Pohiva expects Tonga to bounce back

TONGA – Tonga’s prime minister said Pacific people are resilient and he expects his country to bounce back from the devastation caused by last week’s Cyclone Gita.

Buildings and crops were severely damaged on Tongatapu and ‘Eua and hundreds have been left homeless.

But ‘Akilisi Pohiva said locals had retained their good humour and had got on with the job of recovering from the category four storm.

“They feel sorry for what has happened but they still enjoy life. Remember, you know Pacific people, especially Tongans, are very simple. They are not complicated.

“Most people they know how to handle disasters.”

Pohiva said because disaster officials had not handled such a severe storm before there were bound to be issues.

There have been complaints about the speed of government assistance to some communities but Pohiva said he was happy with the work.

“This is the first time for most of the workers to see and to handle such a huge damages brought about by the hurricane to the country.

“To me at least they have been doing their work pretty good. There have been complaints from certain parts of the country but this is how things work. We cannot expect that everything goes smoothly,”he said. - RNZI