First death of Tonga tsunami tragedy confirmed
An animal welfare charity founder has been confirmed dead after the devastating impact of the Tonga tsunami tragedy.
The body of British woman Angela Glover was found on Monday after she was swept away by huge swells that were caused by a massive underwater volcanic eruption.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Haʻapai volcano, which erupted on Saturday, is located 65km from where 50-year-old Angela lived with her husband in the Tongan capital of Nuku’alofa.
Angela moved to the Pacific islands in 2015, after leaving her life in London's advertising industry behind.
Angela's bother Nick, who resides in Sydney, confirmed the news of her death on Monday, saying his sister's body was found "in some bushes" by her husband.
“I’ve not even got the words in my vocabulary to describe how we’re feeling at the moment. This is just a terrible shock, that it’s happened to us,” he said.
“We’re ordinary people - stuff like this doesn’t happen to people like us, then it does."
“I understand this terrible accident came about as they tried to rescue their dogs.”
Angela's "deep love" for canines inspired her to create the Tongan Animal Welfare Society to shelter and rehabilitate stray animals, according to her brother.
“The uglier the dog, the more she loved it. She just loved them all, she was totally dedicated to it.”
In Angela's final social media post, she shared a picture of the fiery Tongan sunset just hours after the eruption of the volcano, saying "everything's fine".
She captioned the picture, "I’m not kidding you, this is the sunset today after the volcano exploded last night. We’ve been under tsunami warnings today. Everything’s fine... a few swells ....a few eerie silences...a wind or two...then silence...sudden stillness... electric storms.... everything looked like I was watching thru an Instagram filter."
Angela is the first known death of the disaster, as the scale of the destruction is still unknown.
Experts say that the volcano, which last erupted in 2014, had been puffing away for about a month before rising magma, superheated to around 1000 degrees Celsius, met with 20-degree seawater, causing an instantaneous and massive explosion.
The impact of the eruption was felt as far away as Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and Japan.
Image credits: Instagram @ifthegloverfits