BANGKOK--As the massive undersea Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted on Saturday, Tongans from around the world gazed on as their relatives livestreamed images of billowing clouds of ash, gas and steam emerging from beneath the depths. Then darkness. The eruption severed Tonga's single fiber-optic cable, rendering the entire Pacific archipelago offline and unable to communicate with the rest of the world — and leaving their loved ones terrified about what might have happened.“ It was absol

Tonga, the Pacific nation that was struck by a powerful tsunami last weekend, consists of about 170 islands, some tiny, stretching out across 270, 000 square miles, an area roughly the size of Texas. The vast majority are uninhabited.... Because the disaster damaged an undersea cable, communications have been limited, and the full extent of the damage is still not clear. But Ms.... Greenwood said Nomuka, Mango and Fonoifua were buffeted by waves almost 50 feet high, compared with waves of only