Vaipoa is one of three

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

s on the island of

Niuatoputapu Niuatoputapu is a high island in the island nation of Tonga, Pacific Ocean. Its highest point is , and its area is . Its name means ''sacred island''. Older European names for the island are Traitors Island or Keppel Island. Niuatoputapu is ...

Tonga Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...

. The population is 172. The other two villages on Niuatoputapu are

Hihifo Hihifo is the main village on the island of Niuatoputapu in the Kingdom of Tonga. Hihifo (which means 'west' in the Tongan language) is situated on the west side of Niuatoputapu and is the main centre for public and government facilities that se ...

, which is the main village on the island, and

Falehau Falehau is a village on the island of Niuatoputapu in Tonga. The population is 218. The other two villages on Niuatoputapu are Hihifo, which is the main village on the island, and Vaipoa. Falehau was extensively damaged by the 2009 Samoa earthq ...

. Niuatoputapu was extensively damaged in the

2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami The 2009 Samoa earthquake and tsunami took place on 29 September 2009 in the southern Pacific Ocean adjacent to the Kermadec-Tonga subduction zone. The submarine earthquake occurred in an extensional environment and had a moment magnitude of 8.1 ...

L.A. Times aerial photo with a number of fatalities. The tsunami followed an earthquake of an 8.0 moment magnitude scale, M_w

earthquake An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, from ...

in the

Samoan Islands The Samoan Islands ( sm, Motu o Sāmoa) are an archipelago covering in the central South Pacific, forming part of Polynesia and of the wider region of Oceania. Administratively, the archipelago comprises all of the Independent State of Samoa a ...

region at 06:48:11 local time on 29 September 2009 (17:48:11 UTC).Magnitude 8.0 - SAMOA ISLANDS REGION
Report o
U.S. Geological Service
s website. Retrieved online d.d. 5 October 2009.

References

Populated places in Niuas {{tonga-geo-stub