Hundreds of tourists stranded on Gili Trawangan

Foreign tourist wait for transportation after arriving by boat from Gili Trawangan following a 7.0 magnitude in Bangsal, North Lombok on August 6, 2018, the day after a 6.9 magnitude earthquake struck the area. AFP PHOTO / ADEK BERRY

JAKARTA — A large number of foreign and local tourists are still waiting to be evacuated from popular tourist island Gili Trawangan Island in Lombok, West Nusa Tenggara, and some are faced with dehydration.

British national Cath Hughes, whose daughter is currently waiting for the arrival of evacuation boats to leave Gili Trawangan, said through her Twitter account @julescatherine that her daughter was getting sick as a result of dehydration.

“I have contacted the [UK] embassy many times. There is no advice and people are without water on the island,” Cath tweeted.

She also posted a photo of a group of tourists who are seen stranded on the island, waiting for help under the sun.

“Why are these poor people still waiting and without water? @humas_basarnas,” Cath wrote in the photo’s caption, mentioning the Twitter account of the National Search and Rescue Agency (Basarnas).

Basarnas is currently tasked with evacuating nearly 1,000 tourists from Gili Trawangan, Gili Air and Gili Meno to Lombok Island using limited equipment.

National Disaster Mitigation Agency (BNPB) spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said inflatable boats and three ships were being used for the evacuation. “The rescue team will deploy more ships during the rescues,” Sutopo said.

As of Monday afternoon, Basarnas has evacuated around 350 tourists from the three islands.

A local resident of Gili Trawangan, Vyara Wurjanta, reported that the island was completely devastated after the 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Lombok on Sunday evening, with a majority of buildings there destroyed.

“[There is] no electricity, no water [on the island], but we are trying to survive,” Vyara told The Jakarta Post. He added that the evacuation process seemed chaotic as tourists scrambled to board evacuation boats.

Videos of the evacuation process show that there are a large number of people who are eager to leave the island.