By Staff Writer
Tongans working or schooled in Samoa are still not quite settled since the shock of volcanic eruptions in Tonga last weekend raised fear for the safety of families at home on the island kingdom.
Sione Fulivai of the South Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SPREP) at Vailima, was among the members of the local Tongan community anxiously concerned for loved ones at home.
Fulivai managed to maintain contact with his family in Nukualofa until the volcanic activities worsened and cut off communications before the Saturday major volcanic explosion.
“I lost communications with home at around 3.30pm on Friday afternoon while there was an advisory in place for them to move to higher grounds,” Fulivai was told before communications went down.
“To be left hanging in the dark with everything happening was quite daunting for us anxious about our families safety.”
The major volcanic explosion sent a boom that was heard in many parts of the world sending plumes of thick smoke and ashes rose into the sky.
Fulivai and his family heard the explosion like many others in Apia whose home windows were rattled by the shaking earth.
Without direct contact, Fulivai did what he felt every other Tongan in Samoa and everywhere else in the world did at the time and that was glued to the online links for their news feed from home.
Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common natural activities for natives like Fulivai growing up in the islands.
He recalled the two major earthquakes of 2009 and the follow up tsunami that killed more than a 100 people in the two Samoas as well as Tonga.
The volcanic eruption in 2014 was the most recent but he felt it was insignificant compared to last Saturday.
“The weekend eruption was a once in a lifetime experience as far as I’m concerned and I’m still trying to come to grips with it.
“The more frightening scene for me was footage of a whirlpool close to the wharf in Nukualofa where we saw cars moving bumper to bumper trying to get to higher grounds.”
Tonga is believed to be the third most at risk country in the world to natural disasters after Vanuatu and the Philippines.
Fulivai has been looking at contingency plans for the evacuation of families from Tonga since the unsettling threats of the volcanic eruptions last weekend.
The SPREP co-ordinator of the Framework for Resilient Development in the Pacific is yet to make a return visit to Tonga since he and his family moved to Samoa in 2019 to join the work of the regional organisation.