A 50 year old British woman, Angela Glover, has been confirmed as the first fatality of the tsunami caused by the eruption last Friday of the Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcano in Tonga.
Large areas of the archipelago that makes up Tonga are isolated due to the damage caused by the eruption and the tsunami, which triggered the alert over the weekend from Japan to Chile and from Alaska to Australia. So far, two bathers have been confirmed dead in Peru due to waves and material damage in New Zealand.
The latest victim, Glover, he was trying to save his dogs from the big swell caused by the eruption when she let go of the tree she was clinging to and was swept away by the water, according to the British network Sky News, which cites Glover’s family. The woman ran an animal shelter in Tonga with her husband, who has survived.
The woman’s body has been located, according to her brother, Nick Eleini. “I have no words to describe how we feel at the moment. It is a terrible shock. We are ordinary people. Things like this do not happen to people like us, but it has happened,” he told Sky News from the family residence in Hove, England. .
“They confirmed it to us about six hours ago, when he was on a stopover in Dubai. A search team was formed and it was James – the victim’s husband – who found the body in some bushes,” he added.
Eleini has highlighted that her sister worked in London, but managed to fulfill her dream and live in the South Pacific. “He loved animals and in particular dogs. The uglier the dog, the more he loved it,” he said.
The victim’s husband, James Glover, managed to cling to a tree to prevent the water from taking him awayBut Angela couldn’t hold on tight enough, she said. Both had lived in Tonga since 2015.
Evaluation flights
While, the authorities of New Zealand and Australia have announced the deployment of several planes from their respective Air Forces to supervise and monitor the damage triggered by a tsunami after an undersea volcano erupted off Tonga.
The eruption has expelled a strong column of smoke and has contaminated the water supply in the country, where communications have also been cut off at first.
This Monday, however, flights have been able to resume in New Zealand and Australia, which will now monitor the state of infrastructure, such as roads, ports and supply chains. The videos broadcast through social networks show the population running towards areas of higher altitude.
A New Zealand commission has warned that Significant damage has been recorded along the west coast of the country, according to information from the newspaper ‘The New Zealand Herald’.
On Sunday, the Government of Tonga, which has convened a crisis cabinet to address the issue, asked the population to wear masks to deal with smoke and suspended particles.
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