Authorities in neighboring New Zealand said the disaster had caused “significant damage”.
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The Tonga Islands might still be without internet for “two weeks” following the volcanic eruption that severed an undersea communication cable. Initially, the internet outage was attributed to a power outage caused by the powerful eruption, but tests conducted following power was restored revealed a break in the cable.
The small South Pacific nation is struggling to recover from an eruption that blanketed the capital Nuku’alofa in ash. Authorities in neighboring New Zealand said the disaster had caused “significant damage”, but no injuries and no deaths have been reported in the country so far. Saturday’s eruption was so powerful it was heard as far away as Alaska, triggering a Pacific tsunami. Coastlines were flooded in both Japan and the United States and two people were killed in Peru.
New Zealand sent a reconnaissance aircraft early Monday to “an initial assessment of the impact on the low-lying area and islands”, but the information arrives in dribs and drabs. Tonga has also accepted an Australian offer to send a surveillance plane, according to Canberra. Australia was also preparing “essential humanitarian commodities” to send.
