New Zealand water ship unloads in Tonga as other aid trickles in
Wellington, New Zealand/Sydney, AustraliaReuters Life-saving water supplies from a New Zealand navy ship were distributed across Tonga’s main island on Friday, as other countries battled the logistics of delivering aid to one of the world’s remotest communities. Royal New Zealand Navy’s HMNZS Aotearoa sails in the sea off the coast of Tonga, on 21st January. […]
Updated: World rushes aid to tsunami-hit Tonga as drinking water, food runs short
Updated 11:30pm (AEDT)Wellington, New Zealand/Sydney, AustraliaReuters More ships and aircraft carrying aid are due to arrive in Tonga in coming days as the international community responds to calls for urgent assistance from the Pacific island nation following a devastating volcanic eruption and tsunami. Personnel wearing personal protection equipment, and a load of humanitarian relief supplies […]
First aid finally reaches Tonga as telephone lines partially restored
Reuters The first aircraft carrying humanitarian supplies arrived in Tonga on Thursday, five days after the South Pacific island nation was hit by a volcanic eruption and tsunami that devastated communities and spoiled most of its drinking water. A Royal New Zealand Air Force C-130 Hercules landed in Tonga’s Fua’amotu International Airport, a defence spokesperson […]
Updated: Tongans make contact with world as phone lines partially restored after tsunami; oil spill in Peru an “ecological disaster”
Updated: 10am (AEDT)Reuters Tongans could finally make phone contact with their families and the outside world on Thursday five days after a massive volcanic eruption and tsunami completely cut off the Pacific island nation. The explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano, which has killed at least three people and sent tsunami waves across the Pacific, […]
Updated: Australia, New Zealand step up efforts to aid tsunami-hit Tonga
Updated: 11am (AEDT)Sydney, Australia/Wellington, New ZealandReuters Australia and New Zealand dispatched surveillance flights on Monday to assess the damage in Tonga, isolated from the rest of the world due to the eruption of an underwater volcano that triggered a tsunami and blanketed the Pacific island with ash. Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged to provide […]
Casualty reports awaited from tsunami-hit Tonga with comms mostly down
Wellington, New ZealandReuters Tsunami-hit Tonga remained largely uncontactable on Sunday with telephone and internet links severed, leaving relatives in faraway New Zealand praying for their families on the Pacific islands as casualty reports had yet to come through. An underwater volcano off Tonga erupted on Saturday, triggering warnings of 1.2-metre tsunami waves and evacuation orders […]
Japan to release contaminated Fukushima water into sea after treatment
Tokyo, JapanReuters Japan will release more than a million tonnes of contaminated water from the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant into the sea, the government said on Tuesday, a move China called “extremely irresponsible”, while South Korea summoned Tokyo’s ambassador in Seoul to protest. The first release of water will take place in about two years, […]
Tokyo Olympics chief invokes power of sport on anniversary of disaster
Tokyo, JapanReuters Tokyo 2020 President Seiko Hashimoto highlighted the power of sport on Thursday as she expressed condolences on the anniversary of a deadly earthquake and tsunami, saying it provided hope for survivors and in facing the coronavirus. On 11th March, 2011, a 9.0 magnitude earthquake struck off north-east Japan, triggering a tsunami that devastated […]
Postcards: Japan’s tsunami survivors call lost loves on the ‘phone of the wind’
MARI SAITO reports for Reuters from Otsuchi in Japan…
ESSAY: IN THE AFTERMATH OF THE TSUNAMI – VIEW FROM SRI LANKA
In an article first published in The Sunday Age newspaper, World Vision Australia’s TIM COSTELLO writes of what he experienced in Sri Lanka…