Tsunami warnings across the South Pacific, from Australia to the West Coast of the United States and Chile, after the eruption of an underwater volcano off the island of Tonga that forced residents to flee into the mountains. Hawaii has already been hit by “small floods”. The eruption of Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, about 65 kilometers north of the capital of Tonga, Nuku’alofa, caused a tsunami with waves about 1.2 meters high for which an alarm was issued in a large area of the Pacific that includes the kingdom of Tonga, Fiji and New Zealand.
The United States Alert
At the same time, the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center has launched a tsunami warning for Hawaii and the west coast of the United States, including Alaska, and the Canadian province of British Columbia, predicting waves of up to 60 centimeters, strong currents and floods on the coasts. Hawaii did not report any damage reporting only “small floods” in all the islands, while the authorities of the American meteorological service warn citizens to “stay away from the beaches and ports of the places indicated”. Similar warnings have been issued by authorities in Chile and Australia, where a strip of coastline, which includes Sydney, could be hit by the tsunami. Residents of the state of New South Wales were “advised not to go to the beaches”.
Flooding in the Pacific area
The Hunga eruption – captured in satellite images showing a giant cloud of ash, steam and gas rising from the ocean – was felt 800 kilometers away, reaching as far as Fiji and Vanuatu, where people have reported having felt the ground and buildings shaking for hours. Several social media footage shows water entering a church and several houses in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa, as some cars are run over by the water. In other videos posted on social media, large waves crashing ashore in coastal areas are seen.
“It looked like an explosion”
“It sounded like an explosion,” said one of the Tongan residents. “The ground and the whole house started shaking. My brother thought they were bombs that went off nearby, but we quickly realized it was a tsunami after seeing the water coming in from all sides. We heard the screams of people all around and many people started fleeing towards the mountains, ”he added. The king of Tonga, Tupou VI, was also evacuated from the royal palace of Nuku’alofa and escorted by a police convoy to a villa away from the coast. Many areas of Tonga have been hit by a near-total blackout of electricity, telephone lines and Internet services, which means that information is scarce and the extent of any injury or property damage is still unclear. That of the last few hours has not been an isolated episode: the underwater volcano began to erupt frequently in December. It then resumed erupting yesterday, shooting ash, steam and gas up to 20 kilometers high into the air, but the tsunami alert was lifted after a few minutes as the anomalous waves reported by the Tonga weather service had reached “suns” 30cm tall.