Tsunami in the Tonga Islands: a Briton dies trying to save the dogs of her shelter

It is a tragic story that has just hit the Tonga Islands, hard hit by a tsunami after the powerful volcanic eruption on Saturday January 15. On Monday, the body of a British woman swept away by the tsunami was found, her brother Nick Eleini told the BBC. Angela Glover, 50, died after trying to rescue dogs from her shelter, her brother says, confident how the whole family was “collapsed“by the loss of her who was”the emotional heart“.

Born in Brighton, in the southeast of England, the 50-year-old had lived in Tonga since her marriage to James, who found her body. She worked in an association that collects stray animals to find them a home. His death is the first recorded in the Tonga Islands, a small nation in the Pacific, although two deaths have already been recorded in Peru.

Like many other relatives of people living on the islands, Nick Eleini waited anxiously for several days to find out what had happened to his sister. The archipelago is deprived of telephone and internet connections, the cataclysm having severed an essential cable for its communications which should not be repaired for weeks. The cloud of volcanic ash also prevents planes from landing. Information from this country of barely 100,000 people is trickling in from rare satellite phones, and the true extent of the damage remains largely unknown.

“Equally popular with locals and expatriates“, “Angela and James loved their life in Tonga” and “especially the Tongan culture as well as Tongan love for family“, said Nick Eleini. Angela also had”a deep love for dogs“, recalled his brother, saying that “the uglier the dog, the more she loved him“.”I will miss her and I will think of her every day until I die“, he promised. “My mom is just shattered right now, she’s absolutely devastated“, he finally confided.