Miyagi earthquake will be the worst earthquake in history of Japan. Magnitude 8.8 ! It has been an extremely devastating, painful, worst disaster. I was on the 19F of my Tokyo office when around 3:00 PM the vibrations started. At first this was expected to last 5 seconds, but even after 20-30 secs everybody on the floor started to get anxious. You couldn’t even stand properly on your feet without holding onto something. This was in Tokyo, imagine Miyagi !
Anybody close to the windows pointed out the black smoke coming off towards direction of Odaiba.
People started calling their near ones, but all mobile phones, even landlines were jammed due to instant surge in telephone traffic. I was getting a little nervous too, I couldn’t reach my family in Ibaragi, Tsukuba and my wife, 2 kids weren’t out of danger, because just somewhere I heard Ibaragi was also hit with M5 tremor.
I was lucky that day I came to Tokyo with my bike, thus I managed to squeeze past long lines of cars, trucks, buses, people with a total 3 hour trip back home. Power supply, water, gas was cut-out, and the city was in total darkness by the time I reached home, finding most of the people from our building taking shelter in their cars with necessary supplies of water, blankets, food. It was a pitiful sight to see people gathering their effects and preparing for worst instead.
Fortunately we spend the night inside our house, with lights out having the torch keep us from dashing into something. No water, no gas made things bitter, and cold food was of no interest to bite on. Near-n-dear ones from outside Japan tried reaching us, and got through only at middle of night by 1:00AM when I could talk to my brother and assure him that all was fine.
The power came back around 4:00 AM morning, and it was definitely a relief seeing bright sunlight pour through the windows, giving ray of hope in this terrible situation. Very often I heard ambulances, fire-trucks rushing through the street, and with constant tremors hitting throughout the day, it has been an unhappy time for all people of Japan. I decided to fill gas, and keep my car ready in case.
All shops are closed, the ones which are available are already depleted on basic supplies such as milk, eggs, even bottled water ! A nearby barber shop was in shambles, and I don’t think anybody would want to work in that place again.
While writing this, I already have sensed 2 light tremors during which I briefly stopped writing. It has been on and off throughout today, and I pray, hope that this gets over soon, that people missing get found soon, and Japan gets over this bad memory soon!
-Update 2011/03/13
Today has been a very hectic day. Water supply stopped, and I had to jump instantly to get first a container to fill the water in, which I got after a good search in a nearby supermarket, because all containers were SOLD! Can you believe this? It’s as if this place is at war, people stocking (un)necessary supplies in extra, no drinking water available, one guy bought a whole basket of energy drinks in small cans – You got to salvage, and have what you can!
My next stop was to get usable water for washing ourselves, cleaning. There too was a long queue of people waiting in turn, bringing everything imaginable to garbage cans, to plastic bags to small jugs to get water in. I got my 20L of water, got back home in time just to witness a small mishap occurred at one point. A whole truck supplying water skidded alongside a turn, and turned over – water gone, hopefully nobody was injured I suppose.
It’s a positive thing to see the whole city geared up in helping each other, trying to save themselves through this situation. My next thought was to fill gas in my second car, just in case. This turned out to be a pretty long wait for over an hour just to get my chance to fill.
2 gas stations already have closed, some are working, but tomorrow’s trip seems to be in next city to get supplies, and get reserves as well.
No supplies as well, everybody has stocked all possible things to avoid getting into troubles later. What should we do?
Never did I see so many people lined-up in queues on a public telephone to reach their loved ones back.
And on the gas stations was the exact same story – people preparing reserves for the worst !
Following news about possible radio-active leak, many foreigners fleeing out of the country back into safe haven. Hope they don’t return back when everything’s back to normal again.
Rather than building own stories around half-heard news, and raising confusion amongst public, why not offer support as volunteers in Miyagi, or Sendai? Why do those people get to stay behind and help, while some come in, cash into Japan and then just jump ship when things get worse?
Me, and my family are staying indoors, following necessary precautions such as wearing mask, keeping windows, ventilation closed. Once situation is contained, we will amongst the first to share a decent meal with other friends, and families who have decided to do the same.
Donated a small amount together with my family for families of Miyagi, Sendai (東北地方 areas) at local Tsukuba ward office today. My kids put a little amount each, and this is a good action on their side in case they might need such a help in unexpected calamities.