She had already received the news on Monday that one of her friends had been washed away in the tsunami, which sent her into a state of dread and anxiety about the fate of her own family.

After an incredibly long week of thinking the worst, she finally got the news on Thursday, January 20, that her husband, David, was safe.

Getting the news was not an easy road though and she had suffered all week with the fear of the unknown as she tried over and over again to have her calls connected from Australia to Tonga.

"I had been trying to get through to him all day. I was trying from 5am and I didn't get onto him until around 6pm last night," she told ACM on Friday.

But when she finally heard her husband's voice she said the panic and anxiety quickly melted away.

"He was so relieved when he heard my voice, he was so happy to hear me," said Ms Broder, "I felt the emotions of joy and relief and the weight finally lifted off my shoulders."

She said that since her brother lived in their parents home on the coast, she feared the tsunami could have posed a major threat, but her fears were eased yesterday when she got the news that he was safe.

Thankfully, her two nephews and their children were also marked safe.

When she spoke to her husband on Saturday morning before the eruption occurred, she had the foresight to tell him to disconnect all of their water tanks at their home and cover them with a tarp.

"He did exactly that and we've got six water tanks around the house of about 10,000L so that's a whole lot and so I hope he's going to share it with people that now need drinking water."

The village where she and her husband lived, before she was stranded in Eden due to COVID restrictions that prevented her from returning home, was now in the stages of clean-up.

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Her husband confirmed on the phone that the village was left without food or bottled water, but all residents had been marked safe.

"Every single item of food that is edible in the shop is gone. Dry food, flour, rice, they have all been bought."

Ms Broder said she was grateful she had sent him a package from Australia full of dry packaged food just before Christmas and he still had a lot of those items at their home. However there were no fresh fruit, vegetables, or meat available across the island.

She was also very thankful for the support of Australia and New Zealand in the aid they had sent over, including vital water and desalination equipment to the island.

The village had also been covered in ash and her husband has spent the last four days clearing ash from the roof of their home.

People in the village had also been wearing masks to avoid inhaling ash or toxic gases, but said most of the ash had now settled. People with asthma had also been avoiding being outdoors until the dust settled.

"According to David the dust isn't as bad now, there's probably still a fine one that they can't see."

"He said the community has been really good, the Tongan people don't just look out for themselves, they always get together as a community and things get done quickly," she said.

Although she hadn't yet been able to get through to her husband today, she had again been trying since the early hours of the morning.