The underwater volcano that erupted off Tonga on Saturday with the force of 500 Hiroshima nuclear bombs covered the island nation with ash and sent tsunami waves of up 50 feet (15 meters) striking some islands, killing at least three. Efforts are underway to clear ash from blocked airports and repair port damage to allow the transport of much-needed supplies to be delivered.
This work is being complicated by the severing of a 2″ diameter fiber-optic underwater cable that has cut Tonga off from most digital communications with the outside world, plunging the nation of 105,000 people into “digital darkness.”
As reported by the Washington Post, the severed cable has made it almost impossible to communicate with the archipelago and complicated efforts to assess the damage and supply fresh water to replace rain barrels contaminated with ash.
“It’s a major disaster for us,” said Samiuela Fonua, chairman of Tonga Cable, the partially state-owned company that operates the cable. And although a specialized ship capable of splicing the severed cable will be on its way in a matter of days, he said, it could be a few weeks before scientists are satisfied that the volcano no longer poses an imminent risk to the repair crew.
“We are looking at a month” before the cable is repaired, he estimated. “We need to get an all-clear that there is no more seismic activity around Tonga’s waters. That will be the only factor that will determine how long [repairs take]. If everything will calm down next week, then luck will be on our side.”
While the severed fiber-optic cable means the Internet is out, some satellite phone reception has been restored in parts of the country.
Help is on the way, with two New Zealand ships heading to Tonga on Tuesday and an Australian ship expected to leave Brisbane on Wednesday.
As the relief effort gathers pace, Tonga Cable’s Fonua said the repair will have to wait until New Zealand and Australian ships can assess the activity of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano.
Tonga Cable, which co-owns the cable with private company Digicel, has identified two cuts caused by the volcanic eruption. One is in the 514-mile cable between Tonga and Fiji, roughly 23 miles off the coast of Tonga’s main island. The other is in a fiber-optic cable running between two of Tonga’s 36 inhabited islands.
U.S. company SubCom has been hired to conduct the repairs, Fonua said. A specialized ship, CS Reliance, will leave Papua New Guinea this weekend and head to Samoa, where it will pick up supplies including fiber-optic cable. As soon as it receives assurances that it is safe, it will head to the damage sites.
SubCom – Repair Animation – Undersea Fiber Optic Cable System