Damage on tsunami-hit Tonga’s main island hampering relief efforts

An eruption occurs at the underwater volcano Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai off Tonga, January 14, 2022 in this screen grab obtained from a social media video. Video recorded January 14, 2022. Tonga Geological Services/via REUTERS

SYDNEY/WELLINGTON, Jan 18 (Reuters) – Significant damage was reported along the western coast of Tonga’s main island on Tuesday following the weekend’s massive volcanic eruption and tsunami, but a closed airport and downed communications are hampering international relief efforts.

The New Zealand High Commission reported the damage along the western coast of the main island of Tongatapu, where there are many vacation resorts, and the waterfront of the capital, Nuku’alofa.

The South Pacific archipelago has remained largely cut off from the world since the eruption on the uninhabited volcanic island of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai cut its main undersea communications cable.

A thick layer of ash blanketed the entire island, the High Commission said, adding it was working to establish communications with smaller islands “as a matter of priority.”

British national Angela Glover, 50, was killed in the tsunami as she tried to rescue the dogs she looked after at a rescue shelter she had set up with her husband in the South Pacific archipelago, her brother said, the first known death from the disaster.

There are no official reports of injuries or deaths yet but internet and telephone communications are extremely limited and outlying coastal areas remain cut off.

“We don’t have any further information that would suggest … significant casualties, although, as you would appreciate, information is still relatively patchy,” Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja told Nine’s Today show on Tuesday.

“The priority now will to be get supplies to Tonga, and the biggest constraint on that at the moment … is the airport. There is still a significant amount of ash,” he said.

The airport was now more likely to be open by Wednesday, he said.

The United Nations said a distress signal was detected in an isolated, low-lying Ha’apai islands group, adding it had particular concerns about Fonoi and Mango islands. According to the Tonga government, 36 people live on Mango and 69 on Fonoi.

A satellite image posted by the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) indicated there was damage to scores of structures on Nomuka island.

“Further volcanic activity cannot be ruled out,” OCHA said, reporting only minor injuries but emphasising that formal assessments, especially of the outer islands, had yet to be determined.

The Ha’atafu Beach Resort, on the Hihifo peninsula, 21 km (13 miles) west of the capital Nuku’alofa, was “completely wiped out”, the owners said on Facebook.

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Australia and New Zealand sent surveillance flights on Monday to assess damage and Seselja said Australian police had reported significant damage along beaches with “houses thrown…