which connects tonga to the world. it lasted 8 minutes — and sent ash 20 kilometres into the air. and it triggered a tsunami across the pacific waves reached as far as alaska almost 10,000km away. and this was the tongan capital, nuku'alofa. waves nearly a metre high flooded buildings. now these are pictures from saturday and now several days on we got an idea of the damage. here's the new zealand's high commissioner to tonga on the phone from capital. it's a huge clean—up operation under way that the town has been blanketed in volcanic dust but they are making progress and roads have been cleared and the buildings being cleaned up and the buildings being cleaned up and on the waterfront lots of rubble and on the waterfront lots of rubble and rock and some damage to the