When hope is all you have left

When you are the victim of a Category Five cyclone with destructive wind force gusting up to 250 km per hour, you are firstly grateful to be alive even though everything you’ve got is destroyed or blown away.

You reach out to the members of your family who survived with you, and gather them together to pray and be thankful that you are all still alive.

It was Saturday 11 of January, and thankfully Cyclone Ian struck during the day. At night it could have been more disastrous with a greater amount of injuries and maybe even more deaths.

Fosiki Pule of Holopeka village ran to the Free Wesleyan Church for refuge as her house was being destroyed around her. But the church building was being taken apart by the most powerful cyclone that has ever struck Tonga.

There was nowhere to go as the Church hall was being destroyed as well. She escaped by hiding in the bathroom.

Reverend Sione Vi, pastor of the Church of Tonga, also of Holopeka, thought that his residence, being a brick building was going to withstand the strong winds. But tin roofing blown in from the neighbor’s house tore into the brick walls, and his house started coming down all around him. Thanks to a table under which he hid with his wife and two young children, they escaped serious injury.

Vi was struck on the head by a falling brick, but he survived.

Kalolaine Paongo was not so lucky. She was the only fatality of Cyclone Ian. She died from a leg injury caused by tin roofing that had fallen on her. A diabetic, she lost so much blood, and died as her husband was taking her to hospital in a wheelbarrow.

Visibility was only about 5 meters as the raging winds travelled a deadly pathway through the low-lying Ha’apai Islands in the central Tonga group. Survivors describe experiencing a tornado-like wind.

Lord Tu’iha’angana, Governor of Ha’apai, said that he could see Lifuka island from one side to the other as almost everything on the island was destroyed and flattened by the raging winds.

Of the 8000 residents of Ha’apai, 5000 were estimated to be homeless in the aftermath of Cyclone Ian.

But by Sunday morning an Orion NZ RAF plane was already flying into Ha’apai to assess the damage.

At the same time two patrol boats from His Majesty’s Armed Forces (HMAF) – Voea Savea and Voea Pangai had arrived in the capital and main town of Pangai. They carried Tongan officials who had come from Nuku’alofa to assess the damage and to begin co-ordination of the clean up and relief work.

The National Emergency Operations Committee (NEOC) had been planning since the threat of the hurricane was looming, and action was in full swing in its relief efforts.

Communication with the Ha’apai Islands had been cut, and Digicel Tonga, one of the two telecommunications companies in Tonga, charted a plane from Chatham Airlines of New Zealand, and flew their first of six chartered flights to Ha’apai early Monday morning.

Their engineers restored the communications service using temporary equipment, and set up generators for people to charge their phones and laptops.

The chartered flights also carried government officials, medical personnel, news reporters, and emergency relief supplies. The basics of drinking water, dried and canned food items, as well as tent shelters were quickly delivered to those who have suffered.

By the end of only the second day after Cyclone Ian struck, relief efforts both in Ha’apai and from various locations around Tonga and the region were in full swing.

Tonga Power Ltd. officials estimated the cost of restoring power to the destroyed islands to reach $3 million. They were already on the ground carrying out restoration work.

Education Department officials were already on their way to all the affected areas conducting surveys on school buildings and to see how they can best restore them in time for the beginning of the 2014 school year.

The Tonga Red Cross and government officials were coordinating much of what was going on.

In the meantime, the biggest emergency relief effort to be carried out from within Tonga and by Tongan communities from overseas was in full speed.

The New Zealand Tongan community out of Auckland had packed six containers of selected emergency relief goods to be sent off to Ha’apai. They were joined by other Tongan communities from various New Zealand cities in packing containers of goods headed for Ha’apai.

Tongan registered nurses in Sydney took time off from work to fly into Ha’apai to give a hand. And so from the more than 142,000 Tongans who live outside of Tonga, a major effort was being marshaled to send help to Ha’apai. Quite a number of those people overseas have their ancestral roots in Ha’apai.

But rapid response and relief efforts were not without complications, mostly of a political nature.

The New Zealand government supported by a major relief agency demanded that Tonga must first ask for help before they could lend a hand.

Tongan leaders felt they were being held hostage to an unreasonable demand to ask first before help could be released.

In a Tongan socio-cultural context, if you experience an emergency crisis, your neighbors, your family, and friends would help without having to wait to be asked.

Both the Australian and Queensland governments gave cash help, and so did China in the beginning of the crisis.

The New Zealand High Commission in Nuku’alofa offered cash help, even though it was almost a week later before the New Zealand government through its Minister of Foreign Affairs, Murray McCully, announced that Tonga would be gifted with $300,000 and 300 emergency shelter kits that could house up to 2000 people. A Hercules plane delivered this at the end of last week.

Tonga’s government had apparently asked for help.

But Tonga’s Deputy Prime Minister, Samiu Vaipulu, had a reason for not asking for help at first.

Firstly, he expected the International Community to respond to the crisis without having to be asked. Secondly, he had a bitter experience with New Zealand’s Foreign Minister who held up a promised multi-million dollar aid to Tonga tourism because Tonga had accepted the gift of an airplane from China for its domestic flights. New Zealand claims the China-made plane was unsafe.

New Zealand, according to Vaipulu had exercised a bullying stance with Tonga, and was being imperialistic in its attitude toward Tonga. Tongan officials were unhappy with New Zealand interfering with Tongan sovereignty and its right to make their own decisions.

Leader of the Opposition Labour Party, David Cunliffe, said that the response from Key’s government was slow and not sufficient. He said that given the extent of the damage and the close ties between the two countries, New Zealand’s response was disappointing.

The Mana Party also stated that the government of New Zealand had been too slow in its response.

Obviously, Tongans are a proud people and resist the overarching attitude by the big regional powers that “they know what’s best for Pacific islanders.”

Critics who may not understand what has been going on in the New Zealand – Tongan relationship urged, “Tonga to swallow its pride and ask for help.”

Questions are raised however whether Pacific Islanders are to descend to beggar status first in order to get help in times of crisis?

But maybe that’s what Tonga’s Deputy Prime Minister eventually did in order to get the New Zealand response.

When you have nothing left, however, not even your pride, taken from you by a natural disaster, how can you swallow anything, when hope is all you have left?