Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Ulster woman’s Bali quake hostel terror
Terrified Rebecca flees as tremors rock holiday island
A WOMAN from Northern Ireland has told how she fled from her Bali hostel during the deadly earthquake as she feared the building could collapse.
Rebecca Mcconnell was staying on the island with her boyfriend when the tremors hit.
She told RTE’S Morning Ireland: “I was in my bunkbed, in the top bunk and started to feel a slight tremor.
“At the very start, I had no idea it was an earthquake. It just didn’t cross my mind at all. Being from Ireland, it wouldn’t really register that it was an earthquake.
“After a couple of seconds it got stronger and I realised that it was in fact an earthquake and I had to get out”.
Rebecca, from Co Armagh, revealed she initially “panicked and froze” as she had no idea what to do. She said: “A lot of the locals that we were staying with were making their way outside.
“We decided just to follow them because the building wasn’t very structurally sound, you could tell it could collapse at any moment.
“A lot of people were panicked but the locals were very calm. The tremors lasted 20 seconds or so, they were very strong so it was quite scary.”
Rebecca was warned by locals that a tsunami could follow the quake and that it would be safer to be on higher ground.
She said local people offered her comfort and support during the ordeal.
She added: “I think they could tell that foreigners were a lot more panicked so they were trying to keep us calm, constantly trying to reassure us.
“As soon as the aftershocks hit, they assured us we don’t need to make our way outside again and just to stay still and every aftershock will be less than the one previous. They were good, they talked us through what was happening and what the protocol was, made sure we were reassured.
“I was very scared. I was constantly checking Twitter and Googling the situation.
“I read if we were to make our way to higher ground there would be a siren sounding. So I was listening out for a siren, getting ready to run for the hills.
“Where we were in Kuta, it’s very exposed on either side, very close to water so it was scary times for the next few hours.” The day after the quake, Rebecca left Kuta and went to Ubud close to the centre of Bali where she saw “a lot of destruction”.
She added: “We were told a lot of the destruction was due to shoddy craftsmanship and it was actually buildings that weren’t earthquake-proof.” Rebecca finally contacted her parents to let them know she was safe. She said: “We were lucky we were in an area where the electricity worked.” She revealed when she plugged in her phone, she had “a million messages from home” from her loved ones.
Despite her ordeal, Rebecca and her boyfriend are determined to continue their travels to Java and Malaysia.