Fears grow for British charity worker, 50, who was swept away by historic Tonga tsunami

Fears are growing for a British charity worker feared to have been swept away when a tsunami triggered by a ‘once-a-millennium’ volcanic eruption inundated the Pacific island of Tonga.

Angela Glover, 50, was last seen in person by her husband James when a wall of water crashed through their coastal home in Veitongo on the Polynesian island.

An urgent appeal for information about her was put online yesterday by friends and relatives living in Australia.

The news came as Australia and New Zealand both made efforts to send aid and reconnaissance planes to the region.

The underwater Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano erupted late Saturday afternoon local time (Saturday morning GMT) setting off tsunami waves that crossed the Pacific and blanketing the surrounding islands in thick ash.

Seabed cables that carry the internet to and from the remote archipelago are believed to have been severed in the blast, adding to the confusion from the scene.

It remains unclear how many people were killed in the eruption and subsequent flooding.

Former Londoner Angela, who works for an animal charity, emigrated to Tonga five years ago.

On Sunday she took to social media to comment on the eruption, saying her home was under a tsunami warning. It is believed the waves hit minutes later.

Tattooist James is believed to have been able to cling to a tree but Angela, who runs a dog rescue centre on the island and several of her animals were swept away.

Her friend Donna Head posted on Facebook: ‘Ange is still missing.’

She added: ‘We must be optimistic and pray for a miracle… I’m trying to process that this beautiful happy face is missing.

‘I shall continue to update when I have further news.’

She finished with the hashtag #prayforAnge.

Another post read: ‘My uncle held on to a tree but my Auntie and dogs were washed away.

‘My uncle still hasn’t been able to find my Auntie. If anyone has any information please reach out.’

As the search continued, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison pledged his country would supply aid to Tongans as soon as possible but added the ash cloud was adding to the logistical problems.

‘There’s been a lot of challenges there with the ash cloud and the disruption to communications and so we are working together to get as much support to Tonga as we possibly can,’ Morrison said.

Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja said initial reports suggested no mass casualties and that Tonga’s airport ‘appears to be in relatively good condition’ but there were ‘significant damage’ to roads and bridges.

Seselja said Australia was liaising with the United States, New Zealand, France and other countries to coordinate responses.

New Zealand’s Defence Minister Peeni Henare said at a news conference in Auckland that power had been restored in large parts of Nuku’alofa and some communications are back up.

A New Zealand Hercules C-130 would perform drops of essentials after the requirements are assessed and the navy will also be deployed.

New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Sunday that the tsunami had a significant impact on infrastructure.

Red Cross said it was mobilising its regional network to respond to what it called the worst volcanic eruptions the Pacific has experienced in decades.

‘Red Cross has enough relief supplies to support 1,200 households with essential items such as tarpaulins, blankets, kitchen sets, shelter tool kits and hygiene kits,’ said Katie Greenwood, IFRC’s Pacific Head of Delegation told Reuters.

She said the agency is expecting up to 80,000 people to be affected by the tsumani

‘That is what we are planning for as a worst-case scenario until we can get further confirmation from the people on the ground,’ she said.

The agency said there were concerns that communities may not have access to safe drinking water as a result of saltwater inundation caused by the tsunami waves and ashfall.

The Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano has erupted regularly over the past few decades but the impact of Saturday’s eruption was felt was far away as Fiji, New Zealand, the United States and Japan. Two people drowned off a beach in Northern Peru due to high waves caused by the tsunami.

Early data suggests the volcanic eruption was the biggest blast since Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines 30 years ago, New Zealand-based volcanologist Shane Cronin told Radio New Zealand.

‘This is an eruption best witnessed from space,’ Cronin said.

‘The large and explosive lateral spread of the eruption suggests that it was probably the biggest one since about the 1991 eruption of Pinatubo,’ Cronin said.

‘This is one of the massive explosions the volcano is capable of producing roughly every thousand years,’ he added. ‘We could be in for several weeks or even years of major volcanic unrest from the Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha’apai volcano.

Satellite images showed a huge eruption, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising above the sea. A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska.

The Tonga Meteorological Services said a tsunami warning was declared for all of the archipelago, and data from the Pacific tsunami center said waves of 2.7 feet were detected.

Across the Pacific on California’s central coast, the National Weather Service reported tsunami waves up to 4 feet (1.2 meters) and flooding in beach parking lots at Port San Luis. About 200 miles (320 km) down the coast, the waves were much smaller at Southern California’s Seal Beach, according to Michael Pless, the owner of M&M Surf School.

Rachel Afeaki-Taumoepeau, who chairs the New Zealand Tonga Business Council, said she hoped the relatively low level of the tsunami waves would have allowed most people to get to safety, although she worried about those living on islands closest to the volcano.

She said she hadn’t yet been able to contact her friends and family in Tonga.

Some churches in New Zealand organised community prayers in Auckland and other cities.

‘We pray God will help our country at this sad moment. We hope everybody is safe,’ Maikeli Atiola, the Secretary of the Wesleyan Church of Tonga in Auckland said, Radio New Zealand reported.

Ms Ardern said the main undersea communications cable has been impacted, likely due to loss of power.

Power was being restored in some areas on the islands and local mobile phones were slowly starting to work, she added.   

One complicating factor to any international aid effort is that Tonga has so far managed to avoid any outbreaks of Covid-19.

Ms Ardern said New Zealand’s military staff were all fully vaccinated and willing to follow any protocols established by Tonga.

The Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano is located about 40 miles north of the capital, Nuku’alofa. In late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.

There is not a significant difference between volcanoes underwater and on land, and underwater volcanoes become bigger as they erupt, at some point usually breaching the surface, said Hans Schwaiger, a research geophysicist with the Alaska Volcano Observatory.

With underwater volcanoes, however, the water can add to the explosivity of the eruption as it hits the lava, Schwaiger added.

Before an explosion, there is generally an increase in small local earthquakes at the volcano, but depending on how far it is from land, that may not be felt by residents along the shoreline, Schwaiger said.

In 2019, Tonga lost internet access for nearly two weeks when a fiber-optic cable was severed. The director of the local cable company said at the time that a large ship may have cut the cable by dragging an anchor. Until limited satellite access was restored people couldn’t even make international calls.

Southern Cross Cable Network’s Veverka said limited satellite connections exist between Tonga and other parts of the world but he did not know if they might be affected by power outages.

Source: Daily Mail