Kiwis speak of chaos after quake
Deadly Lombok shake causes tourists and locals to flee due to fear of tsunami
New Zealanders caught up in the magnitude 7.0 Lombok earthquake have described the horrific moments during and after it shook the Indonesian island.
The earthquake struck on Sunday evening at a depth of 15km near Lombok, killing more than 130 people.
The shaking caused walls to collapse, roofs to cave in and people ran for the hills, fearful a tsunami might follow.
Olivia Scott told the Herald she was on the tiny island of Gili Trawangan when the earthquake hit and described the events that followed as “a bloody shambles”.
She was in Christchurch when the 2011 earthquake hit and said she “can’t even begin to explain how much more terrifying it was”.
Buildings were collapsing and one man saw a woman and baby squashed by a falling wall in front of him, Scott said.
“The earthquake hit and all the buildings were falling down, we ran to a hill then spent the night there with no communication on what was going on.
“There was a huge 100-metre tower everyone thought was going to fall on us too with all the aftershocks.
“We were all worried of a tsunami hitting the whole night, people were climbing up trees and locals were screaming and praying,” Scott said. Jakarta Java
Bali Gili islands
Lombok Ubud
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7 magnitude earthquake Lombok
Craig Baird was thankful for the earthquake drills he did at school.
“My partner and I were out of bed and under the table in a flash and we then immediately evacuated the house,” he said.
“It’s scary when the ground is buckling under your feet.”
They were lucky there was only a bit of cosmetic damage to their house in the Balinese town of Ubud.
Aucklander Charlotte Fenwick works on Gili Trawangan as a dive instructor and spent the hours after the earthquake looking for survivors in the rubble.
“I remained as a non-medically trained support in the triage centre all night treating people by torch lights due to the power cuts,” she said.
Tourist boats started to arrive in the morning to transport the injured and others trapped on the Gili Islands to Lombok.
Scott said there was no evacuation plan in place and there weren’t police officers on the small island to help.
She spent close to a day on a beach waiting to be picked up and said some boats were charging people to get on them.
“Rescue boats started running and only Balinese were getting on them, any tourists were being thrown off or punched, stomped on.
“Some local boats started running and charging people $200 per person when it is usually $2,” Scott said.
Fenwick and her dive instructor co-workers have now travelled to Bali while power and water are being restored on Gili Trawangan.
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade spokesperson said 770 New Zealanders were registered on SafeTravel as being in Indonesia, 25 of them in Lombok.
“We have no information to suggest New Zealanders have been injured in the earthquake at this stage.”
Mfat say if family members have concerns about a New Zealand citizen family member, they should try to contact them directly first, including by social media. If they still had concerns, they could contact Mfat on +64 4 439 8000 and ask to speak to the Consular Division.