A massive explosion sound, heard hundreds of miles away and tsunami warnings across the Pacific. The new massive eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano on Saturday has caused the inhabitants of the Tonga islands to flee to higher ground to take refuge there. “A 1.20 m tsunami was observed in Nuku’alofa”, the country’s capital, the Australian Bureau of Meteorology announced. A previous tsunami had not exceeded 30 cm.
The alert had just been lifted when the volcano erupted again. This time, “It was a massive explosion, explains to the information site stuff a resident who was at home at the time. The ground shook, the whole house shook. It came in waves. My younger brother thought bombs were exploding near our house.” A few minutes later, the water invaded their house, and she saw the wall of a neighboring house crumble. “We immediately knew it was a tsunami, with this water gushing into the house. You could hear screams all around, and everyone started to flee to the heights,” she added.
King Tupou VI of Tonga was evacuated from the royal palace in Nuku’alofa and taken to a villa far from the coast. The eruption lasted eight minutes, and was so loud it was heard “like a sound of distant thunder” on the Fiji Islands, more than 800 km away, Fiji officials said. They also warned residents to cover water supplies to protect them from acid rain or ash.
Alerts from Fiji to Chile
Victorina Kioa from the Tonga Public Utilities Commission called on people to “keep away from all threatened places, i.e. beaches, reefs and all flat coasts”. The authorities have also advised the entire population to stay indoors as much as possible, to wear masks if they have to go out and, there too, to protect all water supplies.
Tsunami warnings have also been issued for Fiji and Samoa, New Zealand and Australia. Australian authorities have warned the population of Sydney and its region, New South Wales, of “to get out of the water, and to move away from the edge of the water”.
In Chile, the National Emergency Situations Office has warned of the possibility that a “minor tsunami” does not reach Easter Island and other Chilean archipelagos: “As a precautionary measure, in the Juan Fernández Archipelago, the San Félix Islands, Easter Island and Chilean Antarctica, it is requested, due to the eruption of a volcano in the Tonga Islands, to leave the areas of beaches where a minor tsunami could occur.”
“Leave the beaches”
In the United States, tsunami warnings have been issued for the west coast of the country, Hawaii having already been affected by “minor floods”. “Leave the beaches, ports and marinas” in the areas concerned, recommends the National Weather Service, which specifies with “relief” that the US islands of Hawaii reported no damage and suffered only minor flooding.
The states of California, Oregon and Washington could be affected, as well as Alaska and the Canadian province of British Columbia, specifies the NWS. “The main impacts expected are strong rip currents and flooding of coasts and low-lying areas,” notify the weather service. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano is located on one of the uninhabited islands of Tonga, about 65 km from the capital Nuku’alofa.