MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA – FEBRUARY 3: Michael ‘Uhilamoelangi unloads PPE provides donated by Kaiser Permanente on the ‘Anamatangi Polynesian Voices warehouse in Mountain View, Calif., Thursday, Feb. 3, 2022. The Bay Space Tongan neighborhood plans to ship the 2 tons of medical provides to the Pacific Island nation that's nonetheless reeling from final month’s volcanic eruption and tsunami. (Karl Mondon/Bay Space Information Group)
EAST PALO ALTO — For six days after a volcanic explosion and tsunami buffeted the islands of Tonga with devastating power, Tonga Victoria of East Palo Alto felt dread, panic and concern wash over her.
Like many Tongans throughout the nation, Victoria watched in horror on the morning of January 15 in Dayton, Ohio as studies got here again from her homeland that Pacific Ocean waters had slammed into the island the place her husband lived.
The eruption of the underwater volcano close to Tonga that Saturday was probably the largest recorded anyplace on Earth up to now three many years. Dramatic photos from space-filled TV and cellphone screens the whole week confirmed an enormous plume of fuel, ash and smoke spewing into the ambiance and tsunami waves have been captured tearing by means of Tongan villages. To make issues worse, the undersea fiber-optic cables that join Tonga to the remainder of the world have been severed, leaving no manner for outsiders to speak with the island.
It was a nightmare, Victoria mentioned. She tried every little thing she might to get in contact together with her husband, who she was supposed to fulfill up with in Tonga in March, however to no avail.
“The final time I had talked to him was at 3 p.m. that Friday, and I don't fall asleep till he messages me,” Victoria mentioned. “I wakened randomly at 11 p.m. and he hadn’t texted me so I used to be like ‘what occurred?’ I went again to sleep and wakened Saturday to so many individuals texting me asking if my husband was okay. However it was fully silent. There’s nothing I might say or do.”
For practically every week, Victoria cried till her tears ran dry and prayed as a lot as she might for any signal that her husband was okay. It wasn’t till it was introduced that three Tongans had died from the aftermath of the eruption that Victoria actually started to panic.
“There was a lot ache and concern,” Victoria mentioned with tears operating down her face. “Worry actually hit my coronary heart that day.”
However after six days, Victoria lastly heard from her husband. Her subsequent step was to see what she might do to assist. Only a day after speaking to her husband and discovering out he was protected, Victoria boarded a airplane to the Bay Space from Ohio the place she was staying together with her brother to assist manage the reduction effort on the Peninsula.
Final week, Victoria and members of East Palo Alto’s Anamatangi Polynesian Voices — a company of Bay Space Tongans and Pacific Islanders aimed toward sending assist to their homelands — hauled about two tons of pallets of PPE and different protecting tools donated by Kaiser Permanente in Redwood Metropolis into their Mountain View warehouse to organize it for cargo. They have been wearing conventional Tongan garments in solidarity with their individuals.
The devastation wrought by the volcanic eruption and tsunami was sufficient to take care of for the Tongan individuals, however a surge in COVID-19 circumstances made it clear to Anamatangi members that COVID-19 reduction was as essential as meals and rebuilding supplies.
Not one of the dozen or so Anamatangi members and volunteers who're working to ship reduction to the island have stopped working because the tsunami: and so they don’t wish to.
“I’ve been rocking and rolling since I obtained right here,” Victoria mentioned. “I haven’t had time to cease, and I don’t wish to cease.”
Together with assist despatched to Anamatangi Polynesian Voices by Kaiser, various different businesses and organizations have despatched assist, too. Stanford Well being Care donated about 140,000 N95 and KN95 masks, sufficient to offer no less than one for everybody residing on the island. Sutter Medical Middle additionally has donated about 10 pallets of kit, and a bunch of Menlo-Atherton Excessive Faculty alumni has additionally pitched in to ship a couple of dozen pallets of provides.
Anamatangi Improvement Director Shanna ‘Uhilamoelangi mentioned it was “stunning and emotional” to see a lot of her homeland devastated by a pure catastrophe.
“It’s nonetheless painful to consider,” she mentioned.
However regardless of the sensation of loss she felt within the aftermath of the eruption, ‘Uhilamoelangi mentioned all she might take into consideration was organizing with Tonga to get provides to them as shortly as doable. The group — which was began by ‘Uhilamoelangi’s mom and father within the Seventies — is anticipating pallets upon pallets of provides from donors, a feat for the small group.
“We’re small however mighty,” ‘Uhilamoelangi mentioned. “I simply can’t think about what they’re going by means of, so any little we are able to do to assist is the intention. Anamatangi is mobilizing.”
For Anamatangi Polynesian Voices, this isn’t the primary time they’ve needed to mobilize shortly to ship assist to their brothers and sisters within the Pacific. In 2009, throughout the devastating Samoa earthquake and tsunami that killed practically 200 individuals and left a whole bunch of others injured, the East Palo Alto Pacific Islander neighborhood got here collectively to ship assist to Samoa.
However for Tiffany Uhila-Hautau, director of Anamatangi, the eruption and tsunami in Tonga have been extra private. Uhila-Hautau has been on the forefront of searching for assist for Tonga, assembly with rich donors and organizations for assist, but in addition pondering of her cousins, nieces and different household and buddies on the island.
Sporting a flower on her head in conventional Tongan trend, Uhila-Hautau — a robust girl whose professionalism hardly wavered within the face of a tough mission — was delivered to tears pondering of the kids and elders who should have suffered within the aftermath of the catastrophe. For her, the picture of crying infants and helpless elders is insupportable. She determined the easiest way to maintain the tears at bay was to do every little thing doable to assist her individuals.
“Neighborhood organizing isn’t international to us, mobilizing isn’t international to us, so once we obtained the decision that we might assist, my preliminary thought was ‘wow, how good is God to allow us to be the vessel to offer assist to Tonga.’ It’s been a whirlwind of feelings. There are some days we’re smiling, and others we’re crying. However we’re simply grateful we are able to do that.”
On a whiteboard on the group’s Mountain View warehouse house, the phrase “Ko ki moutolu na’e teu’i wei nui’a” was written for all to see. It signifies that regardless of all of the concern, anxiousness and ache, “you all have been ready from the start.”
“I hold telling my individuals: don’t be scared,” Victoria mentioned. “Your religion has gotten you this far, so don't be scared.”
HOW TO HELP:
Anamatangi Polynesian Voices is working diligently to prepare and ship assist to Tonga to assist recuperate after the tsunami and volcanic eruption. For those who’d like to assist, please donate to the Tonga Tsunami Reduction Fund. Up to now, individuals have donated greater than $20,000. Anamatangi Polynesian Voices hope to achieve their aim of $100,000.