George Novak/New Zealand Herald
The victims and families affected by the 2019 New Zealand volcano disaster, which claimed 22 lives, were awarded total damages of NZ$10 million (US$6 million) on Friday.
The sum must be paid by five companies, that transported 47 tourists to the volcanic island on December 9, 2019, the day it erupted.
Many of the 25 survivors suffered terrible burns.
In addition to paying out reparations, the islands' owners, Whakaari Management Limited, White Island Tours and helicopter firm Volcanic Air Safaris, who ran tourist trips to the volcano, were fined.
GNS Science, which monitors New Zealand's volcanos, was also ordered to pay a fine.
At Auckland District Court, Judge Evangelos Thomas said the total damages were "no more than a token recognition" of the victims' suffering.
The group had been "physically, mentally and emotionally" traumatised by the disaster, he said, with many still bearing the physical scars.
"Your stories have been heartbreaking and inspiring, it has been a humbling privilege to hear them," Thomas told the victims in court.
He said the exact reparation amounts would be adjusted in some cases, especially in instances where victims had lost parents.
Each of the companies sentenced had failed in their duties to assess and mitigate risk, Thomas added. "That failure exposed others to risk of serious injury and death."
Since the eruption, no boat or aircraft tours have been allowed to land on the island.
The eruption off the coast of the country's North Island prompted a massive medical operation that saw victims treated in burns units across New Zealand and Australia.
Thomas said many victims have seen their livelihoods affected by their injuries.
When the trial opened last July, the court was shown video footage of people on the island trying to flee a massive, expanding cloud of volcanic ash, which quickly engulfed them.
Some stumbled in their desperation to flee.
The head of New Zealand's health and safety regulator WorkSafe said the victim's harrowing experiences showed the impact of the disaster was "far wider" than just affecting those on the island that day.
"Today belongs to the survivors, and the whanau (family) and friends of those who were harmed or lost their lives," said WorkSafe chief executive Steve Haszard.
He described it as "one of the worst natural disasters" in New Zealand's history.
All of the businesses that controlled the island, or transported tourists to it, had been convicted of safety failings, Haszard added.
He said the disaster had forced significant changes in New Zealand.
"One impact has been to raise our national understanding about the obligations on businesses to do everything they can to keep people safe," he said.
"This is a catastrophic example of what can go wrong when they don't."
Brad Scott, a volcanologist with research group GNS Science, said the eruption sent a plume of steam and ash about 12,000 feet into the air. He said it had also affected the whole of the White Island crater floor.
White Island sits about 50 km offshore from mainland New Zealand. Already people are questioning why tourists were still able to visit the island after scientists recently noted an uptick in volcanic activity.
GeoNet said White Island is New Zealand’s most active cone volcano and about 70% of the volcano is under the sea.
Twelve people were killed on the island in 1914 when it was being mined for sulfur. Part of a crater wall collapsed and a landslide destroyed the miners' village and the mine itself.
The remains of buildings from another mining enterprise in the 1920s are now a tourist attraction, according to GeoNet.
The island became a private scenic reserve in 1953, and daily tours allow more than 10,000 people to visit the volcano every year.
