By Pesi Fonua

Eleven people on Pangaimotu Island climbed into fau trees as tsunamis ravaged the coast of the low-lying atoll on Jan. 15, following the massive explosion at Hunga volcano.

Big Mama ('Ana Emberson) said they saw the smoke rising from the volcano, located about 65km to the NNW of Pangaimotu, where the Embersons run day trips and have established a Mabé Pearl farm. 

When a loud bang came from the volcano, her son Andrew, with another man, Lea, ran to take their ferry boat to the eastern side of the tiny island. But as they left the wharf, Andrew saw the rolling tsunami waves coming in and yelled out: “Run!”.

Big Mama said she screamed for everyone to run to the Cross, a monument marking the arrival of the first Catholic missionaries in Tonga.

From the Cross five adults and four children moved on to their vanilla garden, on slightly higher ground.

'Ana said the wave appeared higher and more powerful than she had thought.

The fau tree is next to the vanilla garden, only a few feet above sea level. It has many branches spreading out over the ground and so they could all climb up into it, hopefully, out of reach of the incoming tsunami waves.

She received a call from the ferry boat, that they were back on the resort. Lea was on a rooftop, and Andrew had climbed another fau tree. She told Lea to stay where they were, and for them to make their way up to the vanilla garden, once the tsunami waves settled down a bit. 

At that stage the sea was rising close to the foot of the fau tree where Big Mama, Pangia, their staff and children were perched.

Slept in open with ash falling

After the tsunamis came through the boys collected three pieces of tarpaulin and two chairs. They put two pieces of tarpaulin on the ground to sit and lie on, and the other piece as a shelter. They left the two chairs outside, and rotated the group after lying down for a while to sit out on the chairs for a while.

The 11 people who were at Pangaimotu on that Saturday night were: ‘Ana, her husband Pangia Emberson, their son Andrew Emberson, with staff Lea, Mele, and Saia and Leini and their four children.  

After midnight a friend, Hauoli, rang and Big Mama asked him to call Naisa, police officer, to call her. The police made contact with them at around 2:00am and then early on Sunday morning they were the first to be rescued by the Search and Rescue boats from off the islands closest to Nuku‘alofa.

Big Mama said that Pangia did not want to leave Pangaimotu, fearing looters, so they decided to stay behind on the island to search for their belongings, while the rest of the group left for Nuku‘alofa.

Sunday night (Jan. 16) was difficult, “anything that fell on the ground, he was up. The dog barks, he was up. When the waves crashed on, it was automatic - he sat up to see if the sea was rising. That was Sunday night!” she said.

Big Mama's Blue Lagoon Mabé Pearls, venture grows quality Mabé pearls that are exported to Hawaii for jewellery making.

Pangia said they had lost all their Mabé pearls that had been harvested, and were ready to be exported.

Pangia and ‘Ana finally left Pangaimotu for Nuku‘alofa on Monday morning Jan. 17, after they realised they had lost all their belongings to the sea, and nothing much was recoverable.

The only house left standing on Pangimotu, was the old cottage recently renovated by ‘Alo Fe‘iloakitau and his wife Tricia. ‘Alo was in Nuku‘alofa and Tricia was in Australia when the tsunamis struck the island.

Although the central unit of the house withstood the tsunami, the wave came in through the front door and out through the back, destroying most of its contents. The water tank and outhouses were also smashed by the waves.

The boys who were cleaning up, however, did find a few stray bottles of beer among the fallen coconuts.