450 Tourists Evacuated from Gili Islands Following Lombok Quake

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - A large number of domestic and international tourists was successfully evacuated from the Gili Islands, composed of Gili Trawangan, Gili Air, and Gili Meno. The last evacuation following the earthquake that struck Lombok was conducted on 03:25 Central Indonesia Time (WITA) earlier today.

Head of the Crisis Center Team and Head of the Public Communication Bureau Guntur Sakti said that the two boats comprised of Darma Lautan Utama and the Pantagonia evacuated 450 tourists.

“350 were on board the Darma Lautan Utama and is headed to Lembar,” said Guntur today.

Meanwhile, the Pantagonia transported 100 tourists and will journey to Tanjung Benoa harbor in Bali. Up until Tuesday morning, there were 100 tourists that have yet been evacuated, which will be accommodated by a chartered boat.

The government has appointed the Binaya boat to transport roughly 600 tourists to Tanjung Benoa, which will then be accommodated to local hotels that the Bali Tourism Hospitality (BTH) and the Tourism Ministry prepared.

Two other evacuation boats, Bounty Cruise and ASDP, each transported a total of 800 tourists who were initially at the Gili Trawangan Island. Tourists that were evacuated were immediately evacuated to disaster mitigation posts and some were taken directly to local airports. The Crisis Center Team previously recorded 2,000 tourists were at the Gili Islands when the earthquake struck.

FRANCISCA CHRISTY ROSANA