Results for Patangata

A search for missing sea cucumber diver Ualeni Pomana (20) continues in Tongatapu waters. He has been missing since Monday, July 6.

“My family were swimming inside the house,” said Patangata Community Policing Officer, Sami Mafi, after Severe Tropical Cyclone Harold sent a waist-high storm surge through the community soon after dawn on Thursday morning, smashing fishing boats and dumping rock over the breakwater.

Much needed food supplies were today distributed to impoverished families in Popua, who were left living under tin sheds or damaged houses by Tropical Cyclone Gita last week.

Widow, 'Oto’ota Tapa’atoutai of Patangata is thankful to be alive with her family, and despite the cruel reality that Tropical Cyclone Gita demolished her small house on Monday February 12, she talked with a smile today as her family picked up the pieces of their life in one of the most vulnerable areas of Nuku'alofa.

A distinguished academic, Patrick V. Kirch, Chancellor's Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley, who specializes in the ancient Pacific, urged Tonga's Prime Minister 'Akilisi Pohiva to protect the Va'epopua Sia Heu Lupe mound complex from desecration two years ago. "These archaeological sites are a priceless legacy of the ancient Tongan past and deserve to be protected for future generations to appreciate," he says.

A 72-year-old man was found dead floating at sea in Patangata, Tongatapu on Tuesday night, March 7 after he left home to go diving.

A search and rescue operation is underway for a 63-year-old fisherman from Nukunuku who is missing after heading out to Malinoa Island on Monday, 11 May.