Angela Glover Tonga tsunami victim: Body of British woman swept away trying to save dogs found by husband after waters recede.
The body of a missing British charity worker, who was swept away while trying to save her dogs amid this weekend’s Tonga tsunami, has been found, her family said.
Angela Glover, 50, became separated from her husband, James, on Saturday when a tsunami wave triggered by a volcanic eruption crashed into them outside their home in Tonga’s capital, Nuku’alofa.
Her husband found her body after the waters receded. He had survived only by clinging to a tree for safety when his wife and several of their dogs were taken by the wave the London Times reported.
‘I understand that this terrible accident came about as they tried to rescue their dogs,’ the woman’s brother Nick Eleini told the nypost.
Angela Glover was running a stray animal rescue shelter, the relative said. Her brother said that her body was discovered early Monday.
Haunting final Instagram post
The woman’s death is the first known fatality from the disaster, which was caused by the huge undersea eruption of the Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha’apai volcano, about 40 miles north of Glover’s home.
Angela had posted a final photo on Instagram in the hours after the volcano erupted, saying they were under tsunami warnings.
‘Everything’s fine… a few swells ….a few eerie silences… a wind or two… then silence,’ she wrote alongside two images of a hazy sunset.
She and her husband had relocated from the UK to Tonga five years ago after they were married, her brother said.
‘Angela and James loved their life in Tonga and adored the Tongan people,’ Eleini told the nypost.
‘Angela has always had a deep love of dogs and so started an animal welfare charity called TAWS. Its aim was to provide shelter and rehabilitation to stray dogs before trying to find homes for them.’
Eleini lives in Sydney, Australia but has since returned to the UK to be with their mother in the wake of Angela’s death.
No mass casualties
While initial reports indicated there were no mass casualties as a result of the volcanic eruption and tsunami, authorities visited beaches and reported significant damage with ‘houses thrown around,’ according to Australia’s Minister for the Pacific Zed Seselja.
The assessments come after on Monday a second major eruption was detected at the Hunga Tonga volcano, according to an alert from Australia’s Darwin Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre. There were no casualties reported from the second eruption on Sunday night.
The underwater volcano near Tonga also sparked massive waves on Saturday on the California coast, nearly 6,000 miles away.
Australia and New Zealand sent flights to Tonga on Monday to help survey the damage of the disaster.
The Red Cross was also mobilizing to help with what it described as the worst volcanic eruption the Pacific has experienced in decades.
