Tonga Shrouded by Ash and Mystery After Powerful Volcano Erupts

So far, the only deaths reported occurred 6,000 miles away, in Peru. But outside emergency workers have yet to make their way to the Pacific island nation.

Boats bashed into a quiet harbor in Southern California, a remote island was battered in Japan by four-foot waves and two women were swept to their deaths on a beach in Peru — some 6,000 miles from an undersea volcanic eruption so powerful that the tsunami it set off churned ocean waters halfway across the globe.

But on Sunday, as reports of the volcano’s impact trickled in from far-flung countries, there was little word from Tonga, the island nation just 40 miles from the site of the extraordinary explosion. As concerns grew, the nation of about 100,000 remained largely cut off from the rest of world, its undersea internet cables knocked out of commission by the volcano.

Early videos captured islanders rushing to higher ground as the first powerful waves crashed ashore. And reports that emerged Sunday described a land rendered ghastly gray by volcanic debris, its waters poisoned by the ash sent tens of thousands of feet skyward when the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano erupted Saturday evening.