Painstaking wait to hear from family

It’s an agonising wait.

Unable to sleep or focus at work, Kilifi Havea watches the images coming out of Tonga and fears for his mother.

Like many in the New Zealand Tongan community, Havea has faced a tortuous silence from his native country since tsunami waves more than a metre high swamped coastal areas, causing heartbreak as they tore through homes.

Stories emerged of Tongans fleeing their homes for higher ground, with little in the way of clothing, food or water and possessions strewn everywhere, leaving family members far away in despair.

Triggered by a massive underwater volcano at 5.30pm on Saturday, the disaster cut phone and internet communications, a fibre-optic sub-sea cable connecting Tonga to Fiji severed during the violent eruption.

The volcano has also affected air quality after it sent a massive plume of ash, steam and gas 20 kilometres into the sky.

Havea, who has lived in New Zealand for 20 years, last spoke to his mum, Seini Latu Havea, 65, on Saturday.

During the call he urged his mother to collect her passport and any other important documents before fleeing from the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa.

‘‘She said ‘don’t worry – you know the island people. They’re not worried’.’’

Although he had organised for her to stay with a family higher up on the island, he was still trying to find out any information he could from news sites and the extended Tongan community.

‘‘I can’t concentrate at work.’’

The disaster is another blow to Havea, who lives in Christchurch, after he was forced to miss his father’s funeral in Tonga last year due to Covid-19 travel restrictions.

However, Havea was relieved to learn his aunts and uncles on the outer islands of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai were safe after fears the flat land and proximity to the volcano would offer little in the way of a barrier to the waves.

On Sunday afternoon he finally heard from a friend who was able to communicate via internet in what Havea believed was the only connection available in the islands. The friend shared photos and video that showed the tsunami produced smaller waves than those that hit the mainland, and damage was limited to the foreshore and wharf.

The friend had also heard from people on Uiha and Ha’ano islands who reported they had also received little damage. They were even able to conduct a normal church service on Sunday, he told Havea.

In Rakaia, a tearful Kafo’atu Ngalu Kinikini described the miracle phone call she received from her nephew on Sunday. ‘‘I can’t describe the shaking in his voice.’’

Kinikini was relieved to hear her brother’s family was safe after her 35-year-old nephew was able to use an emergency phone to get news of their survival to anxious relatives.

He told Kinikini how they had packed food into their vehicle and tried to head to higher ground, before a road block stopped them two minutes from their home.

Forced to shelter inside the vehicle overnight as seawater swallowed their home, the family were still severely shaken.

Awaiting the fate of her brother’s three children and five grandchildren had caused sleepless nights, as has the worry about their immediate future.

Uliki Pongia, president of the Ashburton church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, said the New Zealand Tongan community was devastated at the destruction. ‘‘There are a lot of emotional feelings out there.’’

Pongia himself had faced an agonising wait for news of his 78-year-old mother and two brothers who also live in Nuku’alofa. With his mother unable to walk due to suffering a stroke, he had urged his family to move to higher ground. But the lack of communication out of Tonga was proving difficult. ‘‘I don’t really mind about what has happened as long she survives.’’

There have been no reports of fatalities.