(SFGATE) -- A tower of choking ash spewed from the eruption of a volcano on White Island in New Zealand Monday, killing five people and leaving more missing.
The island some 30 miles off mainland New Zealand is uninhabited, but its moon-like landscape is highly visited by tourists, and Michael Schade and his family were among the visitors today. Schade was on a boat near the island when the blast occurred and he shared a stream of videos and photos on Twitter.
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“My god,” wrote Schade, whose Twitter account states that he's from San Francisco. “My family and I had gotten off it 20 minutes before, were waiting at our boat about to leave when we saw it. Boat ride home tending to people our boat rescued was indescribable.”
