Kirsty Neham

(Reuters) – Families are preventing children from playing outdoors as Tonga deals with ash, the psychological fallout and last week’s tsunami.

It was difficult to communicate with the outside world on Sunday. There were few internet services and many outlying islands are still without phone service.

Red Cross claimed it provides comfort, as well food and water to 173 Tonga households.

Drew Havea (Vice President of Tonga Red Cross) stated that “everyone is still struggling right at the moment.” Due to the ash, “families have been making sure that their kids don’t play outside and stay inside,” he stated.

Some residents of the most severely affected islands on Ha’apai were evacuated to Tongatapu. However, many others refused to go, Havea stated.

He said that the psychological effects of tsunamis crashing through villages and devastating them will have a lasting impact on their lives.

He added that Tonga also has another worry.

As a kid, you learned that this was the Ring of Fire. This is where all of us live. It is now that I feel quite worried and ask, “How active are these areas?” Reuters was informed by he.

The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kms (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand.

It was so strong that satellites caught not only large clouds of volcanic ash but also an intense atmosphere shockwave, which radiated from the volcano at a speed close to sound.

‘PULSATING, TERRIFYING’

John Tukuafu of Vakaloa beach resort said, “I thought that the world was ending.” He also remembered how he had to run to his wife to get her from the tsunami. It was located in Kanokupolu which is one of Tongatapu’s most severely affected areas. Uprooted trees and other debris are now found in the vicinity where it stood.

Mary Lyn Fonua was the managing editor for Matangi Tonga Online’s news website. She told Reuters Sunday that “I believe the whole island,” she said.

She said that many had to wait for a week before they could recover from the “pulsating and terrifying” eruption sound.

It was loud enough to be heard, but it felt real. She described the house vibrating, windows vibrating, and then it intensified until there was a big bang”.

Fonua said that residents wished for rain to cleanse the volcanic dust. Tree leaves had become brown and began falling apart.

Fonua claimed that she was at her seafront office, talking to her son in New Zealand about the tsunami when it struck.

She was feared to have been lost when her line became dead. In the time it took to restore limited international phone capacity, many Tongan families were left anxious.

Fonua stated that Tongans were isolated from the rest of the world and began immediate rescue efforts.

She said that older Tongans who have a long tradition of self-reliance made the observation that younger people were forced to look away from their smartphones and instead took action.

After a week of power restoration, Matangi Tonga’s website published its first story since the tsunami. It described the “pumice rainfall”, which was volcanic debris falling from the skies and the waves that enveloped cars.

Fonua explained that Tonga still needs satellite connectivity and her office is unable to send email.

She said that the international naval ships and aircraft arriving on board had provided much-needed supplies and communications equipment.