Tonga volcano eruption caused ‘significant damage’, says Ardern | Tsunami News

New Zealand’s prime minister says Saturday’s volcanic eruption damaged Tonga’s capital, but there are no reports of deaths.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern says Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa suffered “significant” damage from a powerful volcanic eruption that triggered a tsunami, but says there has been no reports of injury or death.

Ardern’s comments on Sunday came as Pacific nations and humanitarian groups struggled to establish communications with Tonga, a day after the disasters cut telephone and internet connections, leaving its 105,000 residents virtually uncontactable.

Ardern said her government had made contact with the New Zealand embassy in Nuku’alofa.

“The tsunami has had a significant impact on the foreshore on the northern side of Nuku’alofa with boats and large boulders washed ashore,” she told reporters.

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

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades but Saturday’s eruption was so loud that residents parts of Fiji and New Zealand said they heard it.

Satellite images captured the volcanic eruption as the explosion sent plumes of smoke into the air and about 20 kilometers (12 miles) above the sea level.

The sky over Tonga was darkened by the ash.

People evacuate the coastline in Chile following a tsunami preventive advisory generated by local authorities at the South Pacific, Vina del Mar, Chile, January 15, 2022. REUTERS/[Rodrigo Garrido/ Reuters]

An aerial view shows capsized boats believed to be affected by the tsunami caused by an underwater volcano eruption on the island of Tonga at the South Pacific, in Muroto, Kochi prefecture, Japan [Kyodo/via Reuters]

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

Tongan churches in New Zealand organised prayers for their families back home.

“We pray God will help our country at this sad moment. We hope everybody is safe…,” Maikeli Atiola, the Secretary of the Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Auckland said, Radio New Zealand reported.

Saturday’s eruptions triggered tsunami warnings across the Pacific, including in Tonga, Samoa, Australia, Japan, Hawaii, Chile and the United States’s Pacific Coast.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for all of the archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami center said waves of 80 centimeters (2.7 feet) were detected.

Footage posted on social media showed waves crashing across the shore and people rushing to higher ground.

The US Geological Survey recorded the eruptions as equivalent to a 5.8 magnitude earthquake at zero depth.

Japanese broadcaster NHK reported waves of more than a metre hitting coastal areas on Sunday and said authorities advised around 230,000 people living across eight prefectures to evacuate.

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