WELLINGTON (Reuters) – Reaching Tonga continued to be difficult on Sunday as telephone and internet connections were cut after a tsunami triggered by an eruption of an undersea volcano hit the archipelago.
The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano off the coast of Tonga on Saturday triggered a tsunami warning in several Pacific archipelagos, where waves reaching a meter high were reported.
Waves 1.2 m high hit Nuku’alofa, the capital of Tonga, located 65 km north of the volcano.
Telephone and internet connections were cut on Saturday around 6:40 p.m. local time (05:40 GMT), leaving the 105,000 inhabitants of the archipelago unreachable.
No casualties or injuries have been reported so far in Tonga, according to official reports, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday.
However, telephone and internet connections are limited and it is still impossible to contact several coastal regions, she added.
VACUATIONS IN JAPAN
About 230,000 people were called to evacuate eight prefectures in Japan on Sunday as waves of more than a meter hit coastal regions, NHK television reported.
Tsunami alerts have been issued, particularly in regions affected by the huge tsunami of 2011, which destroyed the Fukushima power plant north of Tokyo.
The tsunami red alert issued in Iwate prefecture in northern Japan has been lifted. The authorities, however, call for caution along the east coast of the archipelago.
(Report Praveen Menon; French version Camille Raynaud)