“As soon as we arrived at the airport, a round of applause burst out in the cabin. I want to take a refreshing shower and enjoy the breeze from the air-conditioner.”

The South Korean tourists who were stranded in Guam when the Antonio B. Won Pat International Airport in Guam was shut down on May 22 due to the super typhoon Mawar returned on the night of May 29. They shared stories of how they hugged each other and shared the joy as soon as they arrived at Incheon International Airport.

The first flight that departed Guam for Incheon was the Jin Air flight LJ942. It left the Guam airport at 5:10 p.m. Monday and landed in Incheon around 8:50 p.m. The first flight brought 188 South Koreans back home.

The tourists that arrived in Incheon complained that the biggest challenge was hotel reservations and water supply, which was suspended. They tried to extend their reservations in the hotels they stayed in when their return flights were canceled due to the typhoon, but their stays could not be extended in most of the hotels near the airport. One tourist said he was kicked out of a hotel and had to sleep in a car he had rented.

There were also many tourists who had problems securing food and water due to the long suspension of power and water supply. At the time, fierce winds recording 50m/s were blowing in Guam, uprooting trees and tearing away the roofs of houses. Hotels were flooded and there was no power, water, and internet access.

Gim (40), who was on a family holiday, said, “We took a shower once every other day because the water supply was cut,” and explained, “The temperature reached over 30°C, but the air-conditioner didn’t work, so we hung on by fanning ourselves.”

Initially, the A. B. Won Pat International Airport expected to resume normal operation on May 30, but they managed to speed up the recovery, allowing flights to depart and arrive from the evening of May 29.

The government urgently deployed a total of eleven planes including regular flights and alternative flights to Guam. Nine out of the eleven flights left for Guam from the Incheon Int’l Airport and two departed from Gimhae Int’l Airport. A total of five Jin Air flights were scheduled to arrive at Incheon Int’l Airport before midnight May 30.

Earlier, the government announced plans to bring back up to 2,500 South Korean tourists on eleven flights over two days from Monday to Tuesday. The government expects to take until May 31 for all 3,400 South Korean tourists to return.