‘It was one of the worst nights of our lives’– Irish family
AN Irish family had a lucky escape on the island of Gili Trawangan in Indonesia when the deadly earthquake hit over the weekend.
Gillian and Michael Harvey and their children, Sophie, four, and Chloe, one, had arrived at their hotel on the island about two hours before the quake struck.
In a post on Facebook yesterday, Ms Harvey said: ‘Last night was one of the worst nights of our lives. Thank goodness we were on the beach away from the falling buildings when the earthquake struck. We climbed to the highest point on the land with our life jackets on when the tsunami warning was triggered, and slept on top of the mountain with a sheet covering us not knowing what was going to happen as every few minutes it would shake with aftershock.
‘Thankfully, we were one of the lucky ones to get a boat out of the island today and are safely back in Bali, thinking of all those who died and were injured and thank anyone that helped us.
‘The girls are fine. Sophie was a little scared of the shaking but they managed to sleep the night unaware of the panic. Thanks to everyone that messaged us, we appreciate it,’ she added.
Speaking to RTÉ News by email, the couple said they decided to leave the hotel to go for dinner shortly before the earthquake.
‘The ground was shaking violently,’ they said. ‘We headed on to the sand and couldn’t stand so lay down with one of the kids each. All the power went out, so the only light was from people’s phones and torches.’
In the immediate aftermath, the couple witnessed injured people being carried to the beach in an effort to get them on to boats and off the island, which has little infrastructure.
Due to fears of a tsunami following the earthquake, the family got lifejackets before following a crowd to higher ground.
The couple said they were ‘begging one of the people letting the passengers in to let us on as we had kids’. They made it onto the ferry and were taken to Bali – a stroke of luck as the majority of boats went instead to the nearer island of Lombok.
The couple, who have been living in Australia for seven years, plan on staying in Bali until later this month and will continue their year-long holiday before returning to Ireland.