The Kerryman (South Kerry Edition)
‘They’re all just so grateful to be alive’
A KERRY mother has spoken of her relief after her 25-year-old daughter,
Dawn, escaped from earthquake-hit Gili Trawangan island in Indonesia on
Tuesday morning.
The island is located off the north-west coast of
Lombok, where a 6.9-magnitude quake has, so far, killed 98 people.
“They are off the island now, and she is waiting to board a flight to Manilla.
I’m just so delighted that she got off that island,”
Dawn’s mother Louise told
The Kerryman on Tuesday.
“I’ve had a brief call with her, and we’ve been sending a few text messages to each other. Their form is as good as can be, all of them.
“At least all the group are still together thankfully,” she continued.
Louise said that while Dawn is trying to maintain a positive frame of mind, she knows that it has been a tough experience for her daughter and her friends.
“They’re all a little overwhelmed and exhausted. They’re just so grateful to be alive and uninjured and to be together.”
“I don’t know what they’ve witnessed over there but they’ve seen all the devastation and they just feel so lucky to be alive in the wake of so much tragedy.”
“They were very near to the centre of the earthquake and I think that the island they were on was the worst one to be on.”
“If you saw the photos on Twitter or online, it really did look like Dunkirk. There literally were a thousand people or more just stranded on a small bit of a sandy beach, desperately trying to get off,” she said.
Louise said that the initial rescue by locals was marred by small bouts of violence as people pushed and rushed to get onto the boats.
“It was so frightening for them when they were there, but look, they lived to tell the tale which is a massive positive,” Louise finished.