Tonga hurricane claims heart victim

Press, 8 March 1982, Page 1

Tonga hurricane claims heart victim

NZPA Nuku’alofa A young girl named Sekola was being buried when helicopters clattered low overhead.

As the two Royal Australian Air Force Iroquois circled to get a closer look at hurricane damage, the priest paused and said: “Have a good look, then we will get on with the sermon.” The burial service was taking place at Pangai, capital of Tonga’s Ha’apai group of islands and situated in the island of Lifuka, where Hurricane Isaac was at its fiercest when it tore across Tonga last Wednesday. . Hardly a building was left unscathed as the hurricane

passed. Three men were badly injured by flying roofing iron. But there were no deaths as a direct result Of the storm. Sekola died as the hurricane was spending the last of its force.

The Parish priest, Father Benjamin Folau, said that Sekola, aged 16, had been in hospital for many weeks, suffering from a hole in the heart.

She had been clinging precariously to life, he said. Money had not been available to send her overseas for surgery. Last Wednesday one of the three injured men had been brought into the little hos-

pital, his head covered in blood. Father Benjamin and Sister Clare, a member of the Order of the Sisters of Nazareth said Sekola’s mother had told them that the sight was too much for the girl. Apparently suffering a major heart attack, she died.

The helicopters which shattered the quiet of Sekola’s funeral were back the same day, bringing urgently needed supplies and a handful of reporters to give the outside world a glimpse of what happened in Pangai.

International aid was pouring into Tonga on a huge scale yesterday, but distribution to the needy was provid-

ing a headache for relief workers.

As New Zealand and Australian Hercules aircraft continued to bring in equipment and supplies, France joined in with a Caravelle aircraft loaded with supplies from Papeete. Aid, including medical supplies worth $230,000, was expected today on a DC9 aircraft chartered from Singapore by the United Kingdom. The United States was expected to weigh in with a Cl4l aircraft loaded with supplies from Guam.

The R.N.Z.A.F. has flown in six Hercules loads. The Australians have been the biggest contributors, with 10

Hercules flights bringing' in supplies including 20 tonnes of rice, 87 generators, hundreds of tents; nine marquees, 900 tins of milk, 4600 metres of cable, and 100 rolls of plastic sheeting. Getting the aid to the people who most need it, particularly the people of the Ha’apai group, is proving a slow task, hampered by a lack of vehicles and by the far-flung position of Tonga’s 36 inhabited islands. Teams of Army engineers were flown to Lifuka, yesterday to begin clearing debris with chainsaws and to replace roofs on the main buildings to provide mass

shelter in an area where an estimated 80 to 90 per cent of homes were destroyed or damaged.

In Nuku’alofa, the city’s residents have managed to clear up the worst of the mess.

But many are homeless, some, sitting on what remains of their belongings. In some cases only a few pieces of furniture remain on the concrete pad that used to be a house foundation.

In many seafront areas houses were swept up to 100 metres from their original sites by the huge waves that accompanied the hurricane.