Stuck in Rhodes

[TooTrusting]

I was just east of Gennadi, 5 minutes away, at Atlantica Dreams resort (Tui). All day yesterday there was a steady stream of evacuated guests from other hotels arriving.
The fire seemed to die down at around 3pm. But by 7 it was raging again.
We were told one of us needed to stay up all night to listen gif the evacuation siren.
There were hundreds of evacuees there by then.
Just before 10pm we were evacuated. We walked to the road where there was a coach and some cattle trucks. It was chaos and hard not to be separated from my DCs (23, 19, 17 & 17). We had no idea where we were going. I had to calm and keep company 2 distraught children (circa 14 and 8) who had got separated from their parents. I lost a shoe and one DC their phone. We had to jettison the one small cabin size suitcase we had brought our essentials in.
Our truck broke down and we walked about a mile, again not knowing where we were going, and were eventually directed onto Gennadi beach. There were around 2000 people there all crammed together. Small boats, capacity around 10, went back and forth between ferry boats and the shore. There was no Dunkirk spirit. People were tired, upset and frightened. Some had not slept for 2 nights.

It took 4 hours until we finally managed to get on one at around 2. It was bedlam with everyone shoving and barging. I was separated from the DCs several times. Nobody knew where we were going.

We were on the ferry around 4 hours before arriving in Rhodes Town at c6.30am. We sailed through ash clouds and people had towels tied round their faces. People were taken off in different buses. We ended up in a school with 150 others. But there was nothing there for us, no beds, mats, washing facilities or food and it was boiling hot.
There was no list so the authorities have no idea who has gone where. It is a total lie for Tui to say they have re accommodated everyone. They have not. They have no idea where I am and until their phone lines open I cannot contact them either. The only info we have been given is an FCO number for advice on travel and consular assistance (which we don't need).
Luckily I have 24 hour insurance access and when I'd re charged my phone was able to establish I am covered (was worried it would be an "act of God"). I have booked a hotel for 1 night, after a long search. I've just arrived - it's chaos with everyone sleeping on the floor.
Just before we left the school a band of volunteers arrived laden with food and one of them thinks our hotel may have been burned down and we are unlikely to get back to try to retrieve our stuff. She says Gennadi is mostly gone.

We leave on Wednesday. We can't check in here til 2 and need to go and buy clothes and essentials. All we have is what we are standing in.

Absolutely devastated for you op, hope you get home safe soon 🙏💗

This is AMA, so in asking about what is happening to the OP, the wider impact and reasons are separate.

Op, that sounds like a good idea going back to Bristol.

Insurance, have they been helpful? I've read a few posts now and can't remember if your Insurance company is 24/7 if it isn't is this something you would change next time you bought it?
Have you got a limit on what you can say you could spend?

Have they indicated what they will cover?

You realise the second "A" in AMA stands for "anything" right?

Perfectly reasonable to ask op whether seeing the effects of climate change up close has given her /others out there pause for thought.

Oh get over. That's what young people are like. Ffs. I said she'd know it was only stuff but she's entitled to say "oh no my make up's gone". It doesn't mean she doesn't see or appreciate the wider devastation. It doesnt my mean she doesn't have empathy. Stupid stupid comment.

But they are not asking OP anything. They are just virtue signaling, ranting, and minimising what has been a difficult experience for op. There is no one else affected answering questions so I don't understand the constant derail and race to the bottom.

I want to know about what is happening to OP, and I imagine OP is just trying to hold it all together in the here and now, reflection (if there is any) doesn't happen when you were in the thick of it.

As an aside no one can say they don't contribute to carbon emissions. The post preaching about what Chris Packham said, whilst attending a festival of 40,000 people. It is hypocrisy.

news.sky.com/story/ryanair-operating-full-schedule-to-wildfire-hit-greece-as-europe-heatwave-hits-summer-holiday-peak-12926376

@TooTrusting its normal for anyone to be sad for themselves, and still capable of empathising with the bigger picture. It appears that some posters believe that humans are one dimensional creatures that are only capable of feeling one thing at a time.

I didn't know my insurance is 24/7 but turns out it is and that was helpful because we arrived at the school at 6.30/7, 4.30/5 uk time. I needed to start finding accommodation and wanted to know first if I'd be covered. Waiting for 5 hours would have been a pain.
I've only made the one call to see if I was covered, I haven't really needed them for anything else.

Accommodation, incidentals. I'm assuming some clothes too. He just told me to keep all receipts.

Definitely. You can't be sad or in pain if you broke an arm because think of people who have broke two arms or even a leg. That's way worse. Means nobody can feel anything as there is always someone worse off.

Sick of hierarchies we can be sad for anyone struggling.

Are you always so literal?

Always so tone deaf as to keep banging on about an adjacent topic like a dog with a bone?

It makes you think of Syrians and Ukrainians fleeing warzones. Scary. I bet you see a lot of people true colours in a situation like that. Pushing and taking extra.

It's literally how these threads work.

And it's not tone deaf. I have family that live out there. It's certainly what they are worrying about even if the holiday makers aren't

People pleaser report the absolutely awful posts on here.
Op has been through a trauma and the purpose of mn is essentially support.

Poster attacking need to be reported and deleted.

It's perfectlynormal for someone who has had a nasty fright to panic about something minor. E.g. Saturday we thought MIL was dying but luckily she came through in resus. My lovely, caring SIL was panicking that she hadn't got to the supermarket to get stuff for next week because that was a safe thing to occupy her brain with rather than what could have happened.

🌺

@countrygirl I was thinking that. It's a normal human reaction to focus on the mundane. But what a leap to say that this makes her (paraphrasing) shallow and lacking in empathy and she needs to learn a lesson. I can rise above the sniping at me but not at her. She's a young girl, confused and unsettled, and she's done nothing wrong. She's a wonderfully empathetic person in real life. Being sad she's lost her things doesn't in any way change that. Competitive suffering is not a thing.

Talking of which, I'm feeling the physical effects today. The soles of my feet are really bruised from the shale beach - my only remotely sensible shoes are sliders and I didn't want to lose them so took them off and put them in my bag when we were at the water's edge (where we then remained for 4 hours). Stiff neck and back from sleeping upright on the boat.
<Waiting for the pile on, calling me self-centred, selfish, lacking in empathy>

Hi OP, I am on the Atlantica Dreams Facebook group and they have a dedicated chat for people out there if you haven't already seen this. Looks like the hotel was close to the fire but OK and luggage is safe in rooms with staff on site. Some guests have been back to collect belongings. Thinking of you all out there and the lovely residents of Rhodes.

When you are traumatised, you absolutely cling to the small normalicies.
Poor DD. Poor you, OP. 😓

OP hope you are all ok, what a terrible situation for everyone on the island 😢

As an aside, some of the posters on this thread are just goady and weird. Easy to snipe when you are an anonymous pair of fingers using a keyboard eh?

Amazing, thank you so much

Is it this group (the first one in the list)? The official hotel one doesn't have anything in it

Yep it is the first one on the list. It is run by return guests.

And those who can't be?
I'm assuming you're aware not all baby's can be breastfed and not all mothers can breastfeed. That doesn't make them lesser than those who can/do.