‘Eueiki Island Town Officer observed peculiar wave patterns signaling tsunami

15 Dec ‘Eueiki Island Town Officer observed peculiar wave patterns signaling tsunami

I was mowing my lawn at home when the first eruption happened, I couldn’t really tell what was going on at the time except I saw people looking up at the sky. I saw them pointing to the sky so I knew something was happening, I looked up and noticed the cloud like a smoke cloud, it was new to me as it was to the people. I stopped mowing and ran to grab my phone and headed to the North side of the island to find out what was happening and when I got there another explosion and I felt like the explosion had disoriented me.

The next explosion happened I ran back to look out and on my way I met someone and asked where they are headed they said they were looking for two others looking out. So we went looking for the two and  looked out at the sea rocked back and forth. There are islands facing ‘Eueiki and so there is a pattern of which the waves break towards the islands but one of the men we were with said to notice the waves were starting to break towards ‘Eueiki.

As the waves were strangely rocking back and forth we could also hear rumbling of the waves and as the waves lapped back and forth the sea retreated all the way back until the floor bed was dry. All our lives since living on the island we have never seen that happen because even at low tide the ocean floor is not exposed all the way. The first wave that approached it may have been half a meter or so, the second one arrived, 2 feet or so, the third wave came up to our feet at which point we should have yelled and turn to run but because of our curiosity we still stood watching the sea.

The fourth wave came and that’s when we turned and ran. We ran down the road, I knew at the time that I was the Town Officer and I had a duty to uphold so I ran all the way down to the center of town and told everyone to evacuate for everyone to leave to the hill and no one to stay behind I was yelling and screaming at everyone from one end to the other end of town at which point I saw the town barrier fence (‘a fonua) being swept by the tsunami and it was reaching town. I saw the panic and fear in my peoples eyes and everyone ran to the hill.

I came down to my house to find my wife and I knew she had fled. As I went up to the hill to make sure everyone was well and account for everyone. WE stayed there overnight. This natural disaster is devastating, it was unexpected, we’ve heard stories of tsunami’s but this was the first time we have experienced it. Around 8pm that night we came to town the tsunami has abated.

The house we first reached it was totally damaged and that’s when we knew it was a huge wave. The next house had a water tank that did not belong to that house the fence around the house was not destroyed so it seemed the wave carried it and dropped it into the premises. Houses were demolished. The homes by the seaside that were newly built were still standing however older homes were totally wiped out.

Thank the Lord he gives us enough, right now we are completely isolated from mainland because we don’t have any boats. All boats are damaged, it was an unexpected event and one we couldn’t prepare because we could’ve saved these boats by bringing it to safety. We now live with the aid of MORDI Tonga that brings us help via their boat, food and water and what we need.

Since the event it has been a full week and none of the community members are able to come to Tonga just myself. The community may as well live like mainlanders, there is no day that we don’t travel here. Since the event no one has made it here. MORDI helps us with our needs and bringing me here so I can do more for our island. Yes we need water and food and that is being cared for but we don’t know if we will ever get another boat so that’s why I’m here to try find ways to get us a boat.

My people cant get here any other way we cant fly here. Even though the event damaged some property but it has affected all of our community, I can see the event has clearly disturbed them, they will not likely forget this soon. They still live in fear. Any loud noise that happens and it just happens to be waves crashing I can hear the people say it may be another eruption so I have to encourage them and let them know that God will not abandon us and our island.

Talks of whether we should evacuate its not likely because it wasn’t like the whole island was affected. The island is high and there is a small area that is low lying so where the tsunami hit it was to this low lying area so we still think that its much safer than other low lying islands like Atata and Mango where they were heavily impacted. There were no lives lost and I know the Lord is near and he still keeps us safe despite our flaws.

Families whose household members are overseas as seasonal workers I notice seem to suffer a bit more because they dont have males to help them, they seem more vulnerable during these times.

Solar panels were lowered – it was the first community job we did because it brings electricity to our village (cleaned the panels). Then we cleaned up the roofs. There is so much dust and ash on the ground, we don’t know when this will go away but we are trying to safeguard everyone especially the children. We are warned to stay away and be careful around the dust but its unavoidable – its outside its inside on the ground on the ceiling. If there are any health risks we wont know for now perhaps further down the line. I want to thank all the aid that has reached us from the government NEMO to CARITAS and all others that have reached us.