Aid workers and residents said families have stopped letting children play outside as Tonga struggles to deal with the ash and psychological consequences of last week’s volcanic eruption and tsunami.
Communication with the outside world remained difficult on Sunday, with few internet services, and the outer islands still cut off from phone service.
The Red Cross said it was not only providing tents, food, water and toilets but also providing comfort to 173 homes on the main island of Tonga.
“Everyone is still struggling,” said Drew Havia, vice president of the Tonga Red Cross. Because of the ashes, “families are making sure that their children are not playing outside, that they are all indoors”, he said.
Although some residents of the worst-affected outer islands in Haapai were moved to Tongatapu, the main island, others were refusing to leave, Howe said.
He said that the psychological impact of the waves coming and destroying the villages would affect their lives for some time.
There was another concern shared by many in Tonga, he said.
“Every kid growing up, in your geography lessons you were taught that this is the Ring of Fire where we’re all living. Now I think we’re quite worried and start thinking, ‘How active are these places?’ He told Reuters.
The eruption of the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Hapai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves into the Pacific Ocean and was heard about 2,300 kilometers (1,430 mi) away in New Zealand.
The explosion was so powerful that space satellites captured not only huge clouds of ash, but also an atmospheric shockwave that emanated from the volcano at close to the speed of sound.
‘throbbing, frightening’
“I thought the world was coming to an end,” recalled John Tukuafu, the owner of Wakaloa beach resort, who had to flee to save his wife from the tsunami. The resort was in Kanokupolu, one of the worst-affected areas on Tongatapu, and uprooted trees and debris now lie in the area where the resort stood.
“I think the whole island, we are in shock,” Mary Lynn Fonua, managing editor of the news website Matangi Tonga Online, told Reuters on Sunday.
He said it took a week for many people to recover from the “throbbing, terrifying” sound of the explosion.
“It was very loud but I could feel it. The house was vibrating, the windows were vibrating and it got more intense until the big bang,” she told Reuters by telephone on Sunday.
Fonua said residents were wishing for tropical rain to wash away the “terrible and itchy” volcanic dust. The leaves on the trees had turned brown and were falling.
Fonua said she was in New Zealand talking to her son on the phone when the tsunami struck.
When Rekha lay dead, she feared that she had been swept away. The worry of many Tongan families abroad was the long days it took to restore limited international call capacity.
Fonua said the Tongans, cut off from the world, have started rescue operations immediately.
He said older Tongans with a tradition of self-reliance remarked that young people were forced to stop looking at their smart phones and had jumped into action.
With power restored after a week, the Matangi Tonga website posted its first story since the eruption and tsunami on Saturday, describing “pumice rain” as volcanic debris fell from the sky, and Waves that engulfed the cars.
Still, his office can’t send email and Tonga needs more satellite capability, Fonua said.
International naval ships and incoming flights have brought much-needed supplies and communication equipment, he said.
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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