Earthquake and Tsunami

We're coming up on the two year mark living in Japan and I must say, up until two days ago, I had never felt an earthquake. I'd get on facebook occasionally and see statuses from other friends saying "Did you feel that?" or "Wow! That one woke me up" but I had never really noticed one. On Friday after school, I felt my first one.

Fortunately the students were out already when the earthquake happened and had plenty of time to meet up with their parents. Around 2:45 pm, I was sitting at my desk typing when I started to feel really dizzy. I sat there for a few seconds before I realized that it was actually an earthquake I was feeling and that I was in fact, not sick. I turned around from my desk and noticed that the blinds were shaking and the emergency exit sign was swaying directly over my head. I figured it would stop in a few seconds (because they never really last that long) and was actually excited that I was experiencing an earthquake since I had not yet felt one while living here. However, as the seconds kept ticking away, I realized that this one wasn't going to stop anytime soon, although it still didn't feel strong at that point. I went out into the hallway and called my two co-workers. They both came out of their rooms and we chatted about how this was the first earthquake we had felt and how cool it was. Then suddenly, the earthquake increased its intensity. Not only were the blinds shaking, the walls were literally moving from side to side and it started to get very loud. We immediately ducked ourselves under some nearby tables and waited it out. It was no longer funny to us and at that point, it all started to feel real. One of my co-workers started to pray aloud while the other was saying how scared she was. I just breathed in and out, really slowly but loud as well, as that is what I tend to do when I get scared. There have been a few times in my life where panic goes out the window and at that point, you can only think about how you can get through the next few moments. You don't have time to think about the worst case scenario, so you calmly breathe your way through the experience you're having and hope that the episode will pass. This was the state I was in at that moment. And then suddenly, as quickly as the intensity of the earthquake had built, it all stopped. This funniest thing about all of this (if you can have a sense of humor with all that is going on in Japan right now) was that our cleaning lady was busy vacuuming away while three teachers (myself included) were tucked under tables. She's kind of old so I don't know if she understood what was actually happening, or if she just thought we were crazy ladies, or maybe her hearing was muffled by the sound of the vacuum whirring across the floor.

After it stopped, we climbed out from under the tables and all kind of chuckled at how we handled that situation...maybe we should have gone outside, we were probably overreacting, there was no way the earthquake was that strong. I then went about my business as usual, making a few copies, checking my email. A couples times, I started to feel dizzy again and even my feet on the floor felt like they were vibrating. These were the rumbling aftershocks of the initial earthquake. After about 20 minutes, I decided to call Mike and see if he had felt it where he was. He'd been working the night shift the past week so was actually at home asleep while it happened. He said that he woke up to Huey barking and thought maybe someone was at the door but quickly noticed that all the picture frames were shaking on the walls. As the earthquake intensified for him, he immediately picked up the dog and ran down the stairs. Earthquake drills tell you to stay inside until the earthquake has stopped but fortunately, we have a big field right in front of our house so Mike and the dog (plus our neighbor and her two babies) stood outside away from any buildings. Mike said it was so weird being outside while it was happening as the cars were shaking and the trees were moving back and forth. I was unable to get ahold of Mike right away as the phones lines seemed to be very busy at that point. Finally, after a few tries, Mike picked up and we immediately told our stories of what happened. During our conversation, another earthquake occurred and this time, I wanted to be outside for fear if it got any worse than the last one did. I got off the phone with Mike and went outside and made sure the cleaning lady came with us this time. The second earthquake was not nearly as long or as intense as the previous one but enough to get you nervous again.

After that go-round, I felt it was time to go home. I got my stuff and started for my car when my co-worker called me into her room and had the news on. It was only then that I realized how bad this earthquake really was. I heard the phone ring and picked it up and spoke with Mike again. He told me to come home in case any more occurred and he just wanted to be sure he knew where I was in case he had to get called in for work.

When I walked in the door, my dad was on the other line with Mike, so I spoke with him and also wished him a happy birthday. After talking to him, Mike said it would be a good idea to wake up my mom and sister and let them know that we were ok. The news was blaring from our television and their coverage was making it look like all of Japan was affected as much as Sendai was. I tried for a few hours to get in touch with them but the phone lines were tied up, probably because other people had the same idea to get in touch with family.

As the night went on, Mike and I were able to touch base with our parents and siblings and let them know we were ok. Our neighbor Kim and her daughter Mallory came over, and together we all watched the news unfold about how catastrophic this earthquake really had been. We were shocked to see the footage of the tsunami wiping out villages and the devastation that was being left behind. While watching the news, I kept getting teary eyed, seeing cars try to outrun this massive wave and people sitting on rooftops, waving white sheets and waiting for help. We also learned that both nearby airports had shut down for warning of a tsunami. As a result, 11 commercial aircraft landed on our runway as they were unable to land in Tokyo. Here are two pictures that I downloaded from our base website.

Fortunately, by the end of the night, 9 of the aircraft were able to take off and go to one of the airports that had opened up two of its runways. The other two aircraft, totaling about 500 passengers, opted to stay overnight. They were housed on base and through our many volunteers, were well taken care of. I myself wanted to go over but was told that volunteers were being turned away as they had enough help for the time being. Below is a video of travelers who stayed on our base overnight.

Video

And now, what you see on the news is pretty much all the information that I'm getting as well. We are very lucky where our base is located as we were not close enough to the water or fortunately, to the epicenter, where Sendai got hit the hardest. Please pray for those that have been affected by this natural disaster and for the armed men and women (including my husband) that are being tasked in some way to help out.