On Friday, March 11th, just before 3PM in Japan, an 8.9 magnitude earthquake hit off the coast of northeastern Japan. The closest coastal city to the quake was Sendai. Sendai is to the northeast of Nagoya where we live by around 250 miles. Shortly after the quake a tsunami was hitting the coasts of Japan. The hardest hit areas of the quake were unfortunately the hardest hit areas by the tsunami. Then to add to it a nuclear power plant to the south of Sendai in Fukushima started having problems keeping a number of its 6 nuclear reactors cool.
The earthquake was felt all across Japan. In Nagoya, the registered magnitude was around a 4.0. Fortunately, this was not that strong and the majority of buildings and structures are designed to withstand much worse. The earthquake did however last for about 4 minutes straight. And subsequent to it there were tens of similar strength aftershocks.
Emily was with a student and thought it was just her - she started to feel really dizzy and thought she was going to pass out... then her student yelled, "It's an earthquake!" Emily definitely felt it and saw the buildings moving. It was Emily's first earthquake and not what she expected. The expectation was for shaking and rattling like you see in the movies and news. Instead it was slow moving and like a rolling motion.
Joe was away from his standard office near the water and in downtown Nagoya when the quake hit. He was on the 7th floor of a small building trying to get his new work computer setup with some of his coworkers. He was sitting in a flexible back chair when all of sudden it was like a rocking chair. It took someone else to say "earthquake" to realize "yep, this is an earthquake". We all just sat there thinking its going to end shortly. But after the 3rd minute came and passed we decided we needed to get out. We took the office administrator (who was freaking out) down the emergency fire escape and waited for it to stop. The quake was not as Joe expected either. Instead of vigorous shaking and vibrating it was a slow rolling motion where you just felt unsteady and unbalanced like you were on a rocking fishing boat. Then for the rest of the afternoon, we lived in paranoia of the aftershocks..."there's another one".
The earthquake had no affect on Nagoya. There was no structural damage that we know of, certainly nothing major. The tsunami also had no affect on the Nagoya coastal regions.
On Saturday, the day after the quake, we were leaving for Thailand for a week vacation. At the airport it was obvious a number of people had their flights canceled but the airport was operating as usual. We were able to get out on time and our currently still in Thailand.
The nuclear power plant situation was not something we expected or saw coming. When we arrived in Thailand we learned of what was going on and began to wonder what was going to happen. It seems like every time we turn on the TV there is a new development regarding the power plant. Currently, we have to trust that everything is being done to contain the situation there. However, Nagoya is around 200 miles away from the affected power plant. This is well beyond a safe buffer zone should "shit hit the fan". We are reassured this both by the news and Boeing. Boeing continues to monitor the situation and is keeping all of its employees in Japan well informed. Currently they have relocated those employees who were working in the Northeast. If this puts your minds at ease, a number of the them are now in Nagoya. We continue to watch the news, internet and emails we get from family and friends regarding this situation. As of right now we feel safe and believe it is safe to return to Nagoya at the end of our trip.
Thank you to everyone for thinking of us and keeping us in your thoughts and prayers. We are so appreciative.
Our thoughts and prayers are with those truly affected by this terrible and devastating trio of disasters that has struck Japan.
No comments:
Post a Comment