Anxious wait for NZ’s Tongan community in wake of tsunami

Monday, 17 January 2022

Kilifi Havea, who lives in Christchurch describes how his relatives have struggled to get clean drinking water since Saturday's volcanic eruption in Tonga.

It’s an agonising wait.

Unable to sleep or focus at work, Kilifi Havea watches the images coming out of Tonga and fears for his mother.

Like many in the New Zealand Tongan community, Havea has faced silence from his native country since tsunami waves more than a metre high swamped coastal areas, causing heartbreak as they tore through family homes.

Stories emerged of Tongans fleeing their homes for higher ground, with little in the way of clothing, food or water and possessions strewn everywhere, leaving family members far away in despair.

* Tonga community in Nelson has anxious wait in wake of eruption, tsunami

* Hope among reports of devastation as news dribbles out of Tonga

Kilifi Havea is anxiously waiting for news on his mother following the tsunami in Tonga.

Triggered by a massive underwater volcano at 5.30pm on Saturday, the disaster cut phone and internet communications, a fibre-optic sub-sea cable connecting Tonga to Fiji severed during the violent eruption.

The volcano has also affected air quality after it sent a massive plume of ash, steam and gas 20 kilometres into the sky.

Havea, who has lived in New Zealand for 20 years, last spoke to his mum, Seini Latu Havea, 65, on Saturday.

During the call he urged his mother to collect her passport and any other important documents before fleeing from the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa.

“She said, ‘don’t worry – you know the island people. They’re not worried about it’.”

Although he had organised for her to stay with a family higher up on the island, he was still trying to find out any information he could from news sites and the extended Tongan community.

“I can’t concentrate at work,” he said.

The disaster is another blow to Havea, who lives in Christchurch, after he was forced to miss his father’s funeral in Tonga last year due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

Kafo’atu Ngalu Kinikini on a trip to Tonga with her granddaughter. Although she’s heard that her family are safe, she worries about the damage to the island nation.

However, Havea was relieved to learn his aunts and uncles on the outer islands of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai were safe after fears the flat land and proximity to the volcano would offer little in the way of a barrier to the waves.

On Sunday afternoon, he finally heard from a friend who was able to communicate via internet in what Havea believed was the only connection available in the islands.

The friend shared photos and video that showed the tsunami produced smaller waves than those that hit the mainland, and damage was limited to the foreshore and wharf.

Damage in Ha'apai after a volcano triggered a tsunami in Tonga.

The friend had also heard from people on Uiha and Ha’ano islands who reported they had also received little damage.

They were even able to conduct a normal church service on Sunday, he told Havea.

In Rakaia, a tearful Kafo'atu Ngalu Kinikini described the miracle phone call she received from her nephew on Sunday.

Damage to the wharf in Ha'apai after a volcano triggered a tsunami in Tonga.

“I can’t describe the shaking in his voice.”

Kinikini was relieved to hear her brother’s family was safe after her 35-year-old nephew was able to use an emergency phone to get news of their survival to anxious relatives.

He told Kinikini how they had packed food into their vehicle and tried to head to higher ground, before a road block stopped them two minutes from their home.

Forced to shelter inside the vehicle overnight as seawater swallowed their home, the family were still severely shaken.

Awaiting the fate of her brother’s three children and five grandchildren had caused sleepless nights, as has the worry about their immediate future.

Kinikini was afraid that water would be scarce on the mainland as most people relied on water tanks to capture rainwater, but officials had told people not to use the supply.

Now she wants to collect whatever items she can to send to her family and is desperate to see them again. “I would love to just go and give them a hug.”

Uliki Pongia, president of the Ashburton church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said the New Zealand Tongan community was devastated at the destruction.

“There are a lot of emotional feelings out there.”

Pongia himself had faced an agonising wait for news of his 78-year-old mother and two brothers and their families, who also live in Nuku’alofa, after last speaking to them on Saturday morning.

Pongia was concerned as he had also been told most of the damage occurred on the mainland and at the capital.

With his mother unable to walk due to suffering a stroke, he had urged his family to move to higher ground as quickly as possible.

But the lack of communication out of Tonga was proving difficult. “I don’t really mind about what has happened as long she survives.”