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British couple are helping hundreds of lost Tongans reunite with their families

Joe Caesar and Kate Walker, their daughter Evie, and scenes from the Tonga eruption.
Joe Caesar and Kate Walker, who have a daughter called Evie, have been ‘exhausted’ by the ‘rewarding’ work to reconnect families (Picture: PA/Getty/Rex)

A British couple say they have reconnected more than 100 families on a Tongan island after the volcanic eruption there caused major communication difficulties.

The undersea volcano and resulting tsunami cut a vital communications cable, cutting off many locals on the archipelago.

But two Brits who used to live on the island of Vava’u used a 160-character satellite device to bring the island news of the scale of the disaster and pass messages on from the outside world.

Kate Walker, 44, and Joe Caesar, 41, moved to Vava’u in 2012 but found themselves the only point of contact to the outside world for the entirety of its population following the devastation.

They passed hundreds of messages on to those fearing for the safety of their friends and family.

Kate, who is now based in Mangawhai, New Zealand, branded the operation ‘exhausting and stressful’.

‘Twelve hours after the eruption happened, Vava’u lost vital communications instantly,’ Kate, who grew up in Bridgend, South Wales, said.

Undated handout photo by Kate Walker of Kate Walker, 44, Joe Caesar, 41, and their daughter Evie, 4, as the British couple have reconnected more than 100 families to their loved ones on a Tongan island after the eruption of an undersea volcano and following tsunami cut a vital communications cable. Issue date: Wednesday January 19, 2022. PA Photo. The couple lived on the island of Vava'u for eight years after moving there in 2012 and have been the only point of contact to the outside world for the entirety of its population, passing hundreds of messages onto those fearing for the safety of their friends and family. See PA story SOCIAL Tonga. Photo credit should read: Kate Walker/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
Kate and Joe had lived on the island before the pandemic (Picture: PA)

The environmental specialist continued: ‘We’ve been messaging constantly to get information to people because they had no idea what happened, they initially thought it was a propane storage farm that exploded.

‘They still have no idea of the scale because we can only communicate through 160-character text messages… in terms of the global scale and the importance of the eruption, they don’t know yet.

‘It’s going to be a bit overwhelming for them, I think, when they do get online.’

Kate and Joe, who is originally from Cambridge, founded The Boatyard with their business partner, Alan Morey, when they moved to the island – and it is Tonga’s first and only yacht haulage facility.

The Boatyard remains in operation despite the pair moving to New Zealand with their daughter, Evie, five, when the pandemic closed the world’s borders.

Undated handout photo by Kate Walker of the team at The Boatyard in Vava'u, who have been using a Garmin inReach device to communicate with the world via satellite. Issue date: Wednesday January 19, 2022. PA Photo. The team at the boatyard have been in communication with Kate Walker, 44, and Joe Caesar, 41, a British couple who lived on the island of Vava???u for eight years after moving there in 2012 and have been the only point of contact to the outside world for the entirety of its population, passing hundreds of messages on to those fearing for the safety of their friends and family. See PA story SOCIAL Tonga. Photo credit should read: Kate Walker/PA Wire NOTE TO EDITORS: This handout photo may only be used in for editorial reporting purposes for the contemporaneous illustration of events, things or the people in the image or facts mentioned in the caption. Reuse of the picture may require further permission from the copyright holder.
The team at The Boatyard in Vava’u have been helping locals communicate with the outside world (Picture: PA)

Since the eruption sent huge waves crashing across the Pacific on Saturday, the couple have relied on team member Tom Marchand, who has one of Vava’u’s only working satellite devices, a Garmin inReach.

‘It’s like a tiny little Nokia 5110 – if you want the letter C, you have to press it three times,’ Kate explained.

They helped one woman make contact with her husband and children.

Described the ‘really rewarding’ moment she was able to connect a family friend really worried about her loved ones, Kate continued: ‘She’s gone overseas to earn money and he stayed (in Tonga) with three kids, and she’s been just desperate for information.

‘We were able to find her husband and bring him to The Boatyard where Tom was and (the husband) got in touch with his wife, they had a quick text… hearing from her family directly and knowing that her kids were safe has been really rewarding.’

File photo dated 17/04/21 of Queen Elizabeth II after taking her seat for the funeral of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, in St George's Chapel, Windsor Castle. The Prime Minister's former director of communications James Slack has apologised for the "anger and hurt" caused by a leaving party held in Downing Street the night before the Duke of Edinburgh's funeral. Mr Slack, who last year left No 10 to become deputy editor-in-chief at The Sun, said the party on April 16 2021, "should not have happened at the time that it did". Issue date: Friday January 14, 2022. PA Photo. See PA story POLITICS Coronavirus . Photo credit should read: Jonathan Brady/PA Wire Queen 'declined to have restrictions relaxed for Philip funeral' before parties

Kate added that she and Joe have been informing families from all over the world of that their loved ones are safe – with people from Mexico, Nepal, the US, Fiji, China and Singapore getting in touch.

‘We’ve been the only communications link between Vava’u and the rest of the world… I’ve lost count of the families – over 100 I reckon,’ Kate said.

‘It’s been a full-time job for both of us for three days – something we’re very, very glad to do… we’ve just been able to constantly reassure people that everybody and everything is fine.

‘It’s 15,000 people on the island and just one open channel of communication, 160 characters at a time, it’s a challenge.’

A mother in Mexico, looking for news of her daughter, was also helped by the British couple.

‘It took her a few days to find the information we were posting (on Facebook) so she’d been in quite a state for a few days, and we were very quickly able to provide her with the information that her daughter is safe, well, and fed,’ Kate said.

‘That’s been massively rewarding, being able to provide good news when there’s so much bad news.’

Kate added that she hopes pressure will start to ease as the island takes important steps forward in its bid to get connected.

On Wednesday morning, the service provider Digicel announced that international calls have been restored to Tonga.

‘It’s been intense… and it doesn’t really matter that you’re tired or it’s exhausting – it’s nothing compared to what’s actually going on there,’ Kate added.

‘And it’s nothing compared to that worry that some people have, so it’s a very small service that we can do.’

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at webnews@metro.co.uk.

For more stories like this, check our news page.

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