The charity Caritas Aotearoa New Zealand has pledged 33,000 US dollars in support of its Tongan counterpart's response to tropical cyclone Ian.
The Director of Caritas New Zealand, Julianne Hickey, says it has worked closely with Caritas Tonga for more than a decade in emergency response and long-term development programmes.
She says the Catholic agency expects there will be a significant physical and human impact from the cyclone as Ha`apai is a fragile environment, already experiencing the impacts of climate change.
Caritas Tonga reports that all normal communication lines to Ha'apai are still down, apart from government and Red Cross satellite phones.
