Friday, March 11, 2011

Shaken, but okay

For those of you who aren't on FaceBook,  just wanted to let you know we're all okay.  Very minor damage, one of my kokeshi dolls lost her head, drawers and cabinets flung open, and there's one big crack in my dining room wall.

I'm worried about Meg, who is at her dad's in Guam.  They've been ordered to evacuate ahead of the predicted tsunami, but her dad thinks they'll be safe in their 11th floor apartment.  Obviously I am NOT okay with that decision.  They're condo is directly on the beach.  But there's not much I can do from here, except pray that he's right.

Narita airport is closed, and Sendai airport has literally been washed out, so lots of planes got diverted to our tiny airport here on the base, so we're packed to the gills with jumbo airliners.  I feel sorry for all those people trapped on the planes, who knows for how long.  And you know they're not getting a clear story about what's going on, it must be terrifying not knowing what's happening.

This is all very surreal, I can't quite wrapped my mind around everything I'm seeing and hearing.  I was at work as the quake struck.  People were jumping out of windows in my building.  The ground seemed to shake forever.  It was only about 4 minutes I think, but it felt like 40 minutes to me.  We were allowed to leave work right then, but I stayed for a while to help with safety checks.  Phones were out for quite a while, still no cell service right now.  Still feeling pretty powerful aftershocks.  I'm used to earthquakes after 3.5 years here in Japan, but this one was really scary.  Maybe because of the one that just hit New Zealand?  Not sure, but this one scared the crap out of me.  But, we're all okay.

6 comments:

gaijinwife said...

very scary and we didn't even feel it. Glad you are OK and hope Guam will be safe.

Hope you get some sleep tonight.

xxx

Cecilia said...

Very glad to hear it.
Iwate & Miyagi look very worrying...

Nakamuras on Saipan said...

This is just horrible! So glad to hear you are ok. We were ok here in Saipan- minor stuff. Everyone was evacuated. We are in shock at the footage on NHK. Big big hugs to you - we are praying.

Jessica Renshaw said...

I had just been posting interviews with survivors of the 1933 Long Beach earthquake on my blog this week. The Sendai quake hit on the 68th anniversary of that quake! Praying that each of you will be able to find peace of mind about your own safety and about your loved ones. I remember smaller earthquakes growing up in Hiroshima and other earthquakes here in Southern California. Scary--and they were nothing compared with yours. My heart goes out to all of you!

Jessica Renshaw said...

ONE WAY TO HELP: Christian Relief, Assistance, Support and Hope (CRASH) is already on the ground in Sendai helping with relief efforts. CRASH equips and prepares churches and missions to be there to help their communities when disasters strike and coordinates Christian volunteers to work with local ministries in the event of a disaster. http://crashjapan.com/ What they need immediately is money for satellite phones and $3,500 for each of the three or four survey teams that have just left for the area. Satellite phones will be used to keep in touch with teams being sent out and with the base camps being setting up. Site for donations: http://www.jema.org/joomla15/

Anonymous said...

OMG this is so crazy! I was lucky to once live in Japan and loved it. After this happened all I could think about were my friends over there and my friends I had in Cali and Hawaii that might be affected by it. I totally forgot I was related to someone there! Ouch, that's gotta hurt!