First shipment of humanitarian aid arrives in Tonga after devastating tsunami

The first plane with humanitarian aid arrived in Tonga on Thursday after a “gigantic effort” to remove the ash that covered the runway of the airport of the capital of the Polynesian country that was the scene over the weekend of a powerful eruption of an underwater volcano and a tsunami. A C-130 Hercules, which departed this morning from the New Zealand city of Auckland, landed shortly after 4 p.m. (GMT +13) at tongatapu airport in Nukualofa, the capital of the archipelago, confirmed the New Zealand Army, in charge of the operation. The flight carrying water containers, power generators, communication equipment and other necessities is the first shipment of humanitarian aid to arrive in Tonga since Saturday’s natural disaster.” There has been a gigantic effort to clear the runway by hand by the armed forces (of Tonga),” New Zealand commander Jim Gilmour explained upon arrival at the airport.The soldier in charge of the operation said that the aerial images taken so far are “worrying”, but that, for the moment, the information available is insufficient to assess the impact of the damage and make an assessment in terms of assistance. The Hercules C-130 is scheduled to return to New Zealand tonight and is set for a new humanitarian aid operation on Saturday. New Zealand also indicated that one of its vessels, carrying a helicopter on board, is scheduled to arrive in Tonga today to check the state of the navigation channels and infrastructure of the archipelago’s main pier, while another Australian ship, which will be a base of operations, is preparing to set sail. Another New Zealand ship will do so tomorrow with 250,000 litres of fresh water and other basic necessities. The humanitarian aid managed by New Zealand in coordination with Australia was delivered today “without contact” in compliance with the protocols for covid-19 imposed in Tonga, a country that has registered only one infection since the beginning of the pandemic. At the moment, three people have died in Tonga due to the disaster, although the damage has not yet been quantified because the territory is composed of 169 islands currently cut off by the rupture of a submarine cable, which is connected to Fiji and provides telephone and internet connections to the country.

Original source in Spanish