Naval salvage teams from New Zealand and Australia are in the Pacific kingdom to assess damage and initiate rebuilding of essential services and structures vital to the island nation’s recovery.

The catastrophe knocked out an undersea cable essential for efficient online communication with the rest of the world. Telephone and mobile phones are now operating, albeit with lagging and static background noise interfering at times.

The volcanic blast also produced an mammoth ash cloud that contaminated drinking water sources and prevented relief flights from landing for first the four days following the tsunami.

The eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai, an underwater volcano about 65km from the main island of Tongatapu, sent its ash and clouds covering miles of land, and swept away people’s homes and holiday resorts in the archipelago.

Expatriates and Tongan churches in Aotearoa, as well as the wider New Zealand community, have mobilised reliefs efforts to help people back home in Tonga.

The Aotearoa Tongan Relief Committee, co-chaired by two Tongan members of parliament – Jenny Latu Salesa and ‘Anahila Kanongata’a-Suisuiki – had packed within the first week more than two dozen containers filled with supplies, including drinking water and non-perishable food, for the initial shipment from here to Tonga.

“The response by the public has been overwhelmingly great,” said Kanongata’a-Suisuiki told ‘AtaOngo Tonga Aotearoa – the media and communications arm of the Methodist church’s Tongan Synod, Vahefonua Tonga.

“Many people from other cultures have also donated supplies,” added Kanongata’a-Suisuiki, herself a Methodist.

Writer Felonitesi Manukia is part of that media and communications unit.