March. 2022 | Vol. 9 Iss. 03
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TAYLORSVILLE WOMAN HEARD TONGA VOLCANO ERUPTION WHILE SPEAKING WITH FRIGHTENED RELATIVES ON THE PHONE By Carl Fauver | c.fauver@mycityjournals.com
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t’s almost always tomorrow in Tonga. And right now, a month-and-ahalf after an underwater volcano devastated that South Pacific country, Tongans are still working long, hard days to improve their tomorrows. The 105,000 people who inhabit the 170-plus islands that make up Tonga are just west of the International Date Line, 20 hours ahead of Utah in the winter and 19 hours ahead after our clocks spring forward. So, unless you’re on the phone with someone there between midnight and 5 a.m. our time, you’re talking to tomorrow. That’s what Taylorsville resident Ivoni Nash was doing at 9:14 p.m. Friday, Jan. 14, which was 5:14 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 15, for her nervous relatives in Tonga. They were on edge, because scientists had been warning the volcano, named Hunga Tonga–Hunga Ha‘apai was giving every indication it was about to blow. Then it did. “I was on the line with my cousins, who already knew a tsunami was coming (caused by an earlier, much smaller eruption),” Nash, 75, said. “I was scared to death for them. We had been talking about 10–15 minutes when I heard the eruption over the phone. It was so loud. Then the phone went dead.” Scientists have since described the eruption as “the strongest anywhere on earth in more than 30 years, more powerful than 100 atomic Continued page 4
The volcano eruption in Tonga generated 4- to-6-foot tsunami waves that struck the country’s capital of Nuku’alofa. (Consulate of the Kingdom of Tonga)
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Granite’s crisis team
Scan Here: Interactive online edition with more photos.
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Youth council back at it
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Canoe ramp coming to Jordan River
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