Tongans living abroad face an anxious wait for news of loved ones and property damage after a massive volcano triggered a tsunami
The death toll has not been confirmed yet and communication lines have been severed, making it difficult to appreciate the scale of destruction.
However, a relative of a British woman has confirmed her body was swept away in Tonga’s tsunami and has been found.
Angela Glover, 50, is the first known death in Tonga.
Glover’s brother who lives in Sydney said the family was “devastated”.
Australia and New Zealand have begun sending surveillance aircraft to Tonga to assist with search and rescue efforts.
Tonga’s cable was damaged when the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano erupted, with communication still a concern.
“Further volcanic activity cannot be ruled out,” the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in the update on Monday, reporting only minor injuries but emphasising that formal assessments, especially of the outer islands, had yet to be released with communications badly hit.
Up to 80-thousand people could be impacted by the largest volcanic eruption in over 30 years.
