Several travelers that TV4 Nyheterna spoke to are dissatisfied with the travel companies’ information during the evacuation.
Denise Lopez had to evacuate the night before Sunday, but the temporary accommodation was not quite what she had hoped for.
– We had to go to the northern part of Rhodes and have been at a school for about twelve hours without receiving any information from Tui.
Once at the evacuation shelter, there was a conflict between school staff and volunteers and they had to leave.
– We would not be allowed to sleep there, and then we would be completely stranded in the city of Rhodes, she says.
Went back to the hotel
Given no information about what to do, and having nowhere else to go, they returned to their original hotel.
– We have come back to our hotel just now, we had to evacuate last night… Oops, now there was an alarm again here that we have to evacuate, says Denise Lopez.
In the middle of TV4 Nyheternas’ live broadcast, she is forced to escape the fire – again.
– I actually think we have to go again now, do we have to go? she asks her friend.
They don’t know where to go next.
“Flying in staff from Turkey”
TV4 Nyheterna tried to reach Tui on Sunday evening but did not receive a reply. Earlier on Sunday, Adam Györki, Nordic communications manager at Tui, spoke about the evacuations.
– There are evacuation centers around the island where travelers are taken in a first step. The ambition is to then take them to hotel rooms in other parts of the island, and that is what we are working on right now, he said at lunchtime on Sunday.
Due to the difficulties in finding other hotels for the guests, the company chose not to fly more guests down to Rhodes until Wednesday.
– You can contact customer service via our phone or on our websites. We fly in personnel from Turkey but also other countries on the Mediterranean who can help on site with what is needed, and above all communication.