Ms Taufa said the next thing she knew, water was rushing into their home.
“You could just hear screams everywhere, people screaming for safety, for everyone to get to higher ground,” she added.
A Twitter user identified as Dr Faka’iloatonga Taumoefolau posted video showing waves crashing ashore.
“Can literally hear the volcano eruption, sounds pretty violent,” he wrote, adding in a later post: “Raining ash and tiny pebbles, darkness blanketing the sky.”
Earlier, the Matangi Tonga news site reported that scientists observed massive explosions, thunder and lightning near the volcano after it started erupting early on Friday.
The site said satellite images showed a three mile-wide plume of ash, steam and gas rising 12 miles into the air.
More than 1,400 miles away in New Zealand, officials warned of storm surges from the eruption.
White gaseous clouds rising from the Hunga Ha'apai eruption seen from the Patangata coastline near Tongan capital Nuku'alofa.
AFP via Getty Images
The National Emergency Management Agency said some parts could expect “strong and unusual currents and unpredictable surges at the shore following a large volcanic eruption”.
Late on Saturday, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the threat to American Samoa appeared to have passed, although minor sea fluctuations could continue.
The volcano is about 40 miles north of the Tongan capital Nuku’alofa. In late 2014 and early 2015, a series of eruptions in the area created a small new island and disrupted international air travel to the Pacific archipelago for several days.
