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.

Good for you standing up for your daughter on here. It sounds like a totally normal reaction from a teenage girl. I'm sure she's lovely and has lots of empathy. People have been quite sneery about what tourists are going through in general but unless you've been in a similar situation, you have no idea. This must have been really frightening for everyone. No one expects to go on holiday and get caught up in wildfires. I hope your feet feel better soon and you get home safely. I'm sure even after you get home this will be hitting you in different ways so be kind to yourself. You've had a big shock.

I've had people have a go at me on the other threads. It's awful for the locals but my kids were due to fly on Wednesday and that's my l priority.

You are on the wrong thread.
This is about a tourist and her situation.
Start a new one about the people of Rhodes (who I do feel desperately sorry for) and we can talk about that there.

Is there any news of a fund set up for those residents/workers affected adversely by the fire?

I'm sure the OP didn't expect to be chastised like a naughty child. But this is Mumsnet and certain posters will always crawl out from under the woodwork to hammer home their agenda. The patronising references to climate change are bad enough, but the posters seeking to remind the OP that there are others worse off than her are the most objectionable of all. Is nobody allowed to be frightened or traumatised just because their situation isn't as bad as someone else's? Most Mumsnet threads would be wiped out at a stroke if that was the case.

This is the extent of the wildfires on Crete, apparently. 55% of the island is on fire.

Highly unlikely that all the mum’s caught up in this will be breastfeeding their babies! Someone will be along in a minute to blame them for this decision because surely they could have foreseen a disaster like this which would preclude them from being able to prepare bottles!!

That’s Rhodes, not Crete.

Wow. I think my hotel is where I've put the orange circle. Some people have gone back to retrieve belongings but today it's very bad there so I'm going to keep an eye out of the fb page and call the hotel later



Sorry technical difficulties

oops thanks for the correction.

My battery died overnight (only 1 charger between us). At 11.30 I realised I'd had a missed text at 3am telling me to get to the airport for a flight to Gatwick. No details re times. (My car is at Bristol).
No idea if I'd missed it. Decided to get a taxi there but then came across 5 young Tui reps who have been shipped over from other locations (arrived at 6am). So at least there is now a source of information (one hour of phoning different Tui numbers got me nowhere).
We had indeed missed that flight but are now on a list for another. Our scheduled flight will still run and that's on Wednesday.
Moment of panic again when a misunderstanding occurred over re-booking our room that got resolved. So we are back in the room waiting further info.

The fb page is really useful. The fire is close to the hotel right now so im not going to attempt to retrieve our stuff. I'll keep that under review. It's just stuff as everyone has said.

No worries, didn’t want to panic anyone heading to Crete!!

I don't think comments such as "the odd holiday abroad won't do any harm" are helpful. The reason we're in this mess in the first please is that we (myself included!) are all convincing ourselves that there's nothing we can do - it's up to the government/big businesses/China to change. Yes, one holiday abroad is a drop in the ocean, but the ocean is made of drops.

You're on the wrong thread

This one is to support the OP stranded in Rhodes

Plenty of climate change discussion in thread in Active

I can rise above the sniping at me but not at (DD). 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

Try not to let it get to you, OP; not easy, I know, when you've also been through a lot and are nevertheless doing just great

Most posters clearly get what you're saying, but sadly there are always a few virtue signallers hung up on their own hierarchies of suffering - probably the same ones who attend festivals, shriek over someone wanging on about the apocalyse, and then leave behind piles of non-recyclable rubbish

You’ve nicely summarised the point ive tried to make on several threads today.

The time for a slow tapering off of holidays, or a quota, came and went years ago. We are already beyond tipping point. The world cannot afford 1 single unnecessary plane journey more. Everyone seeing themselves as ‘just one person’ is the problem

Are you saying now that the OP should stay in Rhodes?

No because I would call returning home ‘necessary’. Whereas the trip out was for fun. Hopefully this will be a warning to all the tourists, but I doubt it - they’ll just head somewhere else next year.

The world cannot afford 1 single unnecessary plane journey more

Best tell all those who'll be flying - many of them no doubt on private aircraft - to COP28 in the UAE
Maybe even mention it to the President, Sultan al Jaber, who (hilariously) happens to be an oil CEO

Probably wise not to say they could perfectly well have held their conference electronically though; after all they're hardly going to forego all that lovely hospitality on their latest jolly

What a good idea. Let's kill off tourism! Climate change will matter less because nobody furrein will be going to such hot places anyway!! So what if the locals are left in poverty... rolls eyes furiously

As for that wan whose mind was blown, that will have been a pretty tiny explosion!!!

@TooTrusting I hope you get your stuff back. Yes, it's just stuff, but it's your stuff. I am sorry that so many idiots have hijacked your thread. I don't know what is the point in getting worked up about the planet if you don't like people very much!! Hope your feet recover soon. Have you managed to get anything to moisturise/soothe them?

Oh - and re AMA - perhaps there should be an R on the end of that, for relevant?!

That's because they themselves are like this! Egocentric activists who can't see anything from anyone's point of view except their own, displaying an empathy bypass towards OP, her family and other tourists caught up in this. Can't comprehend the purpose of the thread isn't to bang their own drum.

Activists: if you want to raise awareness and persuade people to your way of thinking, you don't do it by single mindedly ramming your agenda down people's throats at every opportunity, failing to read the room, getting angry, being passive aggressive, rude and dismissive, derailing conversation about other things, refusing to even think about other things or engage in other topics, and generally pissing people off so that the second they see you coming they turn away from you. Just because your message is important doesn't mean you should, or need to be, the loudest voice in the room at any given time. It is very obvious to anyone capable of looking beyond the end of their own nose that this thread is about the human impact on tourists caught up in a wildfire. It's not about the locals affected, politics or climate change.

I hope you can get home safely soon OP. If you do decide to return for your belongings, it's not frivolous or a waste of time or whatever. Your possessions would become one less thing for the hotel staff, holiday company, Greek landfill sites etc to deal with. Also means the hotel could rent the room to someone else if they know you've checked out, collected everything and not coming back. Which isn't to say you should feel bad if you can't collect your possessions. Just do whatever you're able to and don't feel bad either way.

It's all been contained now. Flights are running normally. Most hotels are operating again normally this was from tui today