Posted by Jay
13 March 2011
I apologize for not having a fancy title for this post, but I felt it was a little too serious for one. I wanted to take this post to give everyone an idea on what it was like to experience the recent earthquake.
Friday March 11th at 2:49 in the afternoon Ella, Abby and I were walking home from Ella's school when we noticed that the glass door to the Geox store on our corner was oscillating. At this point I had not noticed the ground moving, but the store employees quickly got into the doorway of the store and kept the door open. We were on the sidewalk in front of the store and soon felt the ground moving. I made Ella hold onto the stroller and I braced myself. I don't know how to describe the feeling, but I think the closest I can get is the feeling of trying to stand still after a few beers too many. The shaking lasted for 3 minutes or so and all of the office workers were emptying the surrounding buildings. I can't describe myself as being scared, but more clueless. Ella was not scared at all, as soon as the quake was over she wanted it to happen again. At this point the ground was stable and we made our way through the mass of office workers and headed to our apartment.
When we got to our apartment we found everyone outside in the driveway area including the staff. I talked to the building manager and he showed me where the manhole cover had lifted up and some sewer water had splashed from the shaking. We were advised to stay outside as there was a likelihood of aftershocks. I was able to access the internet through my iPhone, but had no mobile service, not that I had anyone to call as Jess was in Texas. I updated my Facebook status and Google Voice texted Jess, gotta love modern technology.
In the face of natural disasters it is a good way to get to know your neighbors. We met many very nice people and some very nice furry friends.
There was another family with a boy about Ella's age that was very upset over the quake and was crying. I took out my iPhone and put on a Diego video for all the kids to watch. The mother commented that it would make a great Apple ad, when in an earthquake use the iPhone to entertain. About 45 minutes after the first quake we had just gone into the lobby area when the first aftershock hit. This felt almost as massive as the original quake and we all emptied back into the parking lot and sat on the ground. Ella, again thought it was really cool. Eventually we felt comfortable to go into the lobby are to relax and watch the coverage on the TV. This is when we saw the live coverage of the tsunami wreaking havoc on the NE coast of Japan. It was horrifying to watch as the helicopters were broadcasting live and you could see cars trying to get out of the way of the water with no real chance. It was extremely sad to watch. We had multiple small aftershocks through the evening, but none too bad.
The original earthquake was just reclassified as a 9.0 magnitude and is the 5th largest in the world in modern recording.
Earlier in the day I had gone to the grocery store and like most stores they deliver later in the day. I had no expectations that they would deliver due to the quake, but at 5pm in comes the delivery guy with my groceries. One of the other moms watched the girls while I helped the guy haul my groceries, including 6 bottles of wine, up 4 flights of stairs to our apartment and quickly stuffed the fridge with what needed to go in. On the way down I grabbed a diaper bag, a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, a knife and some juice boxes. When I got back down I made pb sandwiched for the kids. Only in Japan would a store still deliver after a major quake.
The girls had lots of fun the whole time running around and playing with the other kids and the other adults. One of the dads ran to the local grocery store and just started buying prepared food. We had quite the feast set up as shown below.
About 8pm the staff finally said it was safe to return to our rooms. The staff had gone through every apartment to make sure everything was ok. When we returned to our apartment I found that overall it had survived just fine, the only things out of place was a piece of artwork that fell down in the hallway and a bunch of drawers that had opened up. I put the girls to bed and spent most of the night facebooking ans skyping with friends and family. I spent the night in my clothes on the couch and got a few hours of sleep. The enormity of the situation really didn't hit me until 530am the next morning. The incredible destruction and loss of life is horrendous and I can't imagine what the result would have been if it had happened in a country that was not up to the earthquake standards of Japan.
In following posts I will describe more about the earthquake and what the current situations with the power plants and rescue/recovery operations are. Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed.
http://www.redcross.org
Also we have found that the best place for accurate information are either the BBC or NHK. We have found that most American stations are really going for the sensational aspects of the story.
Kanpai,
Jay
13 March 2011
I apologize for not having a fancy title for this post, but I felt it was a little too serious for one. I wanted to take this post to give everyone an idea on what it was like to experience the recent earthquake.
Friday March 11th at 2:49 in the afternoon Ella, Abby and I were walking home from Ella's school when we noticed that the glass door to the Geox store on our corner was oscillating. At this point I had not noticed the ground moving, but the store employees quickly got into the doorway of the store and kept the door open. We were on the sidewalk in front of the store and soon felt the ground moving. I made Ella hold onto the stroller and I braced myself. I don't know how to describe the feeling, but I think the closest I can get is the feeling of trying to stand still after a few beers too many. The shaking lasted for 3 minutes or so and all of the office workers were emptying the surrounding buildings. I can't describe myself as being scared, but more clueless. Ella was not scared at all, as soon as the quake was over she wanted it to happen again. At this point the ground was stable and we made our way through the mass of office workers and headed to our apartment.
When we got to our apartment we found everyone outside in the driveway area including the staff. I talked to the building manager and he showed me where the manhole cover had lifted up and some sewer water had splashed from the shaking. We were advised to stay outside as there was a likelihood of aftershocks. I was able to access the internet through my iPhone, but had no mobile service, not that I had anyone to call as Jess was in Texas. I updated my Facebook status and Google Voice texted Jess, gotta love modern technology.
In the face of natural disasters it is a good way to get to know your neighbors. We met many very nice people and some very nice furry friends.
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| Abby and Quentin |
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| Picture care of BBC News |
Earlier in the day I had gone to the grocery store and like most stores they deliver later in the day. I had no expectations that they would deliver due to the quake, but at 5pm in comes the delivery guy with my groceries. One of the other moms watched the girls while I helped the guy haul my groceries, including 6 bottles of wine, up 4 flights of stairs to our apartment and quickly stuffed the fridge with what needed to go in. On the way down I grabbed a diaper bag, a loaf of bread, jar of peanut butter, a knife and some juice boxes. When I got back down I made pb sandwiched for the kids. Only in Japan would a store still deliver after a major quake.
The girls had lots of fun the whole time running around and playing with the other kids and the other adults. One of the dads ran to the local grocery store and just started buying prepared food. We had quite the feast set up as shown below.
In following posts I will describe more about the earthquake and what the current situations with the power plants and rescue/recovery operations are. Please keep the people of Japan in your thoughts and prayers and please see the American Red Cross link below for financial gifts that are very much needed.
http://www.redcross.org
Also we have found that the best place for accurate information are either the BBC or NHK. We have found that most American stations are really going for the sensational aspects of the story.
Kanpai,
Jay
5:56 AM |
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