Tonga: Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai eruption and tsunami

[El Pinguino]

Speaking of crackpots I see Brian Tamaki is in the slammer
Good-oh!!
https://www.newshub.co.nz/home/new-z...n-refused.html

[GreenWave]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

A caution to first world country readers: Tonga is not an industrial country. It is a horticultural society [subsistence gardens, taro, cassava, tomatoes, fern and they raise chickens and pigs, and fish] of whose people are of Polynesian lineage, [so power is arranged according to chiefly lineage, like European royalty, chiefs call themselves kings, and they have kingly power]. They (as well as Fijians, Vanuatuans, & Solomon Islanders, to name a few) believe in witchcraft. So, helping out after a natural disaster like this is more complicated than say, after Hurricane Katrina, because it involves numerous cross cultural issues, instead of helpers and help receivers having the same backgrounds.

People all need water, food, and shelter, of course, but helping them get it really needs to be done in a way that the helpers do not cause harm. The Tongan government is well aware of it. They are almost all high ranking relatives of the king. The people have had waves of mass deaths in the past, due to germs brought in by Europeans. They don't want our pandemic to be brought in by us. Based on their experience, you really can't blame them, even if their resistance seems overdone to you.

Ann

I fully respect that they have their way of life and processing next steps. I do see this as an opportunity to educate them. Those past waves of mass death are different than the rest of the world dropping inanimate supplies onto their islands. We need to help them understand why, rather than ignore or run away from their need. As we are way off topic I will rest my case with this post

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by GreenWave

I fully respect that they have their way of life and processing next steps. I do see this as an opportunity to educate them. Those past waves of mass death are different than the rest of the world dropping inanimate supplies onto their islands. We need to help them understand why, rather than ignore or run away from their need. As we are way off topic I will rest my case with this post

I don't believe I am reading this.
What would you suggest? Sending in the Peace Corp to show them how to use Tupperware?

[GordMay]

Tonga runway cleared of volcanic ash, aid flights set to resume
The runway, once buried in five to 10 cm of volcanic ash, is “cleared, but not in use yet”.
The United Nations and aid agencies are preparing relief flights to the Pacific island nation, but without personnel who disembark, so to avoid introducing the coronavirus, Fiji-based UN co-ordinator Jonathan Veitch has said.
Two New Zealand navy vessels are bound to arrive in Tonga on Friday, carrying critical water supplies.
More ➥ https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/...cy-aid-flights

[GordMay]

EXPLAINER: Why Tonga eruption was so big and what's next” ~ by Nick Perry for The Associated Press
➥ https://www.thestar.com/news/world/a...hats-next.html

[El Pinguino]

Originally Posted by El Pinguino

I don't believe I am reading this.
What would you suggest? Sending in the Peace Corp to show them how to use Tupperware?

For them as are either too young or maybe too old ( hello Jim ) to remember that comes from the movie 'Airplane'
Sadly it doesn't make this cut

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xlDXQdgx_QU

[Tetepare]

Newsflash, Tonga has PhDs, MBAs, experts in ICT, construction, power, etc.

As of today they have a bit of satellite, but only the government knows this.

[GordMay]

"First aid flights arrive in Tonga after big volcano eruption” ~ by Nick Perry for AP

The first flights, carrying fresh water containers, kits for temporary shelters, generators, hygiene supplies, and communications equipment to Tonga, finally arrived Thursday, after the Pacific nation’s main airport runway was cleared [by hand] of ash, left by a huge volcanic eruption.

The deliveries were dropped off, without the military personnel coming in contact with people at the airport, in Tonga.

Japan also said it would send emergency relief, with two C-130 Hercules aircraft, and a transport vessel carrying two CH-47 Chinook helicopters, leaving [possibly] Thursday.

Much more ➥ https://apnews.com/article/science-b...b5b45e456601ed

[JPA Cate]

Gord, do you know anything about the runway sweepers the C-130s have? I'd love to see a picture. My efforts to Google it for myself led to lots of C-130s, but non with any kind of a sweeper fitted. They showed also, a number of normal road sweepers, but nothing actually attached to the aircraft, with the ability to clear its way.

Thanks in advance.

Ann

[GordMay]

After the Tonga tsunami swept him out to sea, Lisala Folau, 57, says he swam 7.5 km over 26 hours to make it back to land
➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/tongo-...aman-1.6323300

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Gord, do you know anything about the runway sweepers the C-130s have? I'd love to see a picture. My efforts to Google it for myself led to lots of C-130s, but non with any kind of a sweeper fitted. They showed also, a number of normal road sweepers, but nothing actually attached to the aircraft, with the ability to clear its way.
Thanks in advance.
Ann

I don't believe that "sweeping devices" were fitted to the aircraft - rather they carried [as cargo] more conventional sweepers.


In this photo provided by the Australian Defence Force, a Royal Australian Air Force C-17A Globemaster III jet aircraft [bigger than the turbo-prop' C-130 Hercules] is parked at Fua'amotu International Airport near Nuku'alofa, Tonga, Thursday, Jan. 20, 2022. (Australian Defence Force via AP)

[GordMay]

The volcanoes blast, equivalent to ± 10 mega tones of TNT*, also generated about 200,000 lightning strikes per hour — almost 60 per second. The lightning was detected, by arrays of radio antennas, in various locations around the world, with each lightning strike creating a distinctive burst of radio waves. Anyone, unfortunate enough to have been close to the site, would have seen the sky appearing to flicker almost continuously#, accompanied by a deafening roar of thunder.

*That makes it 25,000 times more powerful than the explosion that shook the port of Beirut, Lebanon, in August 2020

# Satellite images of the eruption from NASA ➥ https://youtu.be/Uq4j05KvTRA


Ash-cloud generated lighting is visible during the eruption of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai volcano. As particles of ash, within the plume, bumped into each other, and into ice particles in the atmosphere, there was a build-up of electrical charge.



Runway cleanup, Monday, January 18, 2022.

[GordMay]

Tonga turns back aid flight from Australia after positive Covid case discovered

An Australian plane, delivering aid supplies to the Pacific nation of Tonga, was turned away, after a positive COVID-19 case was discovered on board.
According to The Guardian [1], the flight left Brisbane on Thursday afternoon, but was turned around halfway through its flight, when it was notified that someone on board had tested positive for the coronavirus.
All members of the flight crew tested negative, via rapid antigen tests, before they boarded. However, the results from additional PCR tests came in mid-flight, showing that one person had tested positive for COVID-19, and the plane was ordered to turn back.
The supplies were moved to another aircraft, that left Brisbane on Friday.

[1] More about ➥ https://www.theguardian.com/world/20...ase-discovered

Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga
Photos ➥ https://twitter.com/ConsulateKoT?ref...ralia-covid%2F

[El Pinguino]

RNZ Pacific is a good source of info
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international
You can even listen to them on the radio.
https://www.rnz.co.nz/international/listen
I find them easy to receive in SE Australia and have on occasion picked them up in Chile.
Thanks to them I just found out about DART
https://nctr.pmel.noaa.gov/Dart/

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by GreenWave

I fully respect that they have their way of life and processing next steps. I do see this as an opportunity to educate them. Those past waves of mass death are different than the rest of the world dropping inanimate supplies onto their islands. We need to help them understand why, rather than ignore or run away from their need. As we are way off topic I will rest my case with this post

OR... maybe them to educate us. According to the news Tonga has had ONE Covid case and are 90% vaxxed.