Tag Archives: New Zealand

New Zealand government orders building repairs due to quake risks

New Zealand residents view damage from earthquake

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – The New Zealand government said on Wednesday it will require building owners to urgently fix hundreds of hazardous buildings due to concerns over the heightened earthquake risk following a deadly tremor in November.

The new rules affect about 300 buildings, mostly in the capital city of Wellington, and will cost around NZ$9 million ($6.51 million), half of which will be paid for by the government and local authorities, building minister Nick Smith told reporters.

The decision came after the state-funded science agency GNS Science predicted Wellington and the upper south island were eight times more likely than normal to be hit by a damaging quake in the next year.

Engineering industry bodies had asked for buildings with unreinforced facades such as verandas and chimneys in busy public spaces to be secured. Dozens of people were killed by rubble from similar structures collapsing in the 2011 Christchurch earthquake.

“Falling unreinforced masonry facades and parapets pose a major risk to people on the street during an earthquake. We saw the terrible harm that can be done when 39 people were killed by unreinforced masonry in the 2011 Canterbury earthquake,” Smith said.

The government ordered repairs to be carried out within 12 months and waived normal building consent processes, Smith said.

New Zealand’s central bank has estimated that repairs in the aftermath of the Nov.14 quake will cost up to NZ$8 billion, mainly in Wellington and the northern part of South Island.

($1 = 1.3820 New Zealand dollars)

(Reporting by Charlotte Greenfield; Editing by Simon Cameron-Moore)

Aid trucks reach cut-off New Zealand town as quake bill mounts

Royal New Zealand Air Force personnel lead those stranded by an earthquake to an NH90 helicopter to evacuate them from Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand

By Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A convoy of 27 military trucks reached the stricken New Zealand town of Kaikoura on Friday, five days after the seaside community was completely cut off by huge landslides caused by a 7.8-magnitude earthquake that killed two people

The convoy, which had been delayed by bad weather on Thursday, carried food and medical supplies and a team of civil engineers, officials said.

Helicopters have also flown provisions to the town from navy vessels anchored offshore since the quake struck early on Monday. More than 1,000 tourists and residents were evacuated from the small South Island fishing town, a whale-watching base that draws visitors from all over the world.

Relief efforts by sea, air and road will continue to supply the town of around 2,000 people as roads remain shut to the public. “Our people are going to be there for a very long time,” a spokeswoman for the New Zealand Defence Force said.

Not all tourists have left, and New Zealand media reported that a local lawmaker and motel owner had complained that some were staying to get drunk and party through the night for a “cheap holiday” as residents tried to clean up.

The quake’s cost could add up to almost NZ$12 billion ($8.4 billion), which could push the government budget back into deficit after two years of surpluses, analysts say.

“This week’s disaster struck in more lightly populated areas but damage to infrastructure has been severe,” said Citibank economists in a research note.

Prime Minister John Key said earlier this week the damage bill would be about NZ$2 billion($1.40 billion), although he cautioned that was only an early estimate. Finance Minister Bill English told parliament the damage was “relatively localized”.

Catastrophe modeling firm AIR Worldwide said the total for insurance losses – which excludes losses to land, infrastructure or cars – would be between NZ$1.15 billion and NZ$5.3 billion.

Most residential damage would be covered by the government-owned insurer, the Earthquake Commission, which is backed by NZ$4.7 billion in reinsurance, AIR Worldwide said in a statement.

In 2011, an earthquake in Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city, killed almost 200 people and required a NZ$40 billion rebuild.

Warships from Australia, Canada and the United States, in New Zealand for the Royal New Zealand Navy’s 75th anniversary, have been assisting with Kaikoura’s recovery.

This week’s quake damaged as many as 60 buildings in the capital, Wellington, on the North Island some 150 km (95 miles) to the northeast of Kaikoura.

That included serious structural damage to three relatively recently constructed multi-storey buildings, one of which engineers said would have to be torn down.

The government said on Thursday it would investigate why the newer buildings had been unable to withstand the quake.

($1 = 1.4278 New Zealand dollars)

(Additional reporting by Carolyn Cohn in London and Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengalaru; Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

Storm lashes New Zealand quake zone, more buildings evacuated

Evacuees formerly stranded in the earthquake-affected town of Kaikoura walk away from the New Zealand Air Force helicopter that brought them to the town of Woodend, near Christchurch, New Zealand,

By Lincoln Feast

CHRISTCHURCH, New Zealand (Reuters) – Rain and strong winds battered central New Zealand on Thursday, threatening further damage just days after a powerful earthquake killed two people and devastated parts of the country’s South Island with huge landslides.

More than 1,000 tourists and residents have been evacuated from the small seaside town of Kaikoura by a fleet of helicopters and a New Zealand naval vessel since the 7.8 magnitude quake struck early on Monday.

Kaikoura, a fishing town and popular whale-watching base ringed by steep mountains, was completely cut off by landslides covering the coastal road and rail corridor.

Further helicopter evacuations from Kaikoura on Thursday had been disrupted due to the bad weather, said Sarah Stuart-Black, director of the Ministry of Civil Defence Emergency Management.

“We are really concerned about the changing weather situation,” she told reporters. “It could mean that there’s an increased risk of further landslides, obviously surface flooding, so we want people to be safe.”

An inland road to Kaikoura, briefly reopened to emergency vehicles, was closed due to more landslides, officials said.

Warships from Australia, Canada and the United States, in the country for the Royal New Zealand Navy’s 75th anniversary, had arrived in Kaikoura to assist with the recovery.

“The ships, crews and maritime helicopters provided by our partner militaries have given us a great deal of flexibility in supporting the national relief effort,” said New Zealand Joint Forces Commander Major General Tim Gall.

Most of the tourists evacuated to Christchurch, the South Island’s largest city about 150 km (90 miles) south of Kaikoura, had continued their journeys but around 130 people were being housed temporarily in Canterbury University’s student halls.

With damage expected to take months to repair, the government announced a NZ$7.5 million ($5.3 million) wage subsidy package to support small businesses in Kaikoura for two months.

“These companies … are going to have a sustained reduction in their turnover to the point of almost nothing for a long period of time and that’s why we think it’s appropriate for the government to step in,” Economic Development Minister Steven Joyce told reporters.

Analysts at ANZ Bank said that, while the local economic hit would be significant, there would only be a “small dent” in New Zealand’s overall activity, far lower than the 2011 quake in Christchurch that killed almost 200 people.

STRUCTURAL DAMAGE

In Wellington, as many as 60 buildings were damaged, including serious structural damage to three relatively recently constructed multi-storey buildings, one of which engineers said would have to be torn down.

The government said it would launch an investigation into why the newer buildings had been unable to withstand the quake.

More buildings were evacuated and roads cordoned off on Thursday as engineers assessed the damage.

Wellington is bisected by several fault lines, and large areas of its business district are built on reclaimed land, raising questions about building practices in the capital despite some of the world’s strictest codes.

“It is a concern, people do want to know the buildings they’re in are going to be safe,” Wellington Mayor Justin Lester told reporters. “Everybody wants a building to perform as is expected, so when it doesn’t … you need to understand how. There’s no simple answer.”

The force of the tremor was most evident in the upper South Island, where parts of the coast moved meters. A team of volunteers rescued thousands of abalone, a large shellfish known locally as paua, that had been thrown up from the sea bed and left high and dry.

Evacuees formerly stranded in the earthquake-affected town of Kaikoura stand alongside the helicopter that brought them to the town of Woodend, near Christchurch, New Zealand

Evacuees formerly stranded in the earthquake-affected town of Kaikoura stand alongside the helicopter that brought them to the town of Woodend, near Christchurch, New Zealand, November 16, 2016. REUTERS/Lincoln Feast

A popular New Zealand fur seal colony near Kaikoura, where pups could often be seeing playing in a waterfall in a nearby stream, was destroyed by a landslide, Department of Conversation officials said.

Civil Defence evacuated some residents near several rivers in the region where landslides from the earthquakes had blocked the rivers and risked dangerous collapses.

Seismologists are still recording hundreds of aftershocks – some 2,000 have rattled the region since the initial tremor.

Government body Geonet Science estimated an almost one-in-three chance of another 7-7.8 magnitude quake hitting the wider region within the next 30 days.

“We stress to Wellington that we need to be prepared,” Lester, the mayor, said.

(This version of the story corrects designation of Lester in final paragraph)

New Zealand evacuates quake hit town, fears of Wellington building collapse

By Lincoln Feast and Charlotte Greenfield

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand emergency services and defense personnel evacuated hundreds of tourists and residents from a small South Island town amid more strong aftershocks on Tuesday, a day after a powerful earthquake killed two people.

The 7.8-magnitude tremor struck just after midnight on Sunday, destroying farm homesteads, sending glass and masonry toppling from buildings in the capital, Wellington, and cutting road and rail links throughout the northeast of the ruggedly beautiful South Island.

As aftershocks continued to rattle the region, emergency services cordoned off streets in Wellington and evacuated several buildings due to fears one of them might collapse.

A Royal New Zealand Air Force member (R) helps evacuate a toddler and others aboard an NH90 helicopter from Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand

A Royal New Zealand Air Force member (R) helps evacuate a toddler and others aboard an NH90 helicopter from Kaikoura on the South Island of New Zealand November 15, 2016, stranded following the recent earthquakes. Sgt Sam Shepherd/Courtesy of Royal New Zealand Defence Force/Handout via REUTERS

Wellington Mayor Justin Lester said the vacant building appeared to have suffered structural damage when the land it was on subsided in the quake. A fire service official said a major structural beam had “snapped like a bone”.

The town of Kaikoura, a popular base for whale-watching about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Christchurch, the South Island’s main city, remained cut off by massive landslips.

Four defense force helicopters flew in to the town on Tuesday morning and two Navy vessels were heading to the area carrying supplies and to assist with the evacuation, Air Commander Darryn Webb, acting commander of New Zealand joint forces, told TVNZ.

“We’re looking to do as many flights as we can out of Kaikoura today,” he said.

Around 400 of the 1,200 tourists stranded in the town were flown out on Tuesday, including 12 people with a variety of injuries, officials said.

 

Landslides block State Highway One near Kaikoura on the upper east coast of New Zealand's South Island following an earthquake, November 14, 2016. Sgt Sam Shepherd/Courtesy of Royal New Zealand

Landslides block State Highway One near Kaikoura on the upper east coast of New Zealand’s South Island following an earthquake, November 14, 2016. Sgt Sam Shepherd/Courtesy of Royal New Zealand Defence Force/Handout via REUTERS –

The Red Cross, which used defense force helicopters to bring in emergency generators, satellite communications and water bladders, said water in the town was running out.

Mark Solomon, a leader of South Island indigenous Maori Ngai Tahu tribe, which has tourism and fisheries businesses around Kaikoura, said the local marae (Maori meeting place) had received 1,000 people since Monday morning. Many slept overnight in the communal hall or in vehicles outside.

The tribe had fed them with crayfish, a delicacy for which the South Island town is famous. With no power, the tanks that hold the expensive crustaceans had stopped pumping.

“It’s better to use the food than throw it in the rubbish so we sent it up to the marae to feed people,” Solomon told Reuters by phone.

AFTERSHOCKS, WIND AND RAIN

China chartered four helicopters to evacuate around 40 nationals from Kaikoura, mostly elderly and children, late on Monday, said Liu Lian, an official at the Chinese Consulate in Christchurch.

One Chinese national had been treated for a minor head injury in Kaikoura’s hospital, Liu said, and around 60 others would be evacuated on Tuesday.

“They have been trapped in Kaikoura for a couple of days, some are maybe scared, they have some mental stress,” Liu told Reuters. Many planned to continue journeys to other parts of New Zealand, Liu said.

Other tourists also said they planned to continue their trips, and travel agencies said they hadn’t noticed a drop off in bookings, easing concerns about a major hit to the sector, New Zealand’s biggest export earner.

Gale-force winds and rain were hampering recovery efforts, and hundreds of aftershocks continued to rock the region. A 5.4 tremor was among the bigger aftershocks and was felt strongly in Wellington.

Finance Minister Bill English said the government was well positioned to deal with the expected repair bill of billions of dollars, with low debt and budget surpluses.

“We are in about as good a shape as we could be to deal with this natural disaster,” English told parliament.

Civil Defence estimated 80,000-100,000 landslides had been caused by the quakes.

New Zealand media reported that three cows filmed stranded on a small patch of grass surrounded by landslips near Kaikoura had been rescued by a farmer.

Acting Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee said New Zealand had accepted an offer of two U.S. Navy helicopters from the destroyer the USS Sampson, as well as an offer of help from the Japanese military.

It was hoped an inland road to Kaikoura from the south could be reopened by the weekend, he said.

Workers earlier began returning to office buildings in Wellington’s business district, which was closed off on Monday while the risk to buildings was assessed.

Several blocks were damaged, including the offices of Statistics New Zealand, which halted the release of economic data and said it would be months before it could use the building.

An A-League soccer match scheduled for Saturday between the Wellington Phoenix and Australia’s Melbourne Victory has been postponed because of damage to Wellington’s 34,000-seat Westpac Stadium, officials said.

New Zealand lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000-km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that encircles much of the Pacific Ocean.

Christchurch is still recovering from a 6.3 magnitude quake in 2011 that killed 185 people.

(Additional reporting by Swati Pandey and Nick Mulvenney in SYDNEY; Editing by Paul Tait)

‘Utter devastation’ after major quake, aftershocks hit New Zealand

Landslide blocking road

By Charlotte Greenfield and Greg Stutchbury

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – A powerful 7.8 magnitude earthquake pummeled central New Zealand early on Monday, killing at least two people, damaging roads and buildings and setting off hundreds of strong aftershocks.

Emergency response teams flew by helicopter to the region at the epicenter of the tremor, which struck just after midnight some 91 km (57 miles) northeast of Christchurch in the South Island, amid reports of injuries and collapsed buildings.

“It’s just utter devastation, I just don’t know … that’s months of work,” New Zealand Prime Minister John Key told Civil Defence Minister Gerry Brownlee after flying over the coastal town of Kaikoura, according to Brownlee’s Twitter account.

He described landslips in the area as “just horrendous”. In a statement seen by Reuters, Key said of the likely damage bill: “You’ve got to believe it’s in the billions of dollars to resolve.”

Powerlines and telecommunications were down, with huge cracks in roads, land slips and other damage to infrastructure making it hard to reach the worst-affected areas.

A tsunami warning that led to mass evacuations after the original quake was downgraded after large swells hit New Zealand’s capital Wellington, in the North Island, and Christchurch.

Wellington was a virtual ghost town with workers ordered to stay away while the city council assessed the risk to buildings, several of which were damaged by the tremor. There were concerns that loose glass and masonry could be dislodged by severe weather hitting the capital, with 140 km per hour (85 mph) winds forecast.

Hundreds of aftershocks, the strongest a 6.2 quake at about 1.45 p.m. local time (0045 GMT), rattled the South Pacific country, fraying nerves in an area where memories of a deadly 2011 quake are still fresh.

Christchurch, the largest city on New Zealand’s ruggedly beautiful South Island, is still recovering from the 6.3 quake in 2011 that killed 185 people.

New Zealand’s Civil Defence declared a state of emergency for the Kaikoura region, centered on a tourist town about 150 km (90 miles) northeast of Christchurch, soon after Monday’s large aftershock.

Kaikoura, a popular spot for whale watching, appeared to have borne the brunt of the quake.

“Our immediate priority is ensuring delivery of clean water, food and other essentials to the residents of Kaikoura and the estimated 1,000 tourists in the town,” Brownlee said.

The Navy’s multi-role vessel HMNZS Canterbury was heading to the area, he said.

Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) said a 20-person rescue team and two sniffer dogs had arrived in the town. A second team was on standby in Christchurch, USAR said in a statement.

Police in the area around Christchurch reported 19 burglaries of homes and commercial properties after the quake as residents headed for higher ground.

“It is extremely disappointing that at a time when people are facing such a traumatic event and communities are coming together to support one another, there are others who are only interested in taking advantage,” Canterbury District Commander Superintendent John Price said in a statement.

TWIN QUAKES

Hours after the quake, officials said a slip dam caused by the quakes that had blocked the Clarence River north of the town had breached, sending a wall of water downstream.

A group of kayakers missing on the river was later reported safe.

New Zealand’s Geonet measured Monday’s first quake at magnitude 7.5, while the U.S. Geological Survey put it at 7.8. The quakes and aftershocks rattled buildings and woke residents across the country, hundreds of kilometers from the epicenter.

Geonet said four faults had ruptured, with one at the coast appearing to have slipped as much as 10 meters (33 feet).

Government research unit GNS Science said the overnight tremor appeared to have been two simultaneous quakes which together lasted more than two minutes.

New Zealand lies in the seismically active “Ring of Fire”, a 40,000 km arc of volcanoes and oceanic trenches that partly encircles the Pacific Ocean. Around 90 percent of the world’s earthquakes occur within this region.

Stock exchange operator NZX Ltd said markets traded normally, although many offices in the capital were closed. The New Zealand dollar initially fell to a one-month low before mostly recovering.

Fonterra, the world’s biggest dairy exporter, said some its farms were without power and would likely have to dump milk.

Prime Minister Key postponed a trip to Argentina, where he had planned to hold a series of trade meetings ahead of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ summit in Peru this week, as he met disaster officials.

At least one of those killed was found in a house in Kaikoura that “collapsed like a stack of cards”, Kaikoura Hospital’s Dr Christopher Henry told Fairfax media. Two other people were pulled alive from the same building.

New Zealand media reported one of the pilots taking rescuers to the area was Richie McCaw, the recently retired captain of New Zealand’s world champion All Blacks rugby team.

“At one point, the railway was way out over the sea – it had been pushed out by (land) slips. It would not have been a nice place to be at midnight last night,” McCaw told the New Zealand Herald after helping fly the USAR team to Kaikoura.

(Additional reporting by Greg Stutchbury in WELLINGTON, Jamie Freed, Wayne Cole and Jane Wardell in SYDNEY; Writing by Paul Tait; Editing by Lincoln Feast)

Magnitude 6.2 quake strikes near Christchurch, New Zealand after earlier quake

Local residents Chris and Viv Young look at damage caused by an earthquake along State Highway One near the town of Ward, south of Blenheim on New Zealand's South Island,

SYDNEY (Reuters) – A strong new earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2 struck New Zealand’s South Island on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, hours after a more powerful quake killed two people and damaged buildings along the east coast of the South Island.

The latest quake was initially measured with a magnitude of 6.8. It struck at about 1.45 p.m. local time (0045 GMT) at a depth of 10 km (6 miles), about 120 km (75 miles) northeast of Christchurch, the USGS said.

(Reporting by Swati Pandey; Editing by Paul Tait)

New Zealand warns hikers away from ‘Lord of the Rings’ volcano

A tourist takes pictures of Mount Ruapehu as it erupts on June 18, 1996 in Tongariro National Park on the central North Island of New Zealand

WELLINGTON (Reuters) – New Zealand has warned hikers and climbers to steer clear of a volcano in a national park whose jagged volcanic rock formations and eerie barren landscapes featured in “The Lord of The Rings” movies.

Quake and volcano monitoring service GNS Science raised the alert for Mount Ruapehu, in the North Island’s Tongariro National Park, which last erupted in 2007.

“There are more signs of life at the volcano,” said Volcanologist Brad Scott.

The Department of Conservation warned trekkers to stay out of the Summit Hazard Zone, within two km of the center of Crater Lake.

“Recent visits to the volcano have confirmed an increase in the output of volcanic gas,” GNS Science said.

The temperature of the lake has risen from 25 degrees Celsius (77 degrees Fahrenheit) to 46 degrees Celsius (115 F)since mid-April. The volcanic alert level has been lifted to “heightened unrest” from “moderate”.

Each year, thousands of people trek the so-called Tongariro Crossing, a 20-km (12-mile) alpine crossing that passes all three volcanoes in the area.

The landscape formed the backdrop for Mordor’s hissing wasteland in Peter Jackson’s “The Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

(Reporting by Rebecca Howard; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Vietnam protests China missile deployment, other countries urge restraint

HANOI/SYDNEY (Reuters) – Vietnam protested to China on Friday at a “serious violation” of its sovereignty over Beijing’s apparent deployment of an advanced missile system on a disputed South China Sea island, while Australia and New Zealand urged Chinese restraint.

Tensions between China and its neighbors over maritime territory have risen since Taiwan and U.S. officials said Beijing had placed surface-to-air missiles on Woody Island, part of the Paracel archipelago it controls.

“Vietnam is deeply concerned about the actions by China. These are serious infringements of Vietnam’s sovereignty over the Paracels, threatening peace and stability in the region as well as security, safety and freedom of navigation and flight,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh said in a statement.

“Vietnam demands China immediately stop such erroneous actions.”

The statement said diplomatic notes had been issued to China’s embassy in Hanoi and to United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon to protest at Beijing’s activities, including the building of a military helicopter base on Duncan island.

Earlier, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had urged claimants to refrain from island-building and militarization in the South China Sea.

“It is absolutely critical that we ensure that there is a lowering of tensions,” said Turnbull, speaking after a meeting in Sydney with New Zealand counterpart John Key.

China claims most of the South China Sea, through which more than $5 trillion in global trade passes every year and which is believed to have huge deposits of oil and gas. Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Taiwan have rival claims.

The Philippines said it was “gravely concerned” about the reports of missiles being deployed on Woody Island.

“These developments further erode trust and confidence and aggravate the already tense situation,” its Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

Australia’s Turnbull said if Chinese President Xi Jinping was serious about avoiding the so-called Thucydides Trap, a foreign policy metaphor inspired by ancient Athens and Sparta in which a rising power causes fear in an established power that escalates toward war, he must resolve disputes through international law.

“President Xi is right in identifying avoiding that trap as a key goal,” said Turnbull.

U.S. PATROLS

Beijing has been angered by air and sea patrols the United States has conducted near islands China claims. Those have included one by two B-52 strategic bombers in November and by a U.S. Navy destroyer that sailed within 12 nautical miles of Triton Island in the Paracels last month.

Key said New Zealand, the first developed country to recognize China as a market economy and to sign a bilateral free trade deal, was leveraging its relationship with China to urge measures to lower tensions.

“Does that give us more opportunities to make that case, both privately and publicly? … my view is yes,” said Key, noting that both Australia and New Zealand are now also part of the Beijing-led Asian Investment Bank.

The comments come after Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop visited Beijing, where she raised the issues of the missiles and the South China Sea in meetings with Chinese officials, including top diplomat Yang Jiechi.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Australia and New Zealand “are not countries involved in the South China Sea”.

“We hope the two countries can objectively view the historical developments of the South China Sea, not neglect the facts, and not put forward proposals that are unconstructive,” Hong told reporters.

The Chinese government has offered few details in response to the missile claim, while accusing Western media of “hyping up” the story and saying China has a legitimate right to military facilities on territory it views as its own.

An influential Chinese state-run tabloid, the Global Times, in an editorial on Friday, described the HQ-9 missiles that are apparently now on Woody Island as “a typical type of defensive weapon”, but warned the People’s Liberation Army might feel compelled to deploy more weapons.

“If the U.S. military stages a real threat and a military clash is looming, the PLA may feel propelled to deploy more powerful weapons,” it said.

At a summit of Southeast Asian leaders in California on Monday, Vietnam’s prime minister suggested to U.S. President Barack Obama that Washington take “more efficient actions” against militarization and island-building.

(Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard and Michael Martina in BEIJING and Manuel Mogato in MANILA; Editing by Lincoln Feast and Alex Richardson)

Tongan Volcano Eruption Causes Flight Diversions

Authorities in New Zealand are telling airlines worldwide to avoid Tonga on their international routes following a volcanic eruption.

The Wellington Volcanic Ash Advisory Center says the Hunga Ha’apai volcano near Tonga’s capital city Nuku’alofa is sending a “dark volcanic cloud” 16,000 feet into the air and 10 nautical miles around the island.

Authorities say it’s impossible to know what is happening around the volcano because of the thickness of the volcanic ash cloud.

All flights into Tonga have been cancelled with no announcement as to when they might restart.

Hunga Ha’apai is the same volcano that first appeared roaring out of the Pacific Ocean in 2009 to create an island.

It is located on the Pacific Ring of Fire.

Christian Surfers Save Family’s Life on Christmas Day

A group of Christian surfers in New Zealand say that God placed them in the perfect position to be His hands and feet to a family that faced death on Christmas Day.

The five members of the North Shore Christian Surfers Group saved the lives of a mother and her two teenage sons who caught in a rip tide off the shore of a beach an hour west of Auckland.

The woman and her sons had almost drowned when someone on the beach screamed to the five men to help.  They quickly swam with their boards to the victims who were floundering about 30 yards offshore.  The group placed the three victims across their five boards and slowly worked their way to shore.

“They were pretty exhausted and pretty far out, and weren’t making any progress towards land,” group member Darren Celliers said. “It was pretty freaky.”

“The younger brother was just freaking out. He was scared and in shock,” Celliers added. “We spent the first few minutes trying to calm him down and explain that he was going to be all right.”

The New Zealand Herald reported five drownings connected to vicious rip tides in the last week.