of a once-in-a-lifetime event.

All day Sunday, through Monday, through Tuesday, every day until we heard from everyone, we feared the worst.

Some people have access to satellite phones and the internet and can get those little communications that give us glimmers of hope. But we were worried. One person will start crying, then the others are crying too. It’s tough being disconnected from home, not knowing what’s going on.

I’m really grateful that we can now talk to everyone at home and realize that everyone is fine.


The resilience of the Tongans

What I don’t care about is the resilience of my family and people.

The smaller islands near the volcano have suffered too much: waves have swept over them, and we are hearing people there who have survived by climbing coconut trees. The government came and evacuated everyone because it was completely decimated: there was nothing left on some of these islands.

For now, the death toll remains three, which we are grateful for, but we know, as the Tongan Navy reaches all the smaller islands, it is likely that that number will increase: a lot of people in Ha’apei the islands were injured repeatedly trying to escape the Tsunami.

Agriculture is the main way to survive and knowing the impact of ash falling on the ground will be really important, it will determine how long it takes to fully recover.

Initial reports said the falling ash affected all crops in Tonga this year. People were asked not to go near them, not to touch them.

But the great thing about the Tongan community is that there is a lot of support from abroad. There are more compatriots abroad than there are on the island, and everyone is mobilized to make sure our family has everything they need. They will get through this. It will take a long time for them to recover. “



Source link

news7f

News7F: Update the world's latest breaking news online of the day, breaking news, politics, society today, international mainstream news .Updated news 24/7: Entertainment, Sports...at the World everyday world. Hot news, images, video clips that are updated quickly and reliably

Related Articles

Back to top button