The day the world darkened: Survivor remembers the Tonga disaster | Volcanic News

“It came on the radio: a tsunami warning was issued for the whole of Tonga. We are sitting in my car in the longest queue … completely overwhelmed. It literally feels like an apocalyptic horror movie but worse, much worse. I can’t describe the feeling. Seeing our daughter sitting in the passenger seat, we’ll be fine crying, wondering about the rest of our family. ‘

For Tevita Fukofuca, Nuku’alofa was in the capital on a miserable day The eruption of the South-South Ha’apai volcano, was a moment that would be remembered for a lifetime. A young father and local government worker, Tevita went to Facebook to post a moving diary written last week, 24 hours after her country’s devastating emergency.

At around 18:00 local time (04:00 GMT), the first eruption heard from the now famous volcano struck.

“I thought it was a flat tire or something from a big truck,” Tevita recalled. “I looked confused at the road, and then a second blow; It seemed to me that the cannons were coming out at close range. But the third explosion was much louder and seemed to be above my head; I knew it was a damn volcano and something was wrong. ‘

Already a bunch of cars were starting to form long queues to move people inland, away from the coast. But Tevita could not join them yet. When the car was turned upside down, it was likely to be one of the few vehicles moving against traffic when it was about to pick up its little daughter, Lote si’i, who had just been left in the place of a relative.

“I was so confused because that volcano is in Ha’apai; away, ”Tevita later reminded Al Jazeera. The volcano is located 66 km (41 miles) from the main island of Tongatapu across the sea.

“When I got to my daughter, there came the loudest‘ banana ’. I felt the sky open and the world explode inside my ears. I’ve never heard a louder noise in my life. “

“If death had a sound, that would be it.”

As the sound screamed in his head, everything around him shook violently.

“The car, the house, the land … everything was shaking. I looked up at the sky and saw hundreds of birds flying in all directions. I felt scared but tried not to show it. My daughter jumped into the car, shivering and crying. When I ran to the gas station, I tried to make sure everything was fine. ”

Sulfur ash rain

Tevita and her Tongan counterparts were unaware at the time that NASA would estimate that the next volcanic eruption would be the equivalent of five to six million tons of TNT, and 500 times more powerful than the Hiroshima nuclear explosion.

They did not even imagine that the eruption would cross a Pacific tsunami, or release a sound boom that would go around the world twice.

As Tevita and Lote eventually merged with the sea of ​​cars coming from the city faucet, the only thought that went through their minds was “survival.”

“Then came a deafening rain of stones, ashes and dusty sulfur ashes,” Tevita recalled.

“We heard the roof of our car and the houses on the road knocking. The sky was completely dark. The density of the ash clouds coming out of the volcano turned day into night. ”

Amidst a storm of pebbles and ashes, the sound of volcanic eruptions and a tsunami warning on the radio, the whole scenario felt surreal.

Tevita tried to keep her quiet; If it reached Tofo or Ilarra, it would be enough inland, he thought. Through angry calls from other family members, he learned that their vehicle was still far behind him, trapped by the rise of vehicles across an entire country.

Seeing two car accidents on the road, Tevita decided to enter a parking lot next to a grocery store. The store had a roofed porch and her daughter could take shelter if the rain of ashes worsened.

“My friend Jonathan called me as I parked the car and told me to go to the Tongan Water Commission on a nearby hill. I quickly started moving again. Our fuel tank was almost empty and I prayed we would get it. The distance from the base to the top of the hill is about 120 meters [394ft], but it took us an hour in a long line. The handkerchiefs on everyone’s car were moving at breakneck speed, trying to get enough of the falling ashes to clean up. We thought we were going blind. ‘

NASA calculated that volcanic ash and gas plume dropped into the stratosphere 30.5 km (19 miles) high, some parts reach 55 km (34 miles).

With no internet connection, Tevita tried to keep in touch with her family through text messages and calls. The local radio station, 90FM, was miraculously still on the air. At the top of the Water Board hill, young men were driving hundreds of cars in windy and dusty darkness. They wore an improvised T-shirt mask and caps trying to breathe.

“A boy was mostly carrying a plastic washer in his head. Seeing him, he finally smiled at my daughter, and I was a little relieved when we found a parking lot. ”

“The whole city looks gray”

Meet the “real Aquaman” of Tonga, who said he swam into the sea after a tsunami for about 27 hours ???? pic.twitter.com/mAHd6dFO22

– Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) January 22, 2022

One by one, Tevita’s relatives contacted him to tell him they were safe. However, no one had heard from his parents yet. Fearing in his chest, he asked the little Lot if it would be okay for him to get out of the car so he could go and look for his grandmother and grandfather.

“He put on a brave face and said‘ yes ’. She then made a mask out of a dress she found in the car. I covered my head with a jacket holding my hand while we stumbled in the dark. My parents were not in the shelter, but we saw about a hundred women and children inside. Luckily, my sister finally got in touch with my parents that night. “

As the evening wore on, Tevita saw her friend Jonathan approach her car with masks, apples for Lot, and cigarettes for her: small luxuries that felt like a divine gift in an upside-down world.

“We tried to sleep in their cars with hundreds of people around us. We heard people singing hymns in the shelter. Batch insisted on keeping the radio on to keep us company. I was worried about the car’s batteries, but 90FM kept us up to date and made us feel safer and calmer. ”

Locked in the car, the eruptions ended so they didn’t know yet.

In the distance, the ancient volcano continued to roar loudly through the night. After a few hours of restless sleep, Tevita got out of the sun and immediately saw that half of the vehicles that had woken up had disappeared.

“I noticed that the falling ash had stopped, so I woke my daughter up and tried to remove as much ash from the car windshield so she could go home. The radio reported that volcanic activity had decreased over the past three hours, but a tsunami warning was in effect. There was also a shortage of drinking water in many areas. ”

“We gradually made our way home without believing. The whole city was gray with ashes.

In the days leading up to the January 15 explosion, the Tonga Geological Survey reported eruptions and a possible tsunami, prompting locals to stay away from beaches. Volcanologists now believe that it was this preparation that probably saved thousands of lives.

For now, Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai is said to have remained silent. The Tongans have been helping each other with damage and clearing the streets. With international support from Australia, New Zealand and Japan, they began landing in the country.