An animal welfare charity founder has been found dead in Tonga after being washed away trying to save dogs from a tsunami caused by a huge undersea volcanic eruption, her brother has confirmed.
Nick Eleini on Monday told reporters his family was "just broken" after receiving news the body of Angela Glover had been found on the South Pacific archipelago.
Mr Eleini described his sister, who he said was driven to Tonga several years ago by her "childhood ambition" of swimming with whales, was well-loved by expats and locals alike.
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"She's beautiful. She was absolutely a ray of sunshine," he said.
"She would walk into a room and just lighten the room up and she loved her life, both when she was working in London, and then when she achieved her life's dream of going to work in the South Pacific."
The 50-year-old, who started the Tonga Animal Welfare Society, and her husband, James, were both swept away while trying to save the charity's dogs when the tsunami hit, the Sydney-based Mr Eleini said.
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Mr Glover survived —having grabbed on to a tree, according to friend Donna Head on Facebook — and was believed to have been the one to discover his wife's body.
Mr Eleini said his sister loved animals, particularly dogs, nothing "the uglier the dog, the more she loved it".
"She's just a lovely girl," he said from England, having received the devastating news on a stopover in Dubai on the way from Australia.
"You couldn't — she's the centre of our family and you know we're just broken."
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More details of damage are trickling out of Tonga after a huge undersea volcanic eruption sent a tidal wave crashing into the Pacific island nation on Saturday.
New Zealand and Australia were able to send military surveillance flights on Monday after a towering ash cloud since Sunday's eruption prevented earlier flights.
New Zealand hopes to send essential supplies, including much-needed drinking water, on a military transport plane on Tuesday.
Communications with Tonga remained extremely limited. The company that owns the single underwater fibre-optic cable that connects the island nation to the rest of the world said it likely was severed in the eruption and repairs could take weeks.
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The loss of the cable leaves most Tongans unable to use the internet or make phone calls abroad. Those that have managed to get messages out described their country as looking like a moonscape as they began cleaning up from the tsunami waves and volcanic ash fall.
Australia's Pacific Minister, Senator Zed Seselja, said authorities expected shelter, water and fuel to be in high demand when a clearer picture of damage emerged.
"The AFP (Australian Federal Police) visited the western beaches today and they report significant damage there with inundations of the main road and, quote, houses thrown across the road. That's obviously quite concerning," he told ABC Radio Canberra on Monday.
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"The good news in terms of the reports that we've been getting is that there's no reports of any sort of mass casualties.
"We're not aware of any deaths, although obviously we put the caveat on that that there is limited information, particularly from the outer islands."
The Senator said the airport appeared to have escaped significant damage, allowing humanitarian flights — which will be complicated by the island's almost COVID-free status — to be able to land as soon as conditions are safe.
Tsunami waves of about 80cm crashed into the island, and New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern described damage to boats and shops on Tonga's shoreline.
The waves crossed the Pacific, drowning two people in Peru and causing minor damage from New Zealand to Santa Cruz, California.
Scientists said they didn't think the eruption would have a significant impact on the Earth's climate.
Huge volcanic eruptions can sometimes cause temporary global cooling as sulphur dioxide is pumped into the stratosphere.
But in the case of the Tonga eruption, initial satellite measurements indicated the amount of sulphur dioxide released would only have a tiny effect of perhaps 0.01C global average cooling, said Alan Robock, a professor at Rutgers University.
Satellite images showed the spectacular undersea eruption Saturday evening, with a plume of ash, steam and gas rising like a giant mushroom above the South Pacific waters.
A sonic boom could be heard as far away as Alaska and sent pressure shockwaves around the planet twice, altering atmospheric pressure that may have briefly helped clear out the fog in Seattle, according to the National Weather Service.
Large waves were detected as far away as the Caribbean due to pressure changes generated by the eruption.
Samiuela Fonua, who chairs the board at Tonga Cable, which owns the single cable that connects Tonga to the outside world via Fiji, said it appeared to have been severed about 10 to 15 minutes after the eruption. He said the cable lies atop and within coral reef, which can be sharp.
Mr Fonua said a ship would need to pull up the cable to assess the damage and then crews would need to fix it. A single break might take a week to repair, he said, while multiple breaks could take up to three weeks.
He added that it was unclear yet when it would be safe for a ship to venture near the undersea volcano to undertake the work.
A second undersea cable that connects the islands within Tonga also appeared to have been severed, Mr Fonua said.
However, a local phone network was working, allowing Tongans to call each other. But he said the lingering ash cloud was continuing to make even satellite phone calls abroad difficult.
He said Tonga, home to 105,000 people, had been in discussions with New Zealand about getting a second international fibre-optic cable to ensure a more robust network but the nation's isolated location made any long-term solution difficult.
Ms Ardern said the capital, Nuku'alofa, was covered in a thick film of volcanic dust, contaminating water supplies and making fresh water a vital need.
Aid agencies said thick ash and smoke had prompted authorities to ask people to wear masks and drink bottled water.
In a video posted on Facebook, Nightingale Filihia was sheltering at her family's home from a rain of volcanic ash and tiny pieces of rock that turned the sky pitch black.
"It's really bad. They told us to stay indoors and cover our doors and windows because it's dangerous," she said.
"I felt sorry for the people. Everyone just froze when the explosion happened. We rushed home."
Outside the house, people were seen carrying umbrellas for protection.
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.
Dave Snider, the tsunami warning coordinator for the National Tsunami Warning Centre in Palmer, Alaska, said it was very unusual for a volcanic eruption to affect an entire ocean basin, and the spectacle was both "humbling and scary."
The US Geological Survey estimated the eruption caused the equivalent of a magnitude 5.8 earthquake.
Scientists said tsunamis generated by volcanoes rather than earthquakes were relatively rare.
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.
"We are praying that the damage is just to infrastructure and people were able to get to higher land," she said.
The explosion of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai volcano, about 64km north of Nuku'alofa, was the latest in a series of dramatic eruptions.
In late 2014 and early 2015, eruptions created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.
Earth imaging company Planet Labs PBC had watched the island in recent days after a new volcanic vent began erupting in late December. Satellite images showed how drastically the volcano had shaped the area, creating a growing island off Tonga.
