A distress signal was detected following Saturday’s underwater volcanic eruption on a pair of remote islands in the Tonga archipelago in the South Pacific.
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said there was “particular concern” about the two isolated and low-lying islands, Mango and Fonoi, where the population is 36 and 69, noting that no contact has been made with the Ha’apai group of islands.
Making matters more complicated, Curtis Tu’ihalangingie, Tonga’s deputy head of mission in Australia, said Tonga is free of COVID-19, and any effort to send aid would risk bringing the virus to the nation’s residents.
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“We don’t want to bring in another wave — a tsunami of COVID-19,” Tu’ihalangingie told Reuters. “When people see such a huge explosion, they want to help.”
The eruption Saturday was not the volcano’s first in recent years. Its most recent eruption occurred in 2014. However, this was the biggest eruption in 30 years, according to early data. The eruption was felt, and heard, among the Ha’apai islands, Japan, Fiji, New Zealand, the Pacific coast of the United States, and Peru.
Two people died in Peru after large waves were triggered by a tsunami, and a British woman in Tonga died after being swept away by a wave. At least two people are believed missing on Tongatapu, Tonga’s main island.
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The Red Cross told Reuters it believes 80,000 people could have been affected by the tsunami, and its network is mobilizing to respond.
Alexander Matheou, the Asia Pacific regional director of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, told the news outlet that top priorities are providing shelter, reuniting loved ones, and purifying the drinking water that became contaminated by ash.
