It was absolutely chaotic, says Indonesia quake survivor
People were literally fighting and pulling on each other to get on the boat and throwing others into the water.” Patricia Mulraney, Abu Dhabi resident
abu dhabi — An Abu Dhabi resident has described how she and her friend narrowly escaped death after a powerful earthquake hit Indonesia on August 5.
Irish expat Patricia Mulraney, 25, and her friend Leona Reynolds were on a speed boat enroute the Gili Trawangan Island, when the 6.9-magnitude quake hit Bali, Lombok and neighbouring islands, causing giant waves to nearly capsize their boat. At least 105 people were killed from the earthquake, mainly from debris of collapsing buildings.
Speaking to Khaleej Times from the Ngurah Rai International Airport in Bali, Mulraney described the horror of being stranded on the island after the earthquake, along with thousands of other tourists and locals who did not have a way of escaping as there weren’t enough boats or rescue teams.
“As we were in the speedboat, heading to the island, a giant wave just hit us and it nearly tipped over our boat. It was very scary. We didn’t know it was an earthquake, we just thought it was a very bad storm,” Mulraney, who arrived in Indonesia on July 29 for a holiday with her friend, said.
“The driver asked us to get off in the water and we had to swim to shore. It was absolutely chaotic at the shore. There were locals screaming and shouting — we had no idea what was going on.”
After Mulraney and her friend learned from an English-speaker that an earthquake had hit, they tried to get on one of the small boats which were evacuating people. Rumours around the island quickly circulated that another powerful earthquake was going to hit the same evening.
“More than 20 locals were all trying to pile in one small boat. People were literally fighting and pulling on each other to get on the boat and throwing others into the water,” she said, adding how some locals were even trying to charge tourists to take them to the main land.
“It was supposed to be people who were injured that were meant to get on the boats first. One of the men had a very bad injury on his head and he was in a wheelchair and he was pushed off a boat. I was on the phone with my mum and all she could hear was screaming in the background. One boat had docked and within a second it was sinking because there were so many people who were trying to get in. There were people hanging on the side of the boat. One woman got trampled on. And they were trying to push away anyone who was a tourist,” Mulraney said.
After waiting in a seven-hour queue, Mulraney and her friend managed to get on a boat, which evacuated them to a bigger ship and then on to the airport.
“We are just glad that we were able to get on the boats. The locals were going crazy. The police were strolling around the beach and they completely ignored me. I think it was more scary that we were not knowing what was going on. But there were also genuinely nice people. One man at the hotel, for example, cooked food for everyone on the island,” she said.
Mulraney and Reynolds were initially scheduled to fly back to Abu Dhabi on August 8. However, because of the earthquake, they flew in last night (August 7, 6pm, Indonesia time).
“There are warnings that another earthquake is going to hit, so we wanted to leave as soon as possible,” Mulraney had added.