It could take weeks to repair the undersea fiber-optic cable connecting Tonga to the rest of the world, which was severed during a massive eruption of an undersea volcano near the South Pacific archipelago nation on Saturday.
New Zealand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said in a statement on Wednesday that US-based SubCom, which builds networks of underwater cables worldwide and is a repair contractor for more than 31,000 miles of cable in the South Pacific, “suggests it will repair cables in Tonga. It will take at least four weeks to connect.”
The foreign ministry added that Caribbean-based mobile network provider Digicel has set up an interim system on Tonga’s main island, Tongatapu, using the University of South Pacific’s satellite dish, which may allow a 2G connection to be established Wednesday, though the ministry said it will be “limited and patchy.”
Tonga’s domestic and international communications were cut off due to a damaged submarine cable. The Tongan government said in a statement on Tuesday that while limited communications within Tonga had been restored via satellite phones and high-frequency radio, the internet remained off. Satellite imagery captured Saturday night’s explosion of the Hunga Tonga-Hungaha Apai volcano, which NASA’s Earth Observatory called “one of the most powerful volcanic eruptions in decades.”
The blast “destroyed” the uninhabited South Pacific island where the submarine volcano is located about 40 miles north of Tonga’s capital Nuku’alofa, and “generated atmospheric shock waves and tsunamis around the world,” the observatory said. in a statement Saturday.
A nearly 50-foot tsunami hit several of Tonga’s 170 islands, destroying villages, while a huge mushroom-shaped cloud of ash, steam and gas blanketed the entire Polynesian kingdom, according to the Tongan government. A search and rescue mission was launched the next morning and at least three people have been confirmed dead – a British national and two Tongan citizens. The Tongan government said a number of people were injured.
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