THE people of Niuatoputapu in the north of Tonga fled to higher ground on their small isolated island last night, fearing another tsunami, when a warning was issued at around 10 pm after the Japan March 11 earthquake triggered a Pacific-wide tsunami event.

Niuatoputapu's main telephone system was interrupted during the evacuation and telephone operators could not be contacted from Nuku'alofa throughout the night and this morning. Also not working was a satellite phone that was put into place after the island's settlements were devastated in September 2009 by a huge tsunami event that also hit Samoa. Nuku'alofa Central Police also confirmed that they could not get through to the satellite phone.

All-clear

The Meteorological Officer in Niuatoputapu, Langi Lua, told Matangi Tonga Online, through his cell phone at 12:25 today, that an all-clear had been given from Nuku'alofa and a few people were now returning to their homes.

He said that he went down to the sea before the 5:00am estimated time of arrival of the tsunami, when it was nearly low tide and they put a stick where normally the high tide would come to. When they went back later, they noticed that where the tide was low, it got even lower and then came up again. It was still within the high water mark and kept fluctuating. "Even up to 9:00 am this morning, the water was still doing the same thing."

Last night after the announcement around 10-11pm Langi said he went through the villages of Falehau and Vaipoa and it was clear that people were already moving up to the heights.

When he went out through the hala 'uta (country roads) he said that people were already on the higher area and they had returned to the camps where they had stayed for so long after the 2009 devastating tsunami killed nine people on the island.