The eruption of Mount Tonga resulted in ‘great destruction’, says Ardern | Tsunami News

New Zealand’s prime minister says a volcanic eruption on Saturday destroyed the capital, Tonga, but there were no reports of deaths.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said Tonga Nuku’alofa’s capital was “badly damaged” by the tsunami, but there were no reports of injuries or deaths.

Ardern’s comments on Sunday came as Pacific nationals and humanitarian organizations struggled to establish a connection to Tonga, just one day after the disaster cut off telephone and internet access, leaving 105,000 residents inaccessible.

Ardern said his government had contacted New Zealand’s ambassador to Nuku’alofa.

“The tsunami hit the northern coast of Nuku’alofa with boats and large erosion,” he told reporters.

“Nuku’alofa has a thick film of mountain dust but otherwise the conditions are calm and peaceful.”

But he said there had been no reports of damage to foreign islands, and New Zealand troops would send a military aircraft “as soon as they let the air in”.

“We are working hard to see how we can help our Pacific neighbors after the eruption of a mountain near Tonga,” the New Zealand Defense Force wrote.

The International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’s (IFRC) Pacific Office in Suva, Fiji, at the time said it was monitoring the situation and had no changes in injuries or injuries.

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted frequently in the last few decades but Saturday’s eruptions were so severe that residents of some parts of Fiji, more than 500 miles[800 km]away, are in New Zealand, of which 2,300. 1,400 miles away, he said he heard.

Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption as the eruption sent huge plumes of smoke into the air and about 12 miles (12 km) above sea level.

The sky above Tonga was stained with ashes.

Aerospace displays the turn of the boat, which is believed to have been affected by the tsunami, which was caused by a volcanic eruption on the South Pacific island of Tonga, in Muroto, prefecture of Kochi, Japan. [Kyodo/via Reuters]

A 1.2-meter hurricane swept through Tonga’s capital city, with locals reportedly fleeing to higher ground, leaving flooded houses, some damaged, and small rocks and ashes falling from the sky.

“It was huge, the ground shook, our house shook. It came in waves. My little brother thought the bombs were about to explode, “Mere Taufa told Stuff on Saturday.

He said water flooded their house a few minutes later and he saw the walls of a nearby house collapsing.

“We knew right away that it was a tsunami. The water was just coming out of our house … you could hear all the screaming, people were screaming for safety, so everyone could get to the top.”

King Tupou VI of Tonga is said to have been transferred to the Royal Palace in Nuku’alofa and taken by a group of police officers to a village on the coast.

The United States Geological Survey reported that Saturday’s eruption was equivalent to a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.

The eruption triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, including in Samoa, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the US Pacific Coast.

Japan’s NHK correspondent also reported that more than a meter flood was hitting coastal areas and said authorities had instructed about 230,000 people living in eight counties to evacuate.

In Chile, 1.74-meter (5.5-meter) waves were tested in the coastal town of Chanaral, while smaller waves were seen along the Pacific coast from Alaska to Mexico.

At 03:00 GMT on Sunday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii said the threat of an explosion had passed.

New Zealand scientist Marco Brenna, a senior lecturer at the University of Otago Geology School, described the eruption as “very small” but said that another major outbreak could not be avoided.