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>"This is just a horrible event for the Tongans," he says. But "it could be a benchmark, watershed kind of event in volcanology." What I find most curious abou

by panny 5y ago

>"This is just a horrible event for the Tongans," he says. But "it could be a benchmark, watershed kind of event in volcanology." What I find most curious about this event is that nobody seems to really care about... the Tongans. No charity drives. No on the ground footage and interviews of news crews rushed to the scene. 100,000 people just had their lives destroyed and everyone is "cool! how big was it? this is great for science!"

mattigames 5y ago
The reports mention only 3 deads and around 100 houses destroyed, the problems affecting the full 100K population are damage to communication infrastructure, nothing about all of them losing their homes, the New Zealand government is already sending aid, and tonga government does not want a wave of foreign aid workers as Tonga is of the few places that has avoided a covid outbreak. Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/tonga-volcano-tsunami-updates-death-toll-homes-destroyed-in-unprecedented-disaster/de40a853-3617-4ab7-a4f0-7f3280e999ff https://www.9news.com.au/national/tonga-volcano-tsunami-upda...
satori99 5y ago
The Australian government has sent P-8A Poseidon and C-130J Hercules aircraft to surveil damage at the request of the Tongan government. And the HMAS Adelaide is about to leave Brisbane with relief supplies and should get there in a few days. The New Zealand government is doing likewise. They are not being left to fend for themselves.
kzrdude 5y ago
You can follow along with the news for example https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/tonga-volcano-eruption-first-aid-shipments-leave-fears-aid-workers-could-bring-tsunami-of-covid https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/tonga-volcano-...
elzbardico 5y ago
Tonga is a tiny island country in the middle of the pacific that lost its main communication channel as the suboceanic cable that connected it with the rest of the world was damaged after the eruption. As it is a tiny country, there are no permanent BBC or CNN offices there with satellite equipment. As it was a volcanic eruption, air travel was severely restricted due to the ash both in the atmosphere as well as in the single airstrip that serves the nation's main island. Help is being dispatched both by The Australian and New Zealand governments (the closest nations to Tonga) by ship. There's also the complication that Tonga was basically spared from COVID, and thus has a population immunologically naive other than from the current vaccines which are not that great against the current dominant variants in circulation, so, there's a great level of care that needs to be taken to ensure that the relief effort doesn't backfire by triggering an outbreak.

by panny 5y ago

mattigames 5y ago

The reports mention only 3 deads and around 100 houses destroyed, the problems affecting the full 100K population are damage to communication infrastructure, nothing about all of them losing their homes, the New Zealand government is already sending aid, and tonga government does not want a wave of foreign aid workers as Tonga is of the few places that has avoided a covid outbreak. Source: https://www.9news.com.au/national/tonga-volcano-tsunami-updates-death-toll-homes-destroyed-in-unprecedented-disaster/de40a853-3617-4ab7-a4f0-7f3280e999ff https://www.9news.com.au/national/tonga-volcano-tsunami-upda...

satori99 5y ago

The Australian government has sent P-8A Poseidon and C-130J Hercules aircraft to surveil damage at the request of the Tongan government. And the HMAS Adelaide is about to leave Brisbane with relief supplies and should get there in a few days. The New Zealand government is doing likewise. They are not being left to fend for themselves.

kzrdude 5y ago

You can follow along with the news for example https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/tonga-volcano-eruption-first-aid-shipments-leave-fears-aid-workers-could-bring-tsunami-of-covid https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/19/tonga-volcano-...

elzbardico 5y ago

Tonga is a tiny island country in the middle of the pacific that lost its main communication channel as the suboceanic cable that connected it with the rest of the world was damaged after the eruption. As it is a tiny country, there are no permanent BBC or CNN offices there with satellite equipment. As it was a volcanic eruption, air travel was severely restricted due to the ash both in the atmosphere as well as in the single airstrip that serves the nation's main island. Help is being dispatched both by The Australian and New Zealand governments (the closest nations to Tonga) by ship. There's also the complication that Tonga was basically spared from COVID, and thus has a population immunologically naive other than from the current vaccines which are not that great against the current dominant variants in circulation, so, there's a great level of care that needs to be taken to ensure that the relief effort doesn't backfire by triggering an outbreak.