Too Loud to Hear
More first-hand accounts are emerging from Tonga.
It felt like the heavens had cracked open and the world exploded inside my ear. I’ve never heard a louder noise in all my life. If death had a sound, that would be it.
It was too loud to hear but I could feel it. The house was vibrating, windows were vibrating and it became more and more intense until the big bang.
When the wave break on land just below us, my niece Elisiva and I had nothing to hold onto and we were swept out to sea. This was 7pm. We floated at sea, just calling out to each other. It was dark and we could not see each other. Very soon I could not hear my niece calling anymore.
We don’t know how long we’re going to be living with this and how are we going to [get through it], not only physical stuff but also mentally … because we have never experienced this.
The week that Tonga went silent.
Hunga’s plume reached the boundary of the mesosphere, 55km above the Earth’s surface.